The Rhoads Gone Rogue is a new business located in Studio P in The National Transit Building Art Studios.
Chelsey and Cassie Rhoads moved to Oil City from north Georgia in June 2024 with their nine-year-old daughter, RJ, as part of the artist relocation program. They quickly jumped into the booming arts community and rented a studio space in October 2024.
“We’ve been visiting friends in Oil City for several years and have loved every minute of our time here. We finally decided to uproot and ‘go rogue’ at the beginning of 2024 to work towards moving here. We wanted to focus more on slowing down, spending time together and our creative pursuits,” explains Chelsey Rhoads. “We really love the sense of community here and support there is for artists and small businesses.”
The Rhoads Gone Rogue offers a variety of products, from handmade candles and wax melts, puppets and creatures, photography and art prints, apparel, home goods and more. They love storytelling in everything that they do — whether it be through short stories, photographs, puppetry or a collection of unique candle scents.
“We joke that we are shining examples of an artist’s attention span,” says Cassie Rhoads. “We do a little bit of everything, and we enjoy sharing that with the community. We love when people stop by the studio and we can show them what we do.”
The Rhoads have been hard at work since they moved, participating in their first Artists Sunday as well as the Maker’s Market at Clifford Carpets & Rug Gallery. They have enjoyed meeting so many people in the arts community, as well as everyone who has made time to stop by the studio or attend events.
They are looking forward to growing in 2025 and expanding on their current projects. Chelsey is planning several different candle collections and is hoping to partner with some local businesses on some collections as well. She started making candles in 2020, as many mainstream candle scents trigger her chronic migraines. She set out to create a candle made without a lot of the synthetic ingredients in typical candles, and began blending her own scents that are both migraine- and pet-friendly. She has also recently exhibited some of her photography at The Manos Gallery in Tarentum.
Cassie has been hard at work on several projects, including creatures such as fire sprites and flower sprites. She is planning to expand on her digital artwork line of shirts, notebooks, stickers and more, as well expanding back into her previous work as a puppet maker and teaching some classes in the new year. She was also recently selected for the ACRE program through Bridgeway Capital, and is excited about participating in the program and exploring more ways to grow their business.
The Rhoads Gone Rogue can often be found in their studio at 206 Seneca St in Oil City, but you can also find them on Facebook and Instagram. They also recently opened an online shop at www.therhoadsgonerogue.com.
