The Little Studio in the Woods

This has become my new all-time favorite. Chalk art fes­ti­vals (Madon­nari Fes­ti­vals orig­i­nat­ing in Italy) have been around for a long time, but they’re new to me and VERY fun. Mount Ver­non, Iowa’s Chalk the Walk Fes­ti­val was my first expe­ri­ence with street paint­ing in May, 2007. In the spirit of the Madon­nari, I wanted to cre­ate a Madonna-like fig­ure, so I chose the Afghan girl from the famous National Geo­graphic por­trait. She was rec­og­niz­able and quite dra­matic when done in an 8’ by 10’ grid on the street. I also learned a lot from watch­ing Dawn Wag­oner, the Madon­nari from Santa Bar­bara, Cal­i­for­nia, who worked her magic near me that day.

The Chalk the Walk Fes­ti­val in Mount Ver­non is very family-friendly. The main street is blocked off for artists, but the most spec­tac­u­lar fea­ture is an almost block-length area that is grid­ded out for any­one to par­tic­i­pate by chalk­ing a small square. When all the adjoin­ing squares are fin­ished, it is a won­der­ful community-wide mas­ter­piece of a spe­cific paint­ing. In years past, they have chalked a repro­duc­tion of a Grant Wood paint­ing “Young Corn”, “La Grande Jatte”, “Dogs Play­ing Poker”, and last year’s “Where the Wild Things Are”.

Last year I did a chalk paint­ing of Barack Obama in Mount Ver­non. I was asked to repeat it in Le Mars, Iowa last fall for their first annual chalk fes­ti­val. I also enjoyed doing a por­trait of Jay Leno, just for an added bonus.  Now I’m on the look out for some­one dra­matic and rec­og­niz­able for next year.

Click on any image below for a bet­ter look.

	Afghan girl day 1