Public and School Murals 2005-2010 > Rogers Park (Rock) Benches

For the past several years, I have participated in Rogers Park's annual "Artist of the Wall" festival, which brings together members of this far north side neighborhood to collectively repaint the concrete wall-benches that line the beaches from Pratt to Morse Avenue.

After the first year, I decided, "Why make an ordinary bench to passively sit on, when you can create an interactive bench to actively PLAY on?" Thus, RockBench was born. RockBench (and its variations which now annually appear) is a simple rock-toss game with targets of various sizes painted on the bench indicating point numbers, which correspond to the size (and difficulty) of the target.

The beach community in Rogers Park has come to love RockBench, as it brings together all peoples of all ages, to join in the simple challenge of a game....