Spreading LOVE & happiness
Santa Fe student leads effort to brighten up the City Different with sidewalk chalk art
Sometimes a chalk mark can kindle happiness in a rainstorm. Seven-year-old Alyson Davis and her friends have been spending the summer of the pandemic brightening the sidewalks and driveways of her Santa Fe neighborhood. Littered with slogans such as “You are a Hero,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Love Is the Answer,” the brightly colored drawings feature hearts, flowers and rainbows splashed among the sayings.
Alyson ventures out in the early evenings with from four to seven friends to start chalking. They created posters and fliers so that anyone who wanted their talents could call. She’s currently on her sixth creation. The young artists do their work wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
“They tell us if they want animals and plants,” Alyson said. “We’ll put a bee under ‘Be Kind.’ ”
“I like that I get to do it with my friends,” she continued. “I get to make other people’s days brighter.”
The Piñon Elementary school second grader figures she’ll keep on drawing “until COVID is done or longer.”
“It’s a business that’s free,” Alyson’s mother Kelly Davis said. “They wanted to spread the love and happiness. We pretty much go out every night. It’s a way for the kids to get out and do something. And it makes them feel good and it makes the neighbors feel good.”
Although she enjoys taking chalk to cement, Alyson has no career aspirations when it comes to artwork.
“I don’t want to be an artist when I grow up,” she said. “But it’s a nice little hobby because I get to be myself.”