Have you ever heard of the Port Hueneme Beach Festival? This year they decided to add a chalk festival and it was AWESOME! After being in quarantine for so long and missing the beautiful ocean for so long, I was very happy to have been invited to participate.
I chose to chalk a mermaid since I was at the beach.Almost there, just need to add a background texture to my coral and seaweed.Finished! This was my finished 10’x10′ square.This is a photo that my friend Sharyn R Chan took when the sun went down.After chalking, I walked on the beach and enjoyed looking at sandcastles…Alligators, pyramids, and…sea monsters!
Last weekend I participated in the Daly City Chalk Festival, up in the bay area. It was a family event so I chalked Mario and Yoshi from the Super Mario Galaxy Nintendo game. How fun was that?
And so it begins! First I did a quick sketch and started with Mario.Lumas are star-like creatures that have a tear drop-like shape and come in many colors.More progress on Mario, the most recognizable Italian video game character.Moving on to Yoshi.Yoshi is a recurring character in the Mario franchise and has gone on to star in his own games.Finito! (Pretend that was Mario’s voice who said that!)
Time-lapse of Mario Galaxy at Daly City Westlake shopping center.
Before heading back from Reno after the Chalk Festival, I spent a day in Virginia City with two awesome artists (Lori Antoinette and Mri Scott). And guess what? It’s HAUNTED! We had so much fun exploring the history and ghost hunting. If you love visiting haunted locations, this city is not to be missed.
Up on the hill is the Silver Terrace Cemetery. One of the spirits reportedly seen here is an old groundskeeper.Built in 1860, the Mackay Mansion was originally the offices of the Gould and Curry Mining Company, as well as housing for the mine superintendent. Johnny Depp stayed in the mansion for a week while filming “Dead Man” and had a ghostly encounter with a little ghost girl on the second floor. The mansion has also been featured on Ghost Adventures and Dead Files.The Old Washoe Club originally opened for business four months before the Great Fire that destroyed most of the town. The Saloon was rebuilt and opened a second time in 1876, and aside from being a bar, the Washoe Club was designed to be the meeting grounds for the Virginia City elite. Paranormal investigators from all over the globe are drawn to The Washoe Club, reporting this is the most haunted place in Virginia City, if not the entire state.The Silver Queen Hotel was built in 1876 and is the oldest hotel in Virginia city. The hotel is believed to house a ghost named Rosie, who was a prostitute who killed herself in Room 11.The hotel is also known for the painting “Silver Queen”. It’s a 15-foot tall full-body portrait of a woman embedded with 3,261 morgan silver dollars, as attributed to the depth of the deepest mine in Virginia City.A close-up view of the silver dollars. Her belt is made of 28 $20 gold coins, while her bracelet and necklace are made of silver quarters.
The Reno Chalk Art & Music Festival, presented by Atlantis Casino Resort Spa was a blast! We chalked in the Atlantis’ West Parking Lot all weekend. This was my first time chalking here, it was awesome! My square was 10′ x 12′.
I chalked butterflies, because why not?Butterfly No. 2 down, one butterfly left to go!This is one of my GoPro camera’s picture, I love that I can clip it anywhere without using a tripod.Third butterfly down, I’m at the halfway point here.Done and done!
On June 19 & 20, I got to chalk at the Paseo Colorado Mall in Pasadena, CA. It was a 12-artist chalk collaboration of Norman Rockwell’s “Golden Rule”, a gathering of men, women, and children of different races, religions, and ethnicities. It was a precursor of the socially conscious subjects that he would soon illustrate. “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You” was a simple but universal phrase that reflected the artist’s personal philosophy.
These are the signs that were printed by the mall.And so it begins, the beginning of a 2-day chalk collaboration.My contribution to the square is this female figure in the lower center of the square. I took this picture a few hours into it.Progress! This is at the beginning of day 2.This is the hallway point of the whole square, which measures 24′ wide by 22′ high.Almost done! We are preparing to pull the blue tape off of the sides.Finished!A drone shot of our chalk square.
Last weekend I had the honor of participating in a chalk collaboration that honored our friend Edwin Aguilar, who passed away recently. We miss him very much but we know he is now without pain or illness. My condolences to all of his family and friends.
Our finished Memorial Chalk Collaboration for Edwin Aguilar. We put his portrait in the center and added elements that represent his life & art career all around.
For our second chalk collaboration, we chose to chalk the Headless Horseman for Halloween. The figure is traditionally depicted as a man upon horseback who is missing his head. Since the pandemic lock down, the Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena has remained closed to the public and they gave us permission to chalk in their parking lot. That was super nice of them!
I was assigned to chalk the bottom right corner of our image. The artist pictured is Zoila Cobian.For my contribution to this collaboration, I chalked the front legs of the horse and I also added a ghoul with a pumpkin.In the home stretch. Artists pictured above are Marcella Swett and Mri Scott ElBey.Our finished master piece. Participating artists from left to right are Monica Orozco Thaller, Shawnet Sweets, Keith Dubois, Marcella Swett, Zoila Cobian, Lori Antoinette, Mri Scott ElBey, and myself.
I’ll be chalking a square on Oct. 17 at the Riverside Plaza. Riverside Plaza and chalk artists will follow all state and local COVID regulations, and chalk artists will be socially distant from one another and from the public. Attendees are also asked to observe COVID safety precautions outlined by state and local health officials.
During the covid-19 pandemic, many artists have not had the chance to attend any art events around the country. During one of our online zoom hangout meetings, we came up with the idea that we could create a collaborative chalk piece at home. That’s how the idea of chalking our kraken came about. We came up with “kraken” because around the time that we chalked it, we would have been chalking at the Ventura Art & Street Painting Festival which is held each year at Harbor Village in September. We started with our sketch and divided it into six panels, which were assigned to the six artist collaborators, with the instructions that they could each add whatever whey wanted to their kraken panel. The participating artists are myself, Lori Antointte W, Mri Scott ElBey, Marcella Swett, Keith Dubois, and Monica Orozco Thaller.
Lori Antointte W, getting started on her corner.Marcella Swett, her kraken tentacle is halfway done.This is my corner, I decided to add an ice cream to my kraken tentacle because it had been scorching hot the weekend before.Lori Antointte’s corner is coming along, with an outer space battle scene.Progress! Mri Scott & Marcella Swett are getting down (literally, we played the funk jams on her blue tooth speaker).The bottom right tentacle was chalked by Monica Orozco Thaller, you can see her little Poseidon taking form in the kraken’s tentacle.This is at the half-way point. The kraken is starting to come together, you can see Mri working on some of the green tentacles.Detail of our Kraken collaboration.It took two days, but we finished! Final collaboration measures 16′ x 24′.The artist team from L-R/top row: Monica Orozco Thaller, Keith Dubois, Marcella Swett, L-R/bottom row: Lori Antoinette W, Grasiela Rodriguez, and Mri Scott ElBey.