Chalk it Up, Monday, September 3, 2007

Today is the last day of Chalk it Up. Seemed like a lot more people came out today, maybe because it wasn’t quite so hot, or maybe not so many competing events. It was pretty sad when we got there this morning, because somebody had ridden a bicycle over the art yesterday evening. In past years we’ve carefully covered up the art before we left but we didn’t do it this year. The marks weren’t too bad, and most of the artists just cleaned them up and moved on. I really don’t think people do it to be mean, I just think they don’t have sense.

Here’s some of the art that got finished today.






Yes, it is still hot, but seems to be less so than yesterday. Most of the day there’s been a sort of a breeze at least, and on our side where there’s shade, it’s been pretty comfortable. Of course, on our side we’re done, so we’re not “breakin’chalk in the hot sun” Hmmm, sounds like a new theme song for Chalk it Up.


Some pretty nice things got finished today, or final touches put on them. It's really hard to take these pictures, because either the sun is too bright and washes them out, or there's partial shade, or spots of shade, or whatever.


We had a nice little interlude with a marching drum corps today, came through the park and then drummed on stage for awhile. There was also a great singer who did kind of Broadway-type music, but unfortunately, I didn’t get her name. There was finally an audience for the bands today, too. They were playing to themselves yesterday and the day before.


And I finally got to do something art related today. I put some lace on one lady’s dress. I just sort of pushed powdered chalk into the open holes on a doily. John’s not really happy with his piece this year, so he let me do this.



Lynda got a nice picture of her piece from one of the board members. I think they
want to recruit her & John to be on their board next year. I think they should.

Day 2 of Chalk it Up

I'm ending up posting this a day late because my *()&* DSL line is on the fritz again. Gotta get on ATT&T about that.

I thought I'd start out with some pictures that are in progress, or just some other people's work.




Some of the mystery of Chalk it Up is solved. Seems that there are only four board members, some people left the board, two members’ father died and they left taking the computer with the website stuff and probably a lot of other things with them, so in May the current board started reinventing the wheel. Turns out that permits for this thing are very expensive and it took 11 special permits at $300 apiece to get it going. I don’t know what they all are, but I’m sure there’s food vending, parking restriction, alcohol sales, fund raising, and who knows what else. The posters didn’t get done until a week before the event, which meant practically no publicity, and perhaps mailing lists were lost, or whatever. I guess it’s a miracle that they got it going at all.

Several of our friends stopped by today to look at the art and cheer the artists on. That was good, because they really don’t have the crowds this year from previous years. Phyllis & Charlie came up from Albany, Lorna & Ketil came by, Verna and Karen came by separately. It’s always nice to have folks you know come cheer you on, I think.

John’s picture worked out really nicely. He made a sort of a variation on the one woman’s face so it was turned slightly more to the front of the picture. It looks good. He’s really done a nice job on the hand of the woman playing the lute.


After a long, hot day at the park, Lynda and John finally gave up for awhile and went home and showered and put on some clean clothes and go eat dinner. We went to dinner at Buckhorn Grill, Lynda, Tim, Lynda’s brother and sister in law, Jim & Donna, and John and I. But neither one of them can leave it alone, so after dinner we ended up back at the park. Lynda’s picture lends itself to the 3-D effect, so we were trying to see how to take the right picture.




It appears that taking the picture from the bottom left works pretty well. I think she needs to lean her hand on the rocks, too.

Day One, the working artists

John is ready to work. It's hard work drawing on the sidewalk. You can see he's wearing kneepads, and right now he's moderately clean. He was up at 6:30 this morning so he could get a good spot. When he and Lynda got there to register, things were basically in chaos. Seems that they have a new board this year and maybe they're not too sure what they're doing?
So Lynda and John finally got started. This is how they looked at 10:30 or so when lazy Alex finally arrived with the drinks & the camera. Fortunately, there are several coffee shops nearby, so they were sort of okay. They were working like maniacs, hoping to get a good part of the job done before it got too hot.

At 12:30 our friend Zoe came by. Lynda, her husband Tim, and Zoe are all Virgos, so Zoe brought lunch for everybody. Pretty yummy stuff, too -- mediterranean appetizers with cilantro, basil and feta in pita bread followed by marinated shrimp, coconut rice salad, organic grapes. and that's not all. She also brought birthday cake. Chocolate, really yummy. I was supposed to bring the birthday candles, but I forgot, so we stuck a piece of chalk in the cake to take the place. And nobody had to blow it out.

Somehow all that good food seemed to make the artists tired or something. Work seemed to grind to a halt. Seems like there aren't so many crowds looking at the art this year, but it was expected to be a really hot day, and more people usually come on Sunday and Monday when more art is finished.

Prelude to Chalk it Up

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John's square from last year

Chalk it Up is a big event every Labor Day weekend in Sacramento, CA.
Artists from all over the area come and design a square of sidewalk. The squares are purchased by local businesses for $150 each, and they either ask for a certain artist or take whatever artist comes along. John has done this event for about 4 ears for the early music groups Trobadores, River City Renaissance Band, and Camellia Camerata.

His friend Lynda does her square for Lazer Glass, and she's done a square for even more years.

They've worked out a system that seems to work for them. They get there incredibly early, like 6 a.m. so they can find one of the shady spots. Shade is a very important part of the event, as Sacramento is pretty warm. This year the temperature is expected to be 104 for at least Saturday and Sunday. Some spots are shady in the morning, some are a little shady in the afternoon, but there's one spot that's shady almost all day. That's their spot.