Look for me at Chalk Fest
I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I’ve agreed to decorate Citizen Wausau’s square at Chalk Fest this weekend. We want to meet our readers and introduce future readers to our concept. Chalk Fest seems a great place to do this, but we soon realized we don’t have any real artists on our editorial board.
Please, for goodness sakes, stop by on Saturday and say “hi” to me. I’ll be there in the morning chalking out our design. For the rest of the weekend, various Citizen Wausau editorial board members will be holding fort, meeting and greeting the public.
PS. I am not an artist, and I’ll be feeling a little foolish, so be kind. Thank you.
oldwoodchair said:
Cheryl: a great quote by Picasso….”All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Just let the kid in you play!!!
owc
July 8th, 2008 at 9:24 pm #
erik said:
I found you at chalkfest. It was nice to meet you in person Cheryl and to see other CWers out there as well.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:40 am #
dwestcott said:
Cheryl, you rocked at the chalkfest with your remake of the CW logo on the “chalk on blacktop” medium. It was awesome to provide an opportunity for our virtual audience to come together at a physical marker and say a verbal hello to one another, plus, sign the art masterpiece if they so desired. Loved Tom’s guitar serenade and it was great to see Dino standing by like a proud virutal father.
For many reasons, I was more connected to the chalkfest this year than in the past. My connection moved me to write the following blurp:
Chalkfest: Gone with the click of an automatic sprinkler
Wausau’s Chalk Fest was a hugely successful event…on Saturday and Sunday when the artists were spending literally hours creating their chalk masterpieces. Fast forward to Monday and reality hits as the city’s automatic sprinkler system kicks in. Thoughtless oversite? Or intentional washout?
I talked to many of the artists during the weekend, some of whose fingers were rubbed raw from blending chalk colors on the bumpy blacktop as they painstakenly etched their drawings to perfection. Some camped out next to their alloted square space (seriously, there were tents) and spent the entire two days creating and improving their personal masterpieces. Many of the chalk paintings were group efforts: the “last supper” was a conglomerate of art students from UWMC; a piece sign mural was created by two best friends; a series of three cartoons were set in sequence by an entire family. Every chalk drawing seemed to have a story.
It was an honor to be a part of the event as an observer…as well as a family member of one of the artists. If you attended the event, you couldn’t help but feel intense pride from the artists, their families and friends. Smiles, hugs, oohs and aahs were prevalent as you walked around the city square studying and admiring unique presentations from amateur to accomplished artists. And there was one overhanging and often spoken phrase that marked the weekend: “Thank God it didn’t rain.”
This year’s chalk fest was a well publicized event and the kind not to be missed by many in our community. If you happened to be out of town that weekend, you could be calmed by the fact that, if it didn’t rain, you could take a trip downtown on Monday and view the drawings in their finality.
As it didn’t rain at all on Sunday, I took a trip back downtown on Monday with my children to ooh and aah at the chalk masterpieces and have fun talking about the Sharks and Nemos and lions and tiggers and tweety birds and daffy ducks and Sylvester the cat… What we found were shadows of artworks, empty squares of blacktop, and award signs posted next to top voted drawings–but no drawings to view.
What happened? Did it mystically rain throughout the night or day? Did the stronger-than-average wind blow all the chalk off the square? Did too many people walk on the drawings and erase the chalk with their shoes? As I was asking these questions out loud to my children, a passerby noted: “The automatic sprinklers came on and washed all the drawings away.”
Wow - that answer blew my mind. Were the artists aware this would happen? Was Wausau Area Events made aware of the quick demise these drawings would receive? It’s rather ironic. With such a looming fear of rain washing away the personal presenations…our own city sprinklers washed them away within hours of their completion. I’m sure there are logical reasons why the automatic sprinklers couldn’t be delayed a day or two to preserve this unique event, but serously, it feels a bit hard nosed that the efforts of our community could be so effortlessly erased.
There’s always next year. And the lesson learned is….well, you can fill in the rest of that statement.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm #