Fourth annual Park Place Chalk Art Festival

The fourth annual Park Place Chalk Art Festival was this past weekend, March 31 & April 1. I stopped by to take photos and videos around 8 or 9 am on Monday the 2nd. Here's the sign (in chalk, of course) in front of the north central mall entrance:

And a map with artists' names (as always, you can click on an image for a larger view):

There were two kid zones (shown in yellow on the map above): one at the westernmost end of the mall, and one along the northeast entrance to the mall (which had rows of murals on both sides of the walkway).

Let's start at the west end:

Two videos of this end:


westernmost Kid Zone (by Katie Cooper)


westernmost Kid Zone (by Katie Cooper)

On to the northeast mall entrance:

And two videos:


Kid Zone on west side of northeast mall entrance (by Meghan Minke)


Kid Zone on east side of northeast mall entrance (by Meghan Minke)

You can see these videos in larger sizes, and more videos, on the TucsonArtInfo YouTube channel.

Between the two Kid Zones were the murals by professional artists. Here they are, from west to east.

Holly Schineller

Carolyn Watson Dubisch

Victor Manuel Navarro-Sandoval

Ruben Moreno

Martín Quintanilla

Jose Ignacio Garcia

Matt Cotten

Marisa Salazar

(Sorry, didn't do my usual editing to straighten them. I did try to fix the blue color on murals in the shade.)

Thanks to SAACA for organizing. I can't wait for next year!

Park Place Chalk Art Festival, part 1 of 3

This 800th post on the Tucson Murals Project (Happy Birthday to Us! :) shows part of the second annual chalk art festival, April 6th & 7th. Held at Park Place Mall, it's organized by SAACA and bankrolled by merchants — as well as Park Place. (You can see last year's festival there.)

Last weekend, when I posted my announcement of the second day, I'd only seen the professional artists on the north side of the mall — and some of the Community Participation mural. I didn't realize how big the festival would be! I ended up with more than 150 photos — including every bit of the kidZONE art. So I decided to wait until today to post the first part; I'm aiming to post the rest by the end of the week.

Let's go! Here are the works by professional artists, from east to west along the north side of the mall. First I show each work as it was being made, mid-afternoon Saturday the 6th. Next I show the finished work, mid-morning Monday. As always, you can click on a photo to get a larger view.

Marisa Salazar

Park Place Merchants sponsored Marisa's work. Her email address is b1stmrs12@yahoo.com (click there or, if you type the address, both of the "1" are the number one, not the letter l).

Matt Cotten

Matt's website is www.PuppetsAmongUs.com. His sponsor was Arizona Virtual Academy—Insight Academy of Arizona.

Jamie Tooley

There's more of Jamie's work at www.TooleyCreations.com.

Chris Leon

You can reach Chris at artworx.leon@gmail.com. Park Place Merchants sponsored his mural.

Martin Quintanilla

Martín's phone number is (520)333-9999. His work shows traditions of Michoacán, México. The Southern Arizona Attractions Alliance sponsored him.

Michael Schwartz

Michael's personal website is www.MichaelBSchwartz.com. (He's also the Executive Director of the Tucson Arts Brigade.) His sponsor was RBC Wealth Management — Tom Binder.

See that little hole in the wall above Michael's finished work in the second photo above? It's some sort of drain. While I was there on Monday morning, workers opened a valve and water washed away parts of the mural. There's video of the sad scene on the TucsonArtInfo YouTube channel; click there or on this photo...

(Here's a larger version of the photo.) Parts of some murals farther west of Michael's had already been washed away; I'm not sure if others met the same fate later. Chalk art isn't supposed to be permanent, but I wished the workers could have used a hose to direct water around the mural... or the organizers had placed every work away from the drains!

Susan Kay Johnson

Her website is SusanKayJohnson.com. NexCare Urgent Care supported this work of Susan's.

Wesley Fawcett Creigh

To see and read about more of her work, visit WesleyFawcettCreigh.wordpress.com and PaintingByNumbersProject.wordpress.com. This mural was sponsored by Park Place Merchants.

Kati Astraeir

Kati wasn't there when I took the first photo (or the second photo!) above, but I found her website www.KatiAstraeir.com with a Web search. The work on her home page is quite different than this chalk mural, but I recognized her style because met her outside Solar Culture Gallery on Christmas Day — when she and Steven Eye showed me their amazing rotating wooden sculpture.

This chalk mural was sponsored by merchants here at Park Place.

More photos are coming...

...in Part Two and Part Three!

Notes about the photos

• They're in the public domain. I've cut the size and detail, though, for posting online. If any you'd like an original photo, please send me email. (If you use the photo somewhere online or for profit, I'd suggest asking the artist's permission first — and giving their name so they get credit for their hard work.)
• Most of these are geotagged. So you can use geotagging software to find the exact location of the art.

Park Place Chalk Art Festival revisited

Last Sunday, I made a quick visit to see the artists drawing at the Park Place Chalk Art Festival. Then, on Tuesday, I came by on my bicycle around 7:30 AM to see the finished works. There were just a few people around, so (I realized after a few minutes) I could lay down the chain barriers around the bigger works to get better photos.

I'll start with the bigger works along the north side of the mall — and give each artist's name after their work:

Susan Kay Johnson

Audra Cobelis

Cindy Guare

Joshua Woodhall

Katy May Goodson

Jose Ignacio Garcia

Chris Leon (too wide for my camera, so I snapped it in three sections)

Matt Cotten

Martin Quintanilla

Toward the west end were smaller works — mostly, I think, by kids and others who just walked up and started to draw. There were hundreds of them! Here are three that caught my eye:


The long walkway to the mall entrance...

...and a 12-minute HD video. I took it as I walked along the rows of murals above. (If you can't play it from the window below, you can try opening the video directly from YouTube.)

Update (April 11, 2013): The first of three pages of photos of the 2013 Festival are here: Park Place Chalk Art Festival, part 1 of 3.