Happy 4th of July!
Mike and I were up and at’em at 6:30 this morning and gittin’ ‘er done — applying chalk to sidewalk, that is — by 7:45.
Mike starred and striped my 1864-2014 dates commemorating the Idaho Statesman’s 150th birthday while I filled in the rocket ship and fireworks, and before you could sing all the verses to Yankee Doodle Dandy, correctly, four or five times through, 3 1/2 hours had blasted by and I was finished!
Our pal, Lauren Kistner, was working right beside me on what will be a beautiful yellow chicken in a field of turquoise posies, but unfortunately we left before she was finished. You should check out her website/blog anyway and I bet she’ll have an update on her chalk art in a day or two.
In the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to create several pieces of Public Art, both semi-permanent like my traffic boxes and bus shelters, and ephemeral like the Treefort Tarps and the 4th of July Chalk Art. I love everything about the process of creating the work — once I’ve jumped through the flaming hoops of the application torture-circus and been accepted, of course — but in particular I love the translation of the tiny to the GIANT.
This painting is 6 inches square:
And this ephemeral chalk art drawing is 6 feet square, plus — I couldn’t resist coloring outside the lines:
Sometimes the translation is done for me, like the vinyl skins made by Trademark Sign Co. for my Boise traffic box, and sometimes it’s done by me, like my tarps or my chalk art.
Either way, it’s a thrill. Kind of like fireworks.
BOOM!
