Reflecting Joe ... my life at Calvin College

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Sidewalk Chalk Flood

I spent this past Saturday defacing public property. It was the first Annual Sidewalk Chalk Flood and hundreds of perpetrators traveled downtown to chalk up sidewalks, walls, lamposts, and fire hydrants. By the late afternoon, Grand rapids was awash with peace signs, rainbows, globes, flowers, poems, giant bannanas, hearts, and tye-dyed bricks.

It was a beautiful April day for the event (once again organized by the amazing Rob Bliss.) I went downtown with two of my good friends, Mindy C. and Carly P. Our first project after receiving our free stalks of chalk was to draw outlines of each other a few streets over from Rosa Parks. Body tracing was a common theme and to the forensically inclined observer Grand Rapids must have looked like a big crime scene.

Just as fun as creating our own pieces of sidewalk art was getting to see what everyone else was up to. This event was a great promoter for social interaction as all types of people would talk to each other and even collaborate on drawings together.