Rock art is the newest trend popping up along city streets, hiking trails and even on some driveways!
With COVID grounding travel and keeping people stuck at home, some are tapping into their artsy side. The painted rock trend is not a new one, but with many of us looking for things to do while weathering COVID, creating brightly painted rocks is seeing a resurgence.
Across the world, the COVID pandemic has drastically changed our normal way of life, forcing countries to go into lockdown and people to stay at home. Due to the recent travel limitations, engaging in creative activities, such as art, music and reading, is not only a great activity for families to do together but also an important aspect of maintaining good mental health while stuck in one spot.
With many trying to pass the time during COVID, creating brightly painted rocks is becoming a colourful and inspirational pass time, particularly in cities across North America. Rock hunters leave, find and take pictures of brightly painted rocks bearing messages of thanks or simply spreading cheer and flashiness along boulevards, trails and in public spaces. Some have even turned the rock painting and hiding into a visual scavenger hunt-style game, transforming this stressful time into a welcome diversion.
Having a flair for fun, it didn’t take us long to jump on to the rock painting bandwagon. After reading about the rock painting trend and watching our neighbour create animated masterpieces, we brainstormed how we could create some of our own. Low and behold, we decided that our artistic journey would focus on bringing our passion to the surface with a goal to showcase how much the ocean “rocks”.
Now scattered at the shoreline of dive sites in New Brunswick (with more to come), are football-sized rocks featuring some of our favorite local animals. I mean if you can’t be swimming with sea creatures why not paint them!
To inspire ocean education and literacy, on the back of these painted rocks are short “did you know?” facts to feed curious spirits.
Lakes, rivers and oceans dominate the majority of our planet. They are home to most of life on earth, regulate our climate, feed much of the human population and provide most of the oxygen we breathe. Their health and protection are VITAL for our survival.
As scuba divers, we are well aware of the importance of our planet’s lakes, rivers and oceans and also of their fragility. Through ocean literacy – be it a painting and fact on a rock or an aquarium touch tank – we can educate and teach people about these bodies of water as well as the animals that live within their ecosystems and hopefully fuel a new way of thinking and a new generation of ocean advocates.
Have you joined the COVID rock painting movement? What kind of pictures have you painted on your rocks and where have you hidden them? Comment below and leave the social media link to your rock group.
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