Katrina Voshall struggled with despair and grief for months after her son died in 2022.
Recently, although, the Washougal resident has determined to channel her feelings into one thing optimistic in an effort to rediscover her pleasure.
“Through my healing journey, and through counseling and support groups, I’ve learned that grief and joy are opposite ends of the spectrum, but they can actually coexist together,” she mentioned. “So I’ve decided to do little things to create joy in my life — and for other people, too.”
To that finish, Voshall is inviting folks so as to add their very own hand-painted rocks to her “rock snake” in an effort to see how lengthy the colourful serpent can in the end stretch.
“It’s definitely bringing joy,” Voshall mentioned. “That’s the main point of this, (as well as to give people a chance to) enjoy everybody’s artwork. I just wanted to spark joy. That’s it. I just needed a little joy in my life, and this is a way to do it.”
The snake, named Roxy, lies in a sidewalk planter mattress on A Street in Washougal.
“There’s little clues on how to find her,” Voshall mentioned. “The exact location hasn’t been revealed. I just say ‘A Street.’ Some people say in between Steamboat Landing and Washougal Waterfront Park. People have to hunt for her a little bit, go on a little adventure. I know this is a recreational walk for a lot of people and that a lot of people walk past here.”
Voshall mentioned she acquired the concept from Facebook and determined to behave on it after a recent go to to the Washougal River.
“I was down there floating around, and I looked down and there was this perfect little snake head-(shaped rock), and I was like, ‘I can make that rock snake (with this),’” she mentioned. “I picked it up and brought it home.”
Voshall embellished the rock with metallic paint and glitter, hooked up a pair of googly eyes and a cloth “tongue,” and dropped it into the planter mattress, together with three further smaller rocks, on July 14. She then posted a small signal with the phrases “Roxy the rock snake — add a painted rock to see how long I can get!” subsequent to the rock.
“I had no clue if it would even take off at all,” she mentioned.
But later that night time, Voshall observed that any person had added a rock to Roxy’s “body.” Two extra stones appeared the subsequent day.
As of Tuesday, Roxy was over 200 rocks lengthy and has her personal Facebook web page.
“I love it,” Voshall mentioned. “Every time I walk up to it and see a new rock, it brings a spark of joy into my life. I’m so happy. All the attention that it’s getting on Facebook is fun — there’s not one negative comment. Even if (people) don’t have time to get out here and put a rock down, I could still see the smiles in the comments. In our society, everyone seems so divided and angry, so it’s nice to see something happy and silly.”
Voshall hopes that Roxy can in the end stretch to “the end of the walkway.”
“That would be really cool,” she mentioned. “Even if she did go all the way to the end, we could start extending her (back the other) way if we really wanted to, or push her head forward. I guess I was thinking of it as like a community art project. It’s getting so much attention on Facebook, so I think people are painting their rocks and getting ideas. Hopefully, people are planning on dropping more. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
