About
Patti Rokus
Email: RocksTellStories@gmail.com
Facebook: PattiRokusArtist
Youtube: Patti Rokus
Instagram: Patti Rokus
Patti Rokus, the rock lady, can’t stop picking up rocks on her hikes throughout the Pacific Northwest. Being outside used to be about the trees, sky and critters, but now it’s all about rocks, because they tell stories, which can be seen in her internationally published books and viral videos. Children and adults all over the world are recreating her art with stones and pebbles of their own – deepening their connection to God and finding peace in our busy world.
As a recovering corporate product manager with companies like Nike and Microsoft, Patti knows what it’s like to feel too busy to prioritize what matters most. So, she left it all to release her inner artist and find ways to share her love for nature and the Creator. She’s committed to helping us reconnect to our source and find greater contentment. Her speaking engagements and online presentations are filled with rock art demonstrations and stories of unexpected serendipity that has led to a very unexpected life. She is also a singer/songwriter, a Christian, and a teacher of self-discovery.
"Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul." -John Muir
Patti says whenever she finds a heart-shaped rock, she's sure it's a love note from God. But when all kinds of rock shapes became irresistible, she gathered a bucket full on a solo camping trip in Montana. Later, when she spilled them out and pushed them around, she discovered the entire nativity story told by those same rocks. Those pictures turned into national book deal—“A Savior is Born.” A second book emerged of rocks telling the story of the last week of the mortal life of Jesus—“He is Risen.” Both books and related viral videos can be found on her website, RocksTellStories.com and at bookstores everywhere. Each page is frame-able but also powerfully serve as teaching tools for learning the bible stories of Jesus, and the Good News. This coffee-table books has a gorgeous embossed cover of sparkling foil and spot gloss that virtually shouts, "Open and savor the Word of God in pictures as you’ve never seen it told before. These collector's books are the first in a series on the Life of Jesus.
Invitation to Talk Show Hosts:
Official Bio:
The unofficial blurb, written by Patti about the emerging of the first book:
The first rock pictures came together in 2016. Each one of those rocks called out to me as I hiked through the forests and streams of the Pacific Northwest during a solo camping trip. I couldn’t resist holding each one, and soon my pockets were heavy with treasures that eventually filled my bucket. I didn’t know why I felt so compelled to take them home, but I did feel like a child again, reveling in the beauty of simple things.
Finishing my trip with a visit to Mom’s house, free from the regular routine of life, I indulged in a morning of no expectations, and quiet, childlike wonder as I dumped out my bucket of rocks on Mom’s back porch and mindlessly pushed them around. One rock looked distinctly like someone kneeling, so I put a round rock above it as a head—and saw Mary bowing before an angel.
Surprised by this obvious likeness, I wondered what an angel would look like as an ordinary rock, and there in the pile it emerged. With six ordinary rocks, a miracle shined through. I ran upstairs to find Mom and show her my discovery. We spent the morning together moving rocks around until we found the entire Christmas story in that one bucket of rocks.
I wondered if each rock was shaped over time for this very moment—to represent Mary or Joseph, an angel, or even our Savior. Jesus Himself told the Pharisees that if His disciples “should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40) to testify of Him. And so they do in this book and in all of nature.
Could it be that we’re like that too—designed for significance that we cannot begin to imagine, and that will inevitably be so, not by our own making, but by a power much greater and more loving than we ever imagined?
Nature with all her beauty, diversity, and majesty will always be an important source of my connection to God. I start feeling small and disconnected when I’m too long from a walk in the woods. The wonder I feel among the trees and the earth cannot be explained and is reserved only for the soul who steps foot and heart onto her ground. Anyone can share in the abundance of the outdoors and be filled up with the peace and contentment of becoming part of her grandeur.
How God talked to me through a heart shape in nature, video:
How it all got started, video:
Patti's Photography:
"Into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul." -John Muir