COSI Aug. 10, 2019

Saturday August 10, 1019

COSI

I was so excited to have the opportunity to do chalking at COSI in Columbus. There were only 4 of us but it was a good group. The theme had to be something about Columbus. So I decided to begin with a drawing that I had done a couple of years ago of "hippie" school bus and add "Columbus" to the side of it.

 This is the drawing that I created for my chalk design.

I choose a spot for my artwork between two posts on the sidewalk. It was a great place out of the way, but it would cause me problems later photographing my artwork. It was in the shade most of the day. Which was really great!

Here I am all ready to begin.

 Beginning Sketch

 Starting at the top with the sky blue...

 More blue

 Green grass

 More colors

I was concerned about the blue sky against the blue bus so I added green trees over the top of the bus.

 Inside image finished

 Lettering in white...

 Decided to add the purple around the outside...

 Then added purple on the letters too and that really made it "pop."

 All finished!

 Look at me! This is what comes from using black!

 All finished a looking good!

 Then the marching band marched by...little too close for comfort!

 Lots of people too!

 Trying to get a good picture!

 All finished and cleaned up...looking pretty good if I don't say so myself!

 I wanted to get the COSI in the background...unfortunately my artwork is upside down.

 Finally got some good pictures thanks to Hillary's long selfie stick!

We stopped at Young's Dairy on our way home...just the reward treat I needed for a long day of chalking!

Sunday Aug. 4, 2019

Too close for comfort!

Sunday 8/4/2019

I feel that I need to post something on this blog about the events of Saturday evening Aug. 3, 2019. 

As you know, from my previous post, I had spent just the night before (Friday evening Aug. 2) doing my chalk art in downtown Dayton for the Art in the City event. It was a lovely summer evening that night and so many people came out to see what "Art in the City" was all about. I saw so many families with kids. There were performances and art happenings all over the city for people to participate in. Music flowed through the air and people were happy and enjoying themselves. We were on the pavement in the middle of the crowd creating our chalk art right on the pavement.

I wake up on Sunday morning to discover that there had been a shooting not too far away from where we had been for the Art in the City event just the night before! It's scary to me to think how close we were to being in the middle of this shooting! The shooter was evidently looking to hurt lots of people. What made him chose Saturday night instead of the event on Friday night? He was only a few streets away from where we were and could have easily moved down to where we were instead! It's way too close for comfort for me! Something has to be done to stop this madness!

https://abcnews.go.com/US/active-shooter-incident-investigated-dayton-ohio-police/story?id=64763090 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/04/us/dayton-ohio-active-shooter/index.html

It was such a wonderful evening. So many people around enjoying themselves! It could have been shattered by tragedy so easily! Just like the next evening was!

Art in the City 2019

Art in the City in Downtown Dayton

Aug. 2, 2019

I organized this event....

This is how it began: I tried to write a grant to gather artists to do art for this Art in the City event in Downtown Dayton. I didn't get the grant, but I was approached, via email by the Art in the City staff, about doing the chalk art anyway for the event. They said that they would pay us $100 per artist (up to 6 artists) to do chalk art for the event. 

I was so excited to be the one organizing this event. Unfortunately I didn't get a great response from artists, many were already busy with other events. I was able to get 4 artists, including myself.

The event itself was from 5-9pm on that Friday evening. I told everyone that they could arrive as early as 3pm to get started if they liked. I decided to get there early so I could be there when people arrived. They had given us a spot one block down from Court House Square. I came by myself and arrived about 2pm. I unloaded my stuff and began to think about picking a spot on the pavement to do my chalk art. It was a nice shady spot, but there was another problem. There were lots of people milling around, not the nicest of people I might add. I was approached for money a couple of times and I just didn't feel comfortable at all. I could see the information tent for the event down the street, so I worked my way down to it and asked if we could switch spots. They said sure. 

All this took me about 2 hours and before I knew it the rest of the artist started to arrive too. Long story, short, we ended up right in front of the information tent. Soon Hillary, CeCe, Chris arrived and we were all chalking right in front of court house square! 

After all the uncertainty, it turned out to be a great spot. The event turned out just great! Hillary and I both got interviewed. CeCe was being watched by several high school kids while she worked. There were lots of people watching us and asking questions.

I was so worried about the heat, because the sun was right over us, but it wasn't the heat, but the wind that was a problem this time. I struggled to keep the chalk on the pavement! It just kept blowing off. In the end, I struggled so much that my artwork looked a little awkward. Fortunately, no one but me seemed to notice. Everyone loved it!

 I'm looking pretty tired by this time!

All finished. I didn't notice how off balance it was until later, when I was looking at pictures. Oh well, everyone else seemed to love it!

 CeCe and her artwork.

 

 

Hillary and her artwork. This artwork is in the Dayton Art Institute collection.

 Chris and his artwork.

Hopefully they will invite us back again next year!