I used to think I was good at sidewalk chalk.  I bet you did too.  After heading to the Pasadena Chalk Festival last week, however, I almost feel inclined to go back in time and inform my elementary-aged self to put the chalk back into the box and pursue other arts and crafts such as coloring books and Play Dough.  The drawings that the dusty fingered festival-participants were creating in the courtyard of Old Town were beyond masterpieces and put anything that I may have ever doodled to definite shame.

In addition to the talent being surreal, the method behind the madness was pretty elaborate.  I never knew there were so many tools involved in chalking.  Each artist had their own little space, many covered with an umbrella for shading, where they basically resided for the duration of the festival.  Artists crouched down on kneepads in the middle of their chalk dust and reached for color after color from giant tackle boxes and plastic bins stocked with a Costco-sized array of chalk.  Some people enlisted the help of spritzer bottles, baby wipes, and paintbrushes to put the finishing touches on their creations.  A lot of artists were looking at drawings that they had on display and transporting them onto their section of the street.  I saw a some people dividing their spaces into what resembled tic-tac-toe grids and working on one section at a time, while others had drawings sliced into perfect little squares and would pull one piece out at a time and chalk up that portion onto their sidewalk space.

There were so many interesting drawings such as: pictures of the Lakers with championship trophies, sunsets, rainbows, babies, and a portrait of San Francisco.  In one space, a team of artists worked on a 3-dimensional dragon that was being collaboratively covered in chalk.  There was a giant butterfly drawing with an arrow directing people to a place to stand and the following written below: “Hold out your finger so that it appears that the butterfly has landed on it and take a picture.”  My favorite was the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Bugs, featuring an assortment of critters, each with their unique flair.  Veteran street festival artist Randall Williams had quite the crowd gathered around as he sketched out an angel flying though the air and rescuing a damsel in distress.

As I was passing through the festival, I ran into a judge of the Guinness World Records who was there to act as one of the witnesses to verify the number of chalk drawings that were completed by the end of the festival.  He informed me that the previous record was 130 chalk pictures in one place and he was absolutely confident that this festival would force that record into extinction.

Gazing at chalk drawings was a perfect touch to a lovely afternoon.  Festival go-ers “oohed and ahhed” at the intricate collection of chalk work as bands performed in the background.  When it was all said and done, the sidewalk was transformed from its usual beaten down concrete into a dazzling art gallery.  As I passed by and admired many people’s works of art, I figured I wasn’t the only one hoping that rain wasn’t in the forecast for the evening.

Words by Nicole Pajer with photos by Sidney Bensimon