Seven-year-olds’ colorful rock snake is a hit with children in Hinckley

A little boy with a passion for painting has launched his second community art project. The snake made of colored rocks at Argents Mead Park in Hinckley was started by Lorenzo Codner-Jolob, aged seven, and within a week there were 21 stones.

Two years ago, Lorenzo started another trend – decorating wooden spoons to make them look like people. The spoons were stuck in the ground in the park and by the end there were over 40. His mother, Tara, was working with adults with learning disabilities at the time and got her clients to participate as well.

Lorenzo goes to St Mary’s Primary in Hinckley town center and stops to look at the colorful snake named Jake every day after school. Mum-of-three Tara, 35, said: “It was something I had seen online done by someone else and Lorenzo wanted to set up his own and painted a stone to be the head of the snake.

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“Lots of other kids added their own painted rocks and I put pictures online and they were shared and liked hundreds of times.”

The only problem is Hinckley’s lack of available stones. Tara said: “I was talking to a member of staff at a shop the other day and she said a lot of parents asked her if they sold rocks so they could paint themselves.

“But they don’t have any.” Tara asked about a local hardware supermarket donating some to ensure a constant supply.

She said Lorenzo was now an art ambassador at his school and loved painting. She said: “He loves art and paintings and I’m really keen to push him with his creative side.”

The painted stones are similar to the IslaStones that were hidden around the Hinckley area in 2018 in aid of Isla Tansey, a little girl with a brain tumor who died aged seven. And Tara plans to take the idea from the IslaStones project to clear the park of stones after Jake the Snake is completed.

She said: “We didn’t get permission from the council, although the gardener at Argents Mead didn’t seem to mind. But we don’t want the council to be left with a load of rocks!

“So what we’re planning to do is have everyone pick up their stones again at the end and hide them around town like people did with IslaStones.”