Chalk Art Festival 2012

So, this is going to be my synopsis of the Chalk Art Festival this year.  If you're on facebook, you probably already saw all these pictures, but now I'm just adding words. 

This is what I did last year:  

 

The first thing I had to do was write my sponsor's name up top.  The sponsor pays money for their name to be near my art, and they hope for that to be good advertising for them. 

Then I started in with the outline of my image:

I included this image because it shows the photograph that I was working from.  It's a picture of Roxanne making a funny face.  Also, notice the chalks in the square container.  They are chalks made by Terry Ludwig.  They are super super nice and he let me go into his factory and buy dinged pieces for a discount.  I watched the other artists struggle with their lower quality chalks and felt a little guilty.  Also, Terry came by a few times to check up on me and make sure the chalks were working good for me.  I felt superior and lucky to have such a valuable connection. 

And this is just another picture of me getting started...

Now this picture is telling.  It is me staring up into the ominous rain clouds lurky in the sky.  Rain clouds are chalk art festivals' worst enemy. 

Just about every kid that came by, imitated the picture so their parents could take a picture.  A couple adults did it too.  I didn't anticipate my design being so interactive in that way, but it was perfect. 

This was when it began to rain.  The artists kept pretty calm, although they looked sad.  The public acted like someone was dying, and I felt a little weird about that.  I didn't know how to respond to that.  I didn't want to be like "oh whatever, I dont care", but I didn't want to act like I was devestated either because that would be embarressing.  Looking back though, I think it was a good part of the experience.  It was an interesting step in the process, and I do believe this was about the process more than the outcome.  It forced the artists to stop what they were doing and bond with each other.  People who are emotional about the same thing bond easier.  I think I learned most people's names while it was raining. 

The rain continued for maybe an hour and a half. Not knowing when or if it would stop was the most difficult part. 

This is a picture of it in the process of drying.  The brighter parts of the painting are the dry parts and the darker parts are still saturated.  Matt and I walked down the street to a bar and had a drink while we waiting for it to dry completely.  And speaking of Matt, he was the most wonderful assistant I could have ever asked for.  When I think of him on those two days, it's proof he really loves me.  Because he stayed out there in the heat and the rain, and got me whatever I needed, making trips to and from the car, or whatever.  He probably did the same amount of work, but I got all the credit.  None of the thousands of people that walked by ever said "wow, you're doing a really good job!" to him- they just said that to me.  But he did everything he did, just because he loves me. 

After the rain, I worked for abother 4-5 hours until it got too dark to see my colors anymore.  By the time I left Saturday night, I had my picture back to the condition it was in before the storm.  I was especially excited that night that I had gotten a plot under the romantic Larimer lights.  Then when we got in the car to go sleep on someone's floor, like we had the night before, Matt surprised me by telling me that he had booked us a hotel room.  Hotel rooms are my favorite thing ever. 

And this is my butt getting back to work early Sunday morning.  The heat and crowds became unbearable really quickly. 

This was one of my favorite pictures of my piece that I found online. 

And this is the final product.  The picture was taken by the chalk art association.  I think from a ladder. 

I had to leave early Sunday because Friday was sick and in the hospital.  Also because the kids were really hot and really cranky.  But at around 6, my good friend Kyle called me to tell me I had just won the category for "best use of color"- which is a huge honor.  There is over 200 artists, and only 9 categories with winners. 

I didn't really take many pictures of the rest of the festival- mostly because by the time I was done with my piece, the crowds made it nearly impossible to view anyone elses.  But you can view all of the winners here. 

We are supposed to close on our new (to us) home in Denver tomorrow.  I hope to be able to be a more consistant and interesting blogger after that, since moving to a new house will make most of the problems in my life dissapear, thus making it easier for me to be a perfect person.  I know a lot of people are looking forward to that happening.