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!

Ohio State Fair July 2019

Ohio State Fair 2019

Second chalk art of the 2019 season was the Ohio State Fair.

I decided to do a Wizard of OZ theme this year. This was kind of the theme for the Fair, because it was the 75th anniversary of the movie this year. 

I went through so many ideas, but finally fell on this view from Dorthy's window. I think it came out pretty good this year. I didn't win a prize, but that's the way it goes! I think the public enjoyed it, and that's what counts!

  It was such a hot day, but I survived! I stayed hydrated and went inside from time to time.

 

  I was working at the State Fair again this year. Here is the nice sign they made me for my activity.

 It was up to me to make a kids area for chalk too. Here it is in the morning. I did the Fair logo for kids to color.

Step 1: all taped out and my sketch begun.

 I chose space #1, because I was the first one there in the morning. I thought it would be nice to be on the end...big mistake. I had no break from the sun at all, it went down to the side of me, so I fried all afternoon. Next time I'm bringing my tent, I think that would have helped a lot!

 The sketch is finished! I'm already hot!

 Step3

 Step 4

 Step 5

 Had someone take a picture of me at this point...does it look like I'm melting!

 First layer complete! Time to take a little break!

 Almost finished

 Opps! Spelling mistake! Thanks to my coworker, School teacher Lori for noticing my misspelling!

 Was able to fix it with no problem.

 Changed the lettering to white and can see the words better now.

 All finished! Took me about 3-4 hours. Sometimes when it gets so hot I just kind of give up on it before I melt all together! But it looked pretty good!

All finished at last! Notice my red face!

 

All finished! Can you pick out Dorothy's red shoes?

 This young man worked for quite awhile to color in all the letters that I made in the morning! Looks pretty good now!

The kids area got more chalk added!

 This is how it looked later in the day!

 

 This was the kids chalk area the next day! All the chalk was gone!

Look what passed in front of my car as I was leaving!

 My artwork was still looking good before judging on Saturday.

A little faded on Sunday, but can still see the image pretty good.