PHOTO BY HECTOR LUCAS
You’re walking around Cordell and suddenly something in a flower bed on the square catches your eye. You bend to pick it up and see that it’s a painted rock with the words “Cordell Rocks 2.0” painted underneath it. What do you do then?
Well, Cordell resident Mike Mayfield hopes that you share your find on his new Facebook page Cordell Rocks 2.0.
After having spent some time coming across painted rocks in different parts of the state, Mayfield has chosen to try to bring back the painted rock group to Cordell.
So what is Cordell Rocks 2.0?
It is a Facebook page dedicated to the activity of painting rocks, hiding them in places for people to come upon, and sharing the found rocks to their dedicated Facebook page if that info is available.
“Kids get into it and they like painting the rocks and hiding them around town and other people find them,” Mayfield said. “But I’ve seen some really professional people paint some rocks that are really nice.”
As for the “rules” of rock painting, Mayfield said, things to keep in mind are to not glue things on such as googly eyes as animals can come by these and cause harm to themselves. Being mindful of where you place your rock is important as to not cause harm to others such as by not leaving it in some one’s yard where a lawnmower could hit it.
“You want to hide them, but hide them out in plain sight. You want people to find them. You don’t want to make it impossible to find your rocks,” Mayfield said. “I’ve found them in cemeteries, at the VA, I’ve seen them sitting next to stop signs going down the road. There’s a lot of walkers in town that walk the streets,” Mayfield said. “If you just set them next to the post at the bottom of a stop sign, a walker is going to see that and go, wow, there’s a painted rock! And hopefully, pick it up.”
Mayfield has spent some of his time in the past three years looking for painted rocks around the Veterans Af fairs Hospital in Oklahoma City, and he hopes to have the Cordell group grow in town so that he can take and give back to the VA hospital and have people find rocks that Cordell residents have made.
PHOTO BY HECTOR LUCAS
As for what people can get out of participating in the activity, Mayfield said he hopes it will bring the community together.
“I’ve already delivered rocks to some people to get painted. So people are interested in it. If it gets to be a big deal, you’ll be able to find these rocks all over town and it’d be really neat,” he said. “You can hide your rocks, and you can take them with you to Clinton, to the doctor and hide it at the doctors there. It’s not just a Cordell thing. That’s the neat part about it.”
Looking ahead, Mayfield said he hopes to have a painting party set up at the park.
“I’ll bring the rocks and everybody brings their paints and we’ll just have a big rock painting party down there one day.”
While a rock painting page for Cordell once existed, the page has since been abandoned with an inability to get back into it. Leading to Mayfield’s plan on starting up the new one himself.
If you or someone you know would like to partake in the activity, Mayfield invites people to join the Cordell Rocks 2.0 Facebook page.
Mayfield cleans up and sprays rocks with primer to provide them to those who ask, and you can contact him through that Facebook page.
“I can meet you or they can come by here and pick them up, whatever they feel good. If they don’t want to meet me face to face, I’ll leave them on the picnic bench at the park. It’s just a bag of rocks. Somebody steals them, we’ll do it again.”
Mayfield said he enjoys the activity as anyone can join in whether it be by finding a painted rock you come across or going outside, finding a rock you like, and painting something on it for someone to find.
“The main thing is that to me is sharing your art. And if somebody finds a rock… you can take it home and love it for a while and then go re-hide it and let somebody else find it. That’s up to you how you want to do your rock.”