Filling Space with Color over Time

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We start off in a circle around the heart of our BIG Salamander (remember and imagine 90,000 sq. ft - almost two football fields). Kids are so cool, some of the parents and teachers stand around and have to be gently encouraged to get color on their hands and draw on the ground, but kids.... they just go, they are animals around a new box of brightly colored chalk.

I am showing each group of kids (could be 10 groups in a day) our Salamander & Gingko drawing, pointing to the corners of our piece so they can see how big it really is.

It's now Weds. AM and we are ahead of schedule, the kids want more space, they want to draw big drawings, they are disappointed when I herd them back to the group and to where we are drawing.

Today is a light load of kids, next two final days after that are full mornings packed with young creative souls. Thurs. we have almost 440 elementary school kids coming to draw.

The issue is having enough drawing space on Sat. when we are expecting a few thousand people show up ready to draw. My new idea is to make a frame around our drawing and let that be filled in. We will also need help in filling in all the empty spaces on our large drawing.

Photo credits: top two- Mike Rosati, bottom - Michael Layefsky
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Day Eight of Twelve with Chalk

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Another day on site. Franklin Elementary School showed up in force, everyone coming and leaving before noon. Franklin is the school my kids go/went to, it's the school I first started to chalk draw with kids and where I create a year long artist-in-residency that had a big impact on me creatively that was part of the reason for this big vision.

Sasha and Cristin are two of the queenpins to make this entire event happen. Rev. Sasha Childs is working with the art and spirit side of things, and Cristin is the Project Manager. Cristin has been on the project for almost two years.




ABC Channel 7 "View from the Bay" showed up yesterday and filmed live. We had kids after school from a Special Ed High School, preschool, and Girls Inc.

We are on target, actually ahead, and doing great budget wise. It's a big relief, I can see the finish line, and there is still lots to do before Sat. We are having a team meeting Thurs. night to see what still needs to happen before the big event.

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Zander helping out, catching wind blowing erasers!
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Second Week - Right On

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Sunday was a good work day. Lots of excellent help and really cool people. A friend mentioned that it was really nice to see some old friends and not just sit around and talk but to draw and color while talking.

We are filling in empty spaces and we'll be doing this the entire week. The above piece looks great!

Music, Art, Suntan lotion, and a wind breaker!

This is what our negative space looks like now. I like the color. We'll outline the piece and put in a drop shadow the last two days.

Daughter and Mother

One tired amazing loyal friend!
www.reenchantingtheworldthroughart.org
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Today - Family & Friends

•(top photograph by Michael Layefsky)

Drawn by a big kid (adult)

Sunday, we are having a friends and family work/play day (everyone can come). We have a mission to cover all the space around the salamander with rolled, watered-down chalk. This will make out piece "pop" like crazy!

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Day Four - A Thousand Pictures

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pictures worth a thousand words
pictures of a thousand pictures

(last two photographs by Michael Layefsky)

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Sweet Moments In-Between

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A light day today with kids, a few minutes to rest and have some sweet moments in-between. I left my lights on while running music out of my truck and guess what... luckily a lady in green bug was able to help me out and get me up and running - thank you! We begin again tomorrow, onward to chalk heaven.

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Day Two in the Zone

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Day Two:
I found myself on site at 9am without any volunteer support and thought a class was about to arrive. Freaked out a little, our support did show, and the kids arrived safe and sound and we had a good work day - great kids, great parent, volunteer, and teacher support.

The community is extremely supportive. Rosenblum's is housing our chalk nearby in their warehouse. Doug D. with the Navy helped me get 30 + delineators (cones) to secure our site from cars that are ready to drive right over our project.
(Tetra Tech let us barrow these - thanks).

Thurs. will be a lighter kid load.

Sunday, June 1, we are inviting friends and family to come and work with us from 9am - noon +.
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