- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS."

Everyone needs a little unexpected kindness now and then.

To meet this need, there's Reno Painted Rocks.

It's a Facebook group with more than 5,000 members.

Inspired by the Kindness Rocks Project, they encourage people from all walks of life and expertise to paint rocks with beautiful imagery and messages.

Once finished, these rocks are placed safely throughout our community for strangers, perhaps you, to discover.

(cheerful music) - Imagine if you are walking down the street or in a park and you all of a sudden come across this brightly colored little rock on the ground.

And you bend down to pick it up, and you see that it's got an encouraging little quote on it.

And maybe you were having a bad day, and that made you pause and smile, and it made your day a little bit better.

That's what this is all about, just random acts of kindness.

- I started Reno Painted Rocks on Facebook after seeing a similar group based up in Whidbey Island, Washington.

And I thought it was just a really cool idea to spread kindness one stone at a time.

- [Jessica] Reno Painted Rocks is a community group that spreads kindness by putting painted rocks with encouraging messages or cute little pictures or cartoons out in the community just to brighten the day of a stranger that might find it.

- Typically what I do is choose the stone that I'd want to paint on.

I look for a shape or something that would inspire me.

(gentle music) It's washed, and then I'll decide a design an inspirational quote or a scene.

- [Jessica] You can use dotting tools and dot.

You can use paint pens that you can also write messages with - [Debi] Acrylic paints, water colors, pencil, pen and ink.

- Once your rock is dry, you wanna seal it so that it can survive outside if you put it outside and it rains.

(spray can rattling) So we usually use UV or waterproof spray sealers.

Some of us use an art resin, takes a little bit longer to dry, but it's very shiny and nice and hard, so it protects the design.

- [Debi] I like to hide in karma boxes or little libraries.

- I hide them all over.

I hide them in my neighborhood.

If I go for a walk, I like to put them at the base of our mailbox.

I walk here to Rancho San Rafael on my lunch hour and just walk the trails.

And there's a tree knot over on one of the walking paths that I really like to leave rocks in, because it's right at eye level and it's a nice knot that will hold lots of different sizes of rocks.

(gentle guitar music) On the backs of the rocks, it kind of depends on the real estate you have, you know, the size of the rock.

If it's small, you're not gonna have a lot of space.

But I like to write, "Keep or rehide, you decide!"

so that people know that they can keep it.

they can rehide it, they can leave it there, 'cause sometimes people think they can't take it, because it's this little piece of art.

And then I'll put, "Post a picture and join the fun on Facebook," and then put RenoPaintedRocks and the hashtag if it'll fit.

So it kind of gives people a clue.

If they don't understand from what's written on the rock, they can go to the group and kind of see what it's all about.

Reno Painted Rocks sometimes will show up on like Instagram, but for the most part, it's on Facebook because of the group feature where we can have that community group and interact and comment and post lots of pictures.

- [Debi] We try to keep our members painting within our guidelines.

We prefer that you source your rocks ethically by purchasing them.

- [Jessica] You can get like a bag of river rock or go to the local landscaping company, and a lot of times they'll sell them to you in a five gallon bucket.

- [Debi] We do prefer that people don't glue things to rocks, because it could harm wildlife.

- [Jessica] When you're hiding the rocks, we wanna make sure that they're not in any kind of national park or protected lands, not in grass so it won't damage a lawnmower.

- [Debi] And the biggest guideline we have is to be kind.

- The kindness, I didn't feel that when I first started painting the rocks at all.

You know, it's just painting rocks.

But when you do give either as a gift or you hide, it's really amazing.

It's really heartwarming that people appreciate a rock that you've painted and taken time for them.

I love it.

- I'm painting rocks with my grandma.

I hope that when people find my rocks that they feel excited and they keep them and that's like a gift.

(cheerful music) - It's very humbling to see that there are so many amazing humans that want to share the same message.

- I started doing it because I liked the idea of the random act of kindness.

In the process, I've learned that this is kind of like my go-to self-care now.

Like if I've had a rough day at work or a rough week at work, I make time that night or over the weekend to paint, and it's kind of like a reset button.

So I think there's something about the act of putting kindness out there without the expectation of anything in return, and it's useful for me.

- We often say that the rock finds its person, and I believe that when you are having a rough day, the rock appears.

You're looking for that little bit of hope, and there it is - [Announcer] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Motors, Meg and Dillard Myers, Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno Members.

(soft rhythmic music) (soft rhythmic music continues)