Rock Boy Story - Rock Boy Story
Rock Boy Mission - Rock Boy Mission

Jim Papp, a.k.a. Rock Boy, will paint almost anything to look like rock. He has transformed doors, furniture and even a refrigerator into granite and other rock likenesses. The timeless stone art and architecture of the Mayan culture he has studied for the past 20 years inspired him to create his own original paintings and music. Jim travels periodically in Mexico, visiting ancient Mayan cities such as Palenque and Yaxchilan in Chiapas, and Aké, Uxmal, and Chichen Itza in the Yucatan.

Born in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1959, Jim obtained a degree in Geoography from the University of Washington in 1982 and has lived mostly in Seattle since. His interests in artistically expressing and spreading feelings of harmony, joy, and beauty are fueled by mythology, shamanism, and and also by the time he spends in nature, hiking and backpacking.

He led the melodic rock band Music by design through several incarnations from 1986 to 2001. In 1987 he joined the visual artists group Dharmic Engineers and learned painting on-the-job with them during their creation of The Door Project. During this period he perfected his faux-rock technique, first with acrylics and later with oils, and has exhibited his original artwork in regional art galleries since 1992. (see Art Gallery page for his current images).

Jim's music is the sound of the places he paints, as he experiences vision and sound to be two different expressions of the same energy. He has composed music for theater and film and, while in the band, played bass, sang, and created stage scenery. Good luck locating Jim during fine weather as he is probably hiking and exploring in the mountains that call to him. And, when he returns home to Lisa, his beloved wife of 22 years, he is probably carrying - you guessed it - rocks.