Cailin Acosta: ‘Rock Star’ of Tifereth Israel Synagogue

By Donald H. Harrison

LA MESA, California – Cailin Acosta is the “rock star” of Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s Sisterhood in neighboring San Diego.

On August 24^th, at the members’ request, she’ll be leading a workshop at a private home on how to paint rocks that can be used to inspire people as they walk along trails, climb a mountain, or simply visit one another in each other’s homes.

Acosta’s own rock garden has many painted rocks, three of which she and her talented 11-year-old twins, Cece and Alex, happily displayed for me.  The interior walls of the Acosta home are wallpapered with the brother’s and sister’s artworks, some of them inspired by the same watercolorist, Andrea Dixon, who motivated Acosta’s love of art when she was a child. Today a resident of Oregon, Dixon, who is Acosta’s aunt, had her works regularly on display at the Watercolor Society’s gallery at Liberty Station.

Acosta describes her creations on rocks as her way of doing tikkun olam in a world that has seen its share of troubles, from the tribulations of the COVID pandemic to a 2020 protest over the police-caused suffocation death in Minneapolis of George Floyd.  That demonstration morphed into a riot in downtown La Mesa that included looting and arson.

While many small rocks can be found throughout San Diego County, Acosta is partial to ones that are found along beaches because they are smoothed by their exposure to water and sand. Her creative process is quite simple; she likes to use Posca paint pens, which come in packages of 16 colors, and after creating a design, or a slogan such as “Be Kind,” she seals her creations with Mod Podge, “which comes out white, but when it dries it is clear.” The sealant protects the rock art from being effaced by either rain or sunlight.

There are numerous people throughout the county who share Acosta’s passion for anonymously leaving colorful rocks in parks and on trails.  As I live near Mission Trails Regional Park in the eastern portion of the City of San Diego, I’ve encountered them not only at Mission Trails, which includes the ever-popular Cowles Mountain and Lake Murray, but also at Santee Lakes, Mast Park, and the Walker Trail.  Acosta says she has left her creations at such venues as those, as well as in La Mesa, El Cajon, and Julian.  She says she likes to attend rock art meet-up groups in various neighborhoods in the county including the Allied Gardens and Serra Mesa neighborhoods of San Diego.

Acosta grew up the child of an intermarriage—her mother Jewish, her father Christian. Along the way to earning a master’s degree in social work and working as a social worker for eight years, she moved from San Diego to Dallas, Texas, to be with a half-sister, Kasey McKay Erwin. There, a next-door neighbor introduced her to Cailin’s husband, Jesus Acosta, a software engineer who is Catholic.

Their twins are exposed to the holidays of both religions, including the “bunny” holiday of Easter, and the “Santa” holiday of Christmas. They also since kindergarten have attended Hebrew school at Chabad of East County with Rabbi Rafi Andrusier. “I pick them up, and they say, ‘We learned about this and this!’ and I think, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish I had that when I was a kid.’”

Her volunteer involvement at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, a Conservative congregation, started with attendance in the book club. Then she volunteered to help the Sisterhood with its baking, getting assigned to come into the kosher kitchen every Thursday to help prepare sweets for the following Friday’s oneg Shabbat and Saturday afternoon Kiddush.

Next, a Sisterhood publicity spot needed to be filled, soon followed by an opening for a secretary to take minutes on the Sisterhood board.  As a student at San Diego State University, she had a part-time job, which included taking minutes on her laptop for the San Diego Psychiatric Society, so she was familiar with such duties – almost too familiar because her minute-taking was so detailed that other Sisterhood members said in mock horror that she was setting the bar too high. As a college student, she took such complete class notes, fellow students frequently asked if they could read them. She never accepted the other students’ offer to pay; she simply told them, “Oh, just buy me a coffee someday.”

As publicity chair, Acosta publishes Sisterhood’s newsletter, and she likes to add little artistic touches.

I asked what motivates her volunteering and rock art creations.

“Spreading joy,” she responded.  “If you are on a hard trail, or whatever, and you see something like a rock with the saying ‘Keep going’ on it, or ‘You’ve got this!’ it really helps.”

She said that the rocks with pretty pictures or motivational sayings are “uplifting everybody – I am a social worker so it’s ‘How can I help you?’; ‘How can I bring you happiness?’; and ‘What can I do to make your day a little bit better?’”

Acosta expressed the hope that the members of the Tifereth Israel Sisterhood who attend her workshop will be motivated to spread even more rocks of happiness.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com