Tim, my dear husband, and I arrived on campus around noon. We then met up with 2 other chalk artists who have taken part in Sweet Chalk Fest this past year. Cadie did a bicyclist theme piece and Haley did a golden lab piece. I did a UB Bull logo mashed with a actual bull face.
The wind was a challenge for our shade tents so we had them lowered down. A lot of students dropped down to our level to speak with us on our techniques or to watch. At one point, we did think the storm that hit Lockport was coming our way, but thankfully it did not.
I got to use my banner for the first time!!!
We had a total of 5 hours to get our pieces completed. At about an hour in I realized I had made a mistake with my grid and stretched my drawing too far by a foot. This is easy to do when you are at ground level and I was lucky to catch it when I did. There was a point of panic and futile asphalt scrubbing trying to get the lines off. This problem was later fixed by painting tempera paint over my errors. I'm so glad tempera paint is in my chalk art arsenal this year.
My grid was supposed to be 6ft x 7ft, I somehow did 7ft x 7ft. I originally planned on only painting the black base in the shape of the bull head but ended up filling the whole square in. The paint helped pop my edges out for more definition in the end.
Cadie had called our friend (her studio-mate) Jeannette to come "coach" us. However, she turned out to be my angel. She totally saved my butt on this one. My piece was too big for my britches and she helped me get it down. She carries half her studio in her vehicle so she had some blue Street Stix for me to use! Jeannette is pretty much awesome art super hero and mentor.
The UB Bull's mascot came to visit my work in progress.
There was a beautiful young woman and student that sat in front of me and asked if she could chalk too. She had the prettiest scarf and smile. I held up my hands and said "if you don't mind getting dirty." She replied "not at all." This girl dived in and was a huge help. I can't spell her name but I will call her Haddie, she was from India and studying Industrial Engineering at UB in the Masters program. She told us how she hasn't seen snow! Well, we know what it's like here, she will see a lot of the white stuff! Haddie made me want to reach out to students even more for events similar to this.We did take pictures and I gave her my card. If she sends them along I will update the post.
My friend and co-worker, Melissa Yurko, stopped in to cheer me on. She and her husband embraced the bicycle atmosphere by riding over. I'm pretty darn lucky to have her in my corner outside of the office too. LOVE!
Jeannette and I posing with my UB Bull.
Every time I chalk I learn new things. This event's lessons:
1. Don't bite off more than you can chew! I did this and was fortunate to have help. I think I will stick to the hour per square foot rule. Quality suffers with shorter time constraints. Simple subject matters from now on for one day pieces.
2. It is SO time to invest in better chalks. I will be ordering Street Stix and some brands I heard about through the chalk artist grape vine.
3. Quadruple check the grid.
I think I will be doing more college campus work in the future.
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