Artist and entrepreneur Alex Koch, a Mattituck eighth-grader, held a rock art workshop at the Old Town Arts & Crafts Guild in Cutchogue Saturday. Fourteen children in grades kindergarten through sixth attended the workshop where Alex patiently instructed them in creating their own works of art on rocks picked up at local beaches.
Alex, who will turn 14 in February, began painting scenery and animals on rocks after a walk on the beach with his mom, Michelle.
“Ever since I was little I loved art and I loved nature, so I put them together one day. We were walking on the beach and my mom said ‘Why don’t you put one of your drawings on a rock?’ So we collected a couple of rocks and after I made the first one I kept making more.”
After moving to Mattituck from Manorville last year, Alex discovered the beauty of the North Fork and finds inspiration for his rock paintings all around him. His favorite subjects are birds and he confesses to hiding tiny drawings of common loons in as many of his rock paintings as possible, just for fun.
Alex started his business, North Fork Rock Art, this past summer and has sold his creations at craft fairs, farm stands and online. He has a Facebook page with over 330 followers and recently developed a website with his mom. Most of his sales are local, although he has shipped rocks as far away as California, and Alex estimates that he’s painted upwards of one thousand rocks.
The rock art workshop on Saturday was Alex’s first as an instructor and judging from the smiles on the faces of all the young artists he guided, it was quite successful.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Katharine Schroeder
