Sweet Chalk Fest 2017

I can't believe its been 5 years! 5 years since the beginning of this wonderful festival that introduced me to a love for chalk as a medium. "Chalk" as in pastels on pavement. The Sweet Chalk Festival has grown so much in the past 5 years and I loved watching it turn into the event that it is and all the wonderful people I got to meet along the way that has made it possible. A huge shout out to the dedication of Ellen Martin who organizes this event and the volunteers. I also loved watching myself as an artist change because of this festival. I came out of my shell and tried new techniques, new subjects, new places, and new conversations. Every time I look back I realized I have grown leaps and bounds as an individual and chalking has been a part of that.

June was Denver. July was Lockport.

I had the image in my head for months. I was going to illustrate a dog. SURPRISE! Actually, up until this point I had not done pet portraits because I wanted the creative outlet. This past year I have full embraced that my niche is pet portraits. So I wanted to give it a shot chalking. This is also my local festival-my local and potential customers. So why not? (My year's theme so far.)

I had a series of photos that inspired my piece for Lockport. In the apartment living days before Wyatt and Jackie joined our family, we frequented the state parks around Niagara Falls. Reservoir State Park has a lovely wild flower path that at the time was full of poppies and daisies. Ruby couldn't help herself and frolicked throughout the tall posies and even chomped on the petals like a furry dinosaur.

 

I have been looking at a lot of Art Deco or Art Nouveau works out there due to my bestie's approaching nuptials in August. I got the idea to take the already whimsical poppies and stretch their stems to frame Ruby. This would be the most stylized I have gone with my chalk art so far. 

I tried and failed miserably to mix my own chalk based paint. I was running out of time and resources ($) so I decided to give watered down tempera a shot for the base. I had worked with a mostly white subject before (Helwig 2013) and I knew the that the chalk would not stick as well or have the coverage I would want. This seemed to be a good solution. Vibrancy was another. I wanted to emphasize more details and that meant less dust to clog up my limited space if I didn't have to fill in with chalk. 

I didn't have a helper this year for my early stages. We had the option to start gridding the Friday before but heavy rain was in the forecast so we all opted out on that one.  I ended up getting inventive with how I got my chalk lines down using a pack of baby wipes to be my weight on one end the following morning. 

#youknowyoureamomwhen

I got my grid down and free hand sketched with basic white classroom chalk. I did not prepare a template transfer for this piece like I had originally thought to do. I ran out of time ad I realized that the subject was so organic in nature that drawing it would be a better use of energy and give it the feel I wanted the piece to have. Nature's whimsy doesn't like rules and stiff lines. 

The sketch was down and it was time to get painting. I used Sargent brand tempera paint. Tempera is a washable classroom/poster paint. It is thinner in consistency and fills asphalt pits and imperfections fairly easily. Most artists lay down black tempera to help the pigments stick and stand out better on a rough surface. This time I did something a little different and used color tempera. This partly was to help my colors really stand out and to use my pastels for more detail work. I had white, black, yellow, red, brown, light green, and dark green. Painting my base took a good long while. I was using a foam brush to dab it onto the pavement and had small areas to cover that would require more care such as the stems. I did not paint in a black background outside of my subject and framing flowers. I wanted the outer shape to be as much as a part of the piece as the Ruby was. 

I started detail on the Ruby's eyes first. It just looked creepy otherwise. I started to play around with which brown hues I wanted to add to give her face more dimension. I adore her different shade freckles so I made sure to get those sorted quickly as well. 

I wrapped up day one with the face starting to come into focus. I tarped my piece over night just in case! Rain has been unpredictable this July in WNY.  Friends visited throughout the day. My awesome coworkers past and present came Bev and her son Ryan, Dave and his wife Darlene, Cheryl and Barb, and Tom. 

Bev is another LuLaRoe consultant and snapped a pic of me in my Jordans. The ultimate chalking athletic pants. 

     

Early Sunday morning I was armed with coffee I arrived to get the details done. I was delighted to find our chalking group dancing and singing to Spice Girls or Disney Tunes. After a mini dance party the caffeine and endorphins kicked in. For pastels I went for my SoHo Urban Artist pastels and street pastels. I had left over colors from Denver and did not need to purchase additional sticks. 

I filled in some of the patchy white parts to Ruby's face and chest. After the face I hopped around to shade the stems and petals of the flowers. I used so many hues of gold, blues, grays, purples, and reds. From the flowers I went to work on Ruby's body. To shade white you use a blend of different colors, a cornflower blue, light grey, even lemon yellow. To shade a on the brown I used cobalt blue and a deep purple with darker shades of brown. Purple by far is my favorite shading color. 

Rain did pay us a visit even though it was not scheduled for the Lockport area. We had to wait it out. Unfortunately for some who had finished their pieces the rain almost wiped them out.

I was quick to get my tarp down and with the paint base didn't have to reapply pastel all that much for corrections. I painted a black tempera line along the outside of my piece to help it stand out against the surrounding pavement. This also helped clean up any stray lines from my piece.

I finished at 4pm on Sunday. The sky opened up and washed away our efforts at 5pm on the dot but the pictures make it permanent enough for us to enjoy for years to come. I decided that the paint was a good idea for vibrancy but I will not use brown tempera again-struggled to find more hues to stand out in my pastels. It was competing with my colors instead of complimenting. White tempera was the most useful. 

 

"Ruby in the Flowers" 7x7 ft Pastel on Pavement 

I got to check out the rest of the awesome artwork at the Sweet Chalk Fest before the rain on Sunday. 

There are a few pieces missing that I did not get a pictures of before the rain damage. I will add once I have them saved. 

I didn't get my Lake Effect Ice Cream due to a toddler tantrum but I did get my Debbie hug.

I am already looking forward to next year! I may already have my sights set on a few festivals and might pull off one more in 2017. As always, stay tuned!

Denver Chalk Festival 2017

I made a goal at the beginning of the year that I would travel for a chalk festival. I also wanted to do at least 2 and next year 3. I started my search with places I can visit friends and family. I looked into Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. I found the Denver Chalk Festival and applied in February 2017. I had to submit a sketch of my piece and previous works. This was all done through a website called Cafe which lists art shows, festivals, and competitions for creative minds to get involved in. I waited a couple weeks wondering if they thought my concept and previous work was good enough. I got my acceptance email in March and literally screamed out loud at work and went jumping up and down my section like a crazy person. I was one step closer to my goal!

Last year, I had gotten acceptance for the International Chalk Festival in Florida. I missed out due to financial concerns. I attended the Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp (see previous post) and learned about crowd funding and put it to practice. I started a Go Fund Me "Send Jess to Denver" with a goal of $800 to cover the flight, supplies, and unforeseen expenses that come with travel. I met my goal between private donations and the Go Fund Me account. I was blown away by the generosity and support from coworkers, old friends, and family. I bought my Southwest ticket,  SoHo Urban Artist Street Sticks, got my template printed, and purchased some better athletic pants to protect my sensitive skin from abrasion and sunburn. I happened to have left over supplies from Lockport Sweet Chalk 2016 and packed those for the trip as well. Some supplies I was able to borrow or buy once I was in Denver.

My good friend Julie and her boyfriend, Jason, live out in Denver, CO. I stayed with them and Julie became my artist manager for the weekend. The job includes driving me around everywhere, being a tour guide, yelling at me to wear sunblock and drink water every other hour, feed me, and deal with my level of artistic crazy once I got to chalking. So I'm essentially a giant creative toddler. Julie and I worked together in 2012-2013 at Raptim Travel in Lewiston, NY. I got to keep her as my friend when I quit. She loves elephants, owls, dogs, any animal really. She is a gentle and loving soul with an adventurous streak. She is also a fantastic problem solver in a pinch. She makes me laugh and we cheer each other on. I am lucky to have her.

I got in on Thursday, June 1st, wanting to be early to get acclimated to the altitude. I was greeted by two cattle dog mixes named Pepper and Chase who I remember as pups. So big now and oh so lovable. We set out on a mini adventure on Friday June 2nd to get me my red rock fix. I LOVE red rocks-some kind of earthy connection that I love. We went for a hike in the late a.m. at Roxborough State Park. We took the easy trail and headed straight for the rocks.

There were warning signs about the area being rattlesnake country. They are not kidding! We went to an overlook area which is on the path still and there were two benches available. I walked over the right and decided I liked the view better on the left side. As I moved Jason went to the bench on the right and got the surprise of his life. There was a coiled rattle snake right behind it! I stood less than a foot away from this thing and never saw him. He was big. Did you know their tongues are black?!?! Jason is terrified of snakes so he had to calm down most of our walk. We left the rattler be and warned other hikers to not sit there. He didn't rattle a warning to us so now I know that they don't always warn you that you are too close. That would have ruined my weekend huh?

I got to try Noodles & Company and a pair of boots that gave me a Cinderella moment-fit perfect. 

So I bought them! 

I drank my weight in water and then some and we headed off to Larimer Square in down town Denver. I checked in and found my space. Thankfully, it was in partial shade half the day. My sunburn management would get slightly easier then! 

 

I got my square measured, taped, and painted with black tempera paint. I introduced myself to my neighboring artists Kyle Banister (who turned into my mentor for the weekend) the group called Chalk Ratz and and the event organizer, Mike Reiger. The event had a nice secluded artist lounge area with functioning bathrooms, a place to eat that isn't our laps, and air conditioning to cool off. Breakfast and lunch were provided both days and water handed out regularly. They did a good job taking care of us. 

Lines were down and then it was time to color! 

My pretzel pose. 

I was representing my LuLaRoe of course-best athletic pants EVER. They are called Jordans.

This is the difference with adding contrast lines in the Franklin Lloyd Wright part of the piece. I used brown, purple, and rust red to define the lines on the pane on the left. The detail of this design took the most time and make a big impact. I love the look of stained glass. 

 

End of day 1. For day two I made sure my stained glass was as sharp as I could make it with chalk and threw the color down for the natural background. I darkened the Bison and brought more detail to his eyes. To wrap up the day Julie and Jason took me out to their favorite Mexican place for dinner and it was OH MY GAWD delicious and I ate so much food! 

The final result. 

I spent most of the second day bringing more detail to the background and the Buffalo. The amount of chalk dust slowed me down a good amount. I will look into painting either with crushed chalk or tempera paint as a base in the future to save me from using so much of the expensive stuff or inhaling a chalk cloud. 

    

 

   

My festival mentor, Kyle. He did Hallelujah. 

The Chalk Ratz did a HUGE (double space) piece honoring a local Denver Artist. This group is known for their collection of black chalk bowls filled with an assortment of colors surrounding their piece during the work days. I loved this piece and found something new each time I looked at it. This group was so welcoming and funny. 

I would gladly participate again in this festival. Denver and I are now best buddies. The city gets my cowboy boot loving, nature seeking, food destroying nature. 

I'm not prepping for my local festival, Sweet Chalk Fest in Lockport, NY! 

Thank you for supporting my adventures and shout outs to my donors!!! You guys blew me away with your generosity and love.