We Are Here Now - Celebrating the Creative Spirit

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Last school to visit the site.

View from the Control Tower

View from Building #25

Well we did it, with the help of over 3000 elementary school kids and the community of Alameda, we created the World's Largest Chalk Drawing.

Whew.... speechless and proud of the kids, myself, my team, and the Great Creative Spirit!

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Day One - Last Day Until Tomorrow

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I like that line, "Last Day Until Tomorrow", isn't it so true. Tomorrow is really just another day, it's also the end of a two year push into this project and a five year vision.

I could write a book about it all and I just may later, but for now I'll just say WOW, WE DID IT! I thanked the kids that helped with the chalk drawing, thousands of them, I said if they ever had a big dream, they should come and find me, I'll help out!

Above photo is from on top of building #25. Our Salamander and new Gingko leaf is hard to see photographed from the back (how rude!) but here it is, all chalk dusted and closer to being finished.

Today we will be outlining everything and it will really come to life.... and be able to be seen from outer space! Satellite photo at 11:20 am tomorrow. We finished yesterday with a team meeting about producing the event tomorrow. Everything is looking good.


One of my oldest friends from art school, Rev. Alexandra Childs, doing her evening prayers.

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Finish Line Drawning in Sight - 2 Days to Go

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You might be asking, how much chalk? A lot of chalk!

Two more days to go. I still wake up at 5am and my mind starts to race about what still needs to be done. The only thing that worked this morning was to pull my dog near and put my head up against the back of his head and to meditate on something else - got me another 1/2 hour of rest.

I stayed up late with a team member who helped me with information signs that we will be using on site; like who are we, what are we doing, and why art is good for kids and the World.


I am noticing many things throughout the evolution of this amazing project. Yesterday I saw boys who are into sports drawing a baseball field. This is one of the great things about art, it's not about being an "artist," it's about enjoying the expression of things that you love.



The boys with cameras on poles showed up and we all got some awesome shots, long shadows as the sunset right over the city line of San Francisco. Best day and evening weather so far, really nice!


I realized this project and salamander/gingko drawing has it's own living mascot. Zander.

www.reenchantingtheworldthroughart.org
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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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