They paint schoolhouse rocks
Plus: Mecklenburg ABC sales surge as shortages wane; Car-free apartments under construction; Former Hornets coach Paul Silas dies; Mike Ditka restaurant for Elizabeth; CMS board to select leaders
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Families are paying local artists $75 and up to wish their kids happy birthday on school rocks; artists say the trend is especially popular in south Charlotte and Union County
Local artist Rachel Woodhouse sometimes incorporates images of birthday boys and girls into the designs of the school rocks that parents hire her to paint. She charges anywhere from $85 to $150 depending on the size of the rock. (Photo courtesy of Rachel Woodhouse)
by Lindsey Banks
Local artist Rachel Woodhouse has a bit of an unconventional schedule.
She can’t start many of her projects until 4 p.m. — after elementary schools are done for the day, because her canvases are unusual and her finished products are usually a surprise for their backpack-toting recipients the next morning.
Woodhouse, 38, is one of several painters in the Charlotte area who have made businesses of transforming the big rocks that sit outside of school buildings into colorful pieces of art.
While she’s sometimes hired by the school to paint messages like “Welcome back!” or “Congratulations, graduates!” at the beginning or end of the school year, most of her business comes from parents hiring her to paint a themed rock for their child’s birthday.
School rock painting is a growing industry in the south Charlotte area, especially within the last three years, according to Woodhouse. Some schools have even added multiple rocks to their campuses to accommodate the demand, and they charge a small fee of $5 to $10 to rent the rock for 24 hours as a PTO fundraiser.
The work is one of several income streams for Woodhouse, who also creates paintings in real-time during weddings as well as human and dog portraits. Her business is called Rachel Woodhouse Illustration. She added rock painting to her resume in 2019 after a coworker mentioned another artist who was making money painting rocks.
“I grew up in Seattle; we do not have these rocks,” she said. “It was definitely a new concept. I don’t have kids, either, so I didn’t even know about them. I moved here after school, and I didn’t even know they existed.”
Woodhouse painted her first rock at Sandy Ridge Elementary in Waxhaw. The rock was almost as big as her car and took her nearly 4 hours to paint.
Since then, Woodhouse has changed her process so that it takes only 45 minutes to an hour to paint a rock. Instead of hand painting the whole rock, she uses spray paint for the bulk of the artwork, and then goes back in with acrylic paint to outline the details. More often than not, her painting stays up only 24 hours before it’s painted over for the next student’s birthday.
Woodhouse said her prices range from $85 to $150 depending on factors like the size of the rock, the distance and gas used to get to the school and the cost of the supplies. She’s seen her own costs rise since 2019; when she first started painting rocks, spray paint was $2.33 for one can, but now it’s $7 per can.
On a warm afternoon during daylight savings time, Woodhouse can paint up to six rocks in a day, depending on the size. When clients book her creative services, all she asks for is the child’s name, age and a theme. She said she never plans a design beforehand.
Nikki Dunn, 37, is another rock painter in the south Charlotte area, and she uses the same technique. She started her rock-painting business called Boulder Spirits in 2018.
Dunn, a stay-at-home mom with two children, started out painting school rocks for her own children and her friends’ children. When she realized there was enough demand for painting school rocks, it became her side gig. She primarily paints in the Ballantyne and Waxhaw areas.
Like Woodhouse, Dunn uses spray paint with acrylic for line details, and she doesn’t start painting until 4 p.m. Her paintings primarily revolve around the child’s hobbies, favorite sports teams or movie characters. She’s also been hired by school PTOs to paint rocks for teacher appreciation week and the first week of school.
Elementary school families are what keep rock-painting artists busy. By middle and high school, many students don’t want their name or birthday splashed on a school rock. (Photo courtesy of Nikki Dunn)
Dunn said she paints about six rocks a week. Her prices range from $75 to $130.
She receives most inquiries from those who found her by word-of-mouth or on Facebook groups for mothers.
Not cool in middle school: Most rock paintings are requested for elementary-aged children. Dunn said that according to her own middle schooler, it’s not “cool” anymore to have rocks painted in your honor once you graduate from elementary school.
Dunn said that there’s a small, supportive community of rock painters in south Charlotte. They give referrals to each other if they don’t have room in their schedules for a rock request.
“I really do love what I do,” Dunn said. “It’s a really cool and unique thing when I tell people, and there’s still parents that will stop me while I’m painting and be like, ‘Wait, how can you do that?’ And I explain very humbly that people hire me to do this. A lot of parents still aren’t aware of that. They thought the school did this or they thought that parents did.”
Lindsey Banks is a staff writer for The Charlotte Ledger. Reach her at lindsey@cltledger.com.
Today’s supporting sponsors are T.R. Lawing Realty…
… and Landon A. Dunn, attorney-at-law in Matthews:
Mecklenburg ABC sales surge as bottles return to shelves; still spotty shortages, like Baileys Irish Cream, CEO says
Liquor sales in Mecklenburg County have been accelerating in the last few months, as the county’s ABC system has put many of its supply shortages behind it.
Alcohol sales from ABC stores have been up double digits in the last five months, compared with a year earlier, according to a Ledger analysis of state ABC Commission data. And, as the stores head into one of their busiest months, Mecklenburg County ABC Board CEO Keva Walton tells us that “sales are brisk — very brisk.”
He said supplies are “worlds apart” from where they were at the end of last year, when a combination of supply-chain disruptions, new state ordering software and surging post-Covid demand left many store shelves empty. In October 2021, Mecklenburg ABC had about 1,100 different items stocked on shelves. In October of this year, it had more than 1,900.
Walton said there’s improved tequila selection and that purchase limits, like those on Hennessy cognac, have been lifted. Yet he cautioned that the “supply chain is not cured” – not everything is available in ample supplies. Holiday favorite Baileys Irish Cream might be hard to find, for instance, he said.
“I don’t want anybody to be misled: There are still some spotty outages,” Walton said. “We have adopted the practice of, ‘Let’s get what we can and sell what we have.’ As those products come back into circulation, we make sure they go onto the shelves.”
He credited the work of his team: “We pulled out every stop to make sure we got the product we needed in Mecklenburg.”
App debut: This month, Mecklenburg ABC hopes to start a test project at a few stores with a new online ordering app called “ABC To Go,” which will allow in-store pick-up.
Walton said the ABC system also encourages responsible drinking and works closely with law enforcement, especially around the holidays. —TM
Car-free apartment complex gets underway
Construction has started on what is believed to be the first Charlotte apartment complex to prohibit residents from owning cars. Grubb Properties is developing Cykel Apartments, a 104-unit, 5-story complex on 0.7 acres in the Seversville neighborhood, north of uptown, across from Blue Blaze Brewing (seen in the background). CEO Clay Grubb told The Ledger that it is expected to open in the first half of 2024. The City Council approved the plans in 2020 to allow 6 parking spaces, for staff and visitors. Grubb says rents will be lower because there won’t be a parking deck.
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Sustainable living, Good Friends luncheon
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
Thursday: Sustain Charlotte’s Impact 704 Academy, 6-8 p.m. at Camp North End, Gama Goat Building, Suite 200, Charlotte. Learn how to help shape our future! Sustain Charlotte’s new FREE Impact 704 Academy is back at Camp North End with a deep dive into the challenges of sustainable land use in Charlotte — and some solutions. Food provided by Plant Joy. Supported by Southminster. Free.
Thursday: Gather & Give 2022. 11:15 a.m. - 1 p.m., Charlotte Convention Center, Crown Ballroom. Join Good Friends Charlotte at our annual Gather & Give Luncheon as we celebrate 36 years of impact in our community. Participating in this event supports our mission to bridge individuals and families from fragility to stability! 11:15am Mimosa Reception + 12:00pm Luncheon. Free.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
Cheap getaways from CLT
Charlotte to Orlando, $50 round-trip on Spirit (nonstop), various dates in January and February.
Ski trip? Charlotte to Denver, $73 round-trip on Frontier (nonstop), Jan. 19-22.
Charlotte to Austin, Texas, $94 round-trip on Spirit (one-stop), Jan. 20-24.
Big Apple: Charlotte to New York City, $100 round-trip on Spirit (nonstop), various dates in January and February
Super Bowl weekend: Charlotte to Las Vegas, $155 round-trip on Spirit (nonstop), Feb. 9-13.
Charlotte to Lisbon, Portugal, $529 round-trip on United/Lufthansa (one-stop), various dates in January and February
Charlotte to Milan, Italy, $529 round-trip on Delta (one-stop), various dates January-March
Source: Google Flights. Fares retrieved Monday morning. They might have changed by the time you read this.
In brief:
New school board leadership? Five new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board members will be sworn in on Tuesday, and the first order of business will be selecting a chair and vice-chair. There’s been a lot of jockeying for leadership of the board: “The ring is getting pretty overcrowded with all the hats in it,” said Thelma Byers-Bailey, the board’s current vice chair. Elyse Dashew, who has led the board for the last three years, didn’t reply to inquiries from WFAE about the leadership vote. (WFAE)
In memoriam: Paul Silas, the former coach of the Charlotte Hornets and later the Charlotte Bobcats, has passed away at age 79. He coached Charlotte’s NBA team from 1998-2002 and again from 2010-2012. He was the last coach to lead the Hornets to a playoff series win, in 2002. (Observer)
Panthers control own destiny for playoffs: With the Carolina Panthers’ surprise win in Seattle on Sunday, the team can make the playoffs if it wins all four remaining games — which are against teams with losing records. (Yahoo Sports)
Paris flights to resume: American Airlines is restoring seasonal nonstop daily flights to Paris from Charlotte starting in June 2023. The summertime flights were halted during Covid. (Observer)
Ditka restaurant headed to Elizabeth: A restaurant group connected to legendary former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is planning to open in the corner spot at Crescent Communities’ new Elizabeth on Seventh development in Elizabeth. The group applied for a permit for a restaurant called Catalina Kitchen + Bar. Ditka’s Restaurants has locations in Chicago and Pittsburgh. (Biz Journal, subscriber-only, first reported by Jason Thomas on Instagram)
New medical director: Mecklenburg County’s public health department named Dr. Bonnie Coyle as its medical director, the county’s leading medical professional. She was previously public health director in Cabarrus County. (Mecklenburg County)
Brewery plans: The owners of Seoul Food Meat Co. plan to open a brewery called “LaBARatory” in Optimist Park in early 2023. It will also be a distillery making soju, a clear Korean alcoholic beverage. (Axios Charlotte)
More at-home births: The number of home births in North Carolina increased by 68% between 2018 and 2021, to 1,052 last year. (Axios Charlotte)
Leotard complaints at Christmas parade: Officials in the Shallotte, in coastal Bruswick County, received about 30 complaints about clothing worn by a dance-company director in the annual Christmas parade. The complaints stemmed from “the amount of fabric on the backside” of her leotard, a local TV station reported. The town’s mayor said he expects changes next year to “address a dress code and behavior.” (WWAY)
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project