Marietta Chalkfest 2015 - part one

On October 11, 2015, we went to the Marietta Square to look at this year's Chalkfest.  On Saturday 10, in addition to the chalk festival were a beer fest and an antique car show, but it did rain a bit.  We preferred to look at the finished chalk drawings on Sunday.  It was a lovely sunny and warm day.

In 2013 we had gone to this festival and I had written a post about it - see my post of October 12, 2013 here.  In 2014, we again went to the Chalkfest on the Marietta Square - see my post of October 14, 2014 here.   Actually when I was looking on the Web to find information on the festival for 2015 I was very surprised to find out that under the Press Kit on the Marietta Chalkfest Festival 2015 the first information link on the site was a link to my blog!  I also recognized the owl in the poster below as I had seen the artist Beth Shistle drawing it on the pavement.

We could hear some music, and walking toward it on the Square, we passed several Halloween decorations.

After listening to the music for a while we walked to the side streets to look at the chalk drawings.  There were many this year as more than 50 artists were taking part in the festival.  I took 240 photos and will have to cut this post into two parts or it would be even longer than my usual posts!  This year's theme was "Patriotic."  Each artist had been assigned a 10'x10' square on the pavement and had to show the name of their sponsors in their design.  As we walked around the streets some chalk arts were completed and some artists were still finishing their designs.

At last year's festival I had talked with Joel Yau, an artist from California.  I thought I recognized his face on a chalk design made by Alexandra Alfeo.  Alexandra is from West Palm Beach, Florida, is only 17 years old and still in high school.  As I was looking at the chalk design, Joel Yau himself walked by.  I told him I thought his face was on the drawing.  He agreed that it was him and to my surprised he remembered talking with me last year, saying to me ..."...I remember you are French and you have a blog."  Here is Alex's chalk drawing and Joel Yau posing for me on the drawing.

Then we came to Joel's chalk drawing which was completed.  Joel Yau has been chalk drawing in street festivals since 1997.  He has won many awards as his art is outstanding and delightful - I love his 1940 era glamorous beauties.  He participates in festivals in the US and many foreign countries, such as Canada, Mexico, France, Germany and more.  He is also a gifted painter, ceramic artist, illustrator and graphic art professional.  Below, the blonde beauty is the chalk art he did in Marietta.  The other pictures of his designs are courtesy Joel Yau - the center face is actress Gina Lollobrigida as a young woman, the sailor face is a tribute to veterans, and the dark haired woman in the bottom is Emily Carr, Canadian painter and writer from Victoria, BC., and one of my all time favorites femme of letters and art.

Walking around the streets we saw a great variety of designs.  Click on collage to enlarge.

There is distortion of the image when taking pictures from the ground.  A professional photographer taking pictures from the top of a ladder was near me.  I gave him my camera to take one of the chalk art drawings and you can see the difference below, from the one I took on top, and the photo he took in center.  This is a drawing by Nate Baranowski.

Below are more chalk works from Nate Baranowski.  He is an experienced freelance artist specializing in street paintings, mural work, and concept design.  (Drawings courtesy N. Baranowski.)

Many people had brought their dogs.  I love cats, but they cannot be seen outdoor on leashes, unfortunately.

Below, on top left, is the chalk drawing of Holly Schineller, a resident of Tempe, Arizona, who has been teaching beginning warm glass classes around Arizona.  Joan Finn, from Kansas City, Missouri, is working on a rendition of President Jimmy Carter.  Yesterday, Sunday 6 December 2015, we were very happy to hear that Jimmy Carter, age 91, was now free of cancer.

Lori Hughes, from Galloway, Ohio, completed a chalk drawing of Captain America kissing Wonder Woman - adapted from a drawing by Issa Ibrahim.

Lori also creates fancy custom painted shoes and wall murals.  Pictures below courtesy Lori Hughes.

There were vendors on the streets along the asphalt drawings as well as places to eat and drink.

Zuleika Hodges, an artist born in Haiti, had drawn the beautiful face of an aviatrix.  Zuleika, now residing in South Florida, has been involved in art since she was very young.  Below my photo of Zuleika's drawing are two other drawings, courtesy Zuleika.

The Statue of Liberty was well represented.  Kevin Powell, a local artist, had Lady Liberty as a light house.  Jennifer Chaporro had an eagle flying around the Statue and Beatrice Flaig was working on the Statue of Liberty's face, half of it in color.  I did not see the finished drawing.

 Many people wanted to take pictures of themselves or others in front of the drawings so it was a bit difficult sometime to take a good photo.

Indian American chalk drawings were also well represented.  Dianne Gove had drawn the head of a "Native Patriot" below, top right picture.  "Eagle Freedom" is Ron Hawkins' design, below, bottom of collage.

Ron Hawkins, of Native American heritage, has been creating art since he was 3 years old.  He works in pen & ink, watercolor, acrylic and color pencils.  He draws outstanding birds as you can see below.  Pictures courtesy Ron Hawkins.

Beautiful patriotic ladies were drawn by Anat Ronen, on top of collage below.  Craig Thomas drew the lady with a sword on the left and Jessi Queen was inspired by a vintage poster from the Red Cross.

Lysa Ashley is an elementary school teacher and has been street painting for over 20 years.  She has won numerous awards, including Best of Shows.  In Marietta, Lysa painted the delicate figure with long brown hair, in center of picture.  The other samples of her art are around the collage, courtesy Lysa Ashley.

I'll stop part one of this post with more dogs walking with their owners and little puppies being carried.  (I just noticed that you can see my reflection in the door, taking the photo of picture on the left!)

More to come ....