I come from a long line of artists, but I swore off painting in high school art class.

I was working with acrylic paint, and I didn’t like anything that I made, so I stuck to pencil and paper. 

Years later, a colleague asked me to paint a mailbox for his wife’s birthday. One side had black-eyed Susans, her favorite flower. On the other side, I painted a rocky mountain scene with a deer and thought, “Ok, I’m done with this.”

Then the pandemic hit.

Things were super stressful and at some point, I realized I needed an outlet outside of work.

I saw something online where someone painted a kitchen knife, and I thought it looked so neat. But being a horror movie fanatic, I had my own twist. I painted half of Michael Myers’ face on it (from the Halloween series). When I was done, I showed my husband and his response was, “Isn’t that from the kitchen? We use that.” 

“Well, we don’t now,” I told him. It snowballed from there.

Next, I painted Jason from Friday the 13th– wearing the hockey mask– - on a machete. After that, I bought a fireman’s axe and I painted Jack Nicholson from The Shining on one side. 

I just fell in love with my pandemic hobby and continue to this day painting classic horror movie villains on their weapon of choice. Once I get painting, I often just won’t stop until it’s done. I’m using acrylic, the very thing I swore off in high school. 

My artwork has become so important to me. It gives me an escape and really does something for the soul. Who knows, maybe I’ll have an online horror painting shop someday? 

Riley Rock-Lavarnway, supervisor of core lab pre-analytical operations at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, has been with us for 12 years.