In the age of novel coronavirus, street chalk event goes virtual
The first Saturday of the month typically brings Houston artists, artisans and residents together in Elizabeth Baldwin Park for Chalk on the Block, a showcase of sidewalk chalk artistry and an excuse to gather in Midtown.
No gatherings of any size are wise during the coronavirus crisis, of course, so Midtown Houston — the city agency that sponsors the event — took it virtual this weekend, calling on artists to submit time-lapse videos of themselves creating works in line with the month’s uplifting theme on their own driveways and sidewalks.
The resulting eight-minute video featuring works from nine artists had been viewed more than 1,000 times on Facebook by midafternoon Saturday and had generated at least one artistic response from a Heightsarea family that posted a photo of its own colorful driveway.
Kenneth Pierson, a muralist, painter and mixedmedia artist who has worked in street chalk for more than a decade, spent a little more than four hours on the Rosie the Riveter image he depicted at the top of his driveway.
“They wanted something inspiring and creative ways to stay positive during all this, so I wanted to show strength of community through a familiar image that started as a strengthening image, Rosie the Riveter, and translated it to something we can all identify with that’s going on right now — strengthening through togetherness,” Pierson said.
Pierson had finished documenting his final image just as a light rain began to fall; by the virtual “event” Saturday afternoon, the image had long since washed away.
“It’s more about being interactive in the moment, rather than keeping a piece you can hang on a wall. Unless you’re Banksy, and someone comes along and cuts a piece of the sidewalk out, and I’m not quite there yet,” he said, chuckling.
The “new normal” of the coronavirus has removed the interaction that typically would be an integral part of street chalk gatherings, Pierson said, “but we’re still seeing artists supporting one another and the community supporting one another.”
Among the works joining Pierson’s in the virtual chalk event were lighthearted pieces, such as a dog reading a book to a cat, and images speaking to the perseverance the pandemic will require: a doctor’s hands in blue latex gloves, forming the shape of a heart; and the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, draped in an American flag, battered and exhausted — but victorious.