Good morning! It's Day 2 of the Pasadena Chalk Festival! This is the day that most of the artists will finish their murals, there's the silent auction for all the paintings, plus judging and prizes at the end of the night! How exciting! Let's get started!
Our first year here at the festival we hadn't thought that far ahead and didn't know to cover and block off our mural. We returned the next morning to find footprints and bike tracks across our Ducktales drawing. Looking around this morning, some other artists who didn't cover up have had people walk across them.
There's lot a lot left for us to do today. We were able to make quite a bit of progress yesterday, and honestly we could have finished it all. But it's fun to be chalking while everyone is walking around, and chatting with people who are walking around.
Meet Mick Louse. A contemptible rodent with a rough backstory.
A completely random little girl came up with these adorable Mickey Mouse ears. It reminded me so much of Alli back in 2019 when she wore ears when she came to see our Disneyland castle mural.
So what do you see when you look at our mural?
It certainly evoked a lot of emotion from some people. We had a few people who told us they were upset that we'd take something pure and wholesome like Mickey Mouse and make something like this.
Others were wondering what was going on with that other Mickey side. What were we going for? Was he mad? Upset? Crazy? Wild? Maybe it's the LA Traffic that's got him going wild? Maybe this is how he was feeling after being cooped up from Covid? It's your own interpretation.
We're done!
One of the things we wanted to do this year was be seen. This location was definitely good for that. We also opted to keep the umbrella down the whole time so that anyone who was looking from anywhere could always see us. Plus it's better for people taking photos, without having a big shadow over half the artwork. The festival is about the artwork, but we also want to put on a good show.
I love it when people we know come to see us at the festival! Ruston's good friend Mickey came to see us!
I got a visit from a former co-worker! It's Marilyn! Thanks for coming to see us! It was good to catch up after a few years apart!
The family has arrived! It's their second day driving up from Anaheim to see us, and I'm so glad they came!
Because the kids have a very important role in finishing off this mural before it can be called complete. They are our official tape removal experts!
Perfect! I'm glad they were here to help!
Our mural is complete!
Great job this year Ruston!
I like the bright bold colors and the sharp lines! It's very "clean".
With our mural done, let's go explore the rest of the Chalk Festival! It's time to see what a few of the other artists have done!
We actually met Manuel Cuadros (manuel2square) on Friday night, working on his mural. He was trying to get some work done at night before working for the homeless shelter. He's doing what he can overnight to get things completed. Looks like someone walked through.
Beky Bell has made a lot of really good progress! It looks amazing! I especially like how the transparency of the girl looking towards turned out.
Charlotte Scoville is doing a wild Cruella de Vil from the recent movie. Those eyes! Plus all that light and dark blending! We know that any time there's a section of light colors, any bit of dark that gets into it is hard to get rid of!
Excellent! Curt has started working on his Chalk Drawing Robot. It uses wheels to move itself across the pavement, then the actual print head goes back and forth on a track. It drops white tempera on the ground in a method similar to an inkjet printer. It can control the size of the drop by opening the paint valve longer. There's lots of 3D printed parts and code that Curt worked on to get this working.
And Mickey has some skill when it comes to video editing!
I really hope he puts together a video on the whole process! I know we'd watch it!
Let's look around the rest of the festival!
Caroline Ely and Chelsea Gest made this really great still-life mural. These look like they actually have depth. Nice work!
There's a new take on some classic masterpieces! Great job Gus Moran!
Team PMLAB (Peter, Michelle, Lisa, Alex, and Ben) have done incredible 3D drawings, combining real objects and chalk in amazing ways. This year they've chosen Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street! If you scan the QR code, you'll see he's texting the the rest of the Sesame Street gang.
Another look at the the 3D mural, but from a different perspective.
Claire Bilderback has done something interesting. There's so many different shapes and colors, but what do you see? Write it down and put it on a post-it note, then look to see what other people have seen.
Bianca Ornelas has been hard at work! Her inspiration came from a Mexican food market. It's looking fantastic.
Jaslie Ulloa is making an awesome Catwoman and Batman. I love that she went with the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman and Michael Keaton Batman. Meoow!
Jessie Silva and crew are working on a beautiful Día de los Muertos girl.
The kids like the things that they are familiar with. Like Luca by Chris Baldonardo and Valerie Michelle.
But Looney Tunes just isn't something they've watched. Saturday morning cartoons just aren't a thing so much anymore when we've moved to a world of streaming services. The adults appreciated it though. Good job Betsy Diamond.
Here's something they do know. Coco!
Aunt Rita was nice enough to buy them a treat from the LA Ice, though a $7 regular or $10 large seems a bit steep.
After our walk around the festival, we stopped back by our mural and... Oh my.
Um. There are footprints all over it. What were once nice clean areas of solid color, are now dirtied up a bit.
No matter. Nothing to be done for it now.
Thanks for coming to see me today kids! It's a Happy Fathers Day for me!
I can't believe people would walk all over the completed chalk art mural, especially since the festival is ongoing!!...wow, no respect for people's hard work!! Nevertheless, great job to you and Ruston (at least you have some "clean" photos of the finished mural). Ahhh...no wonder I didn't see the umbrella's shadow in the photos...you & Ruston displayed one of the basic Disney CM keys of "show"...you both stayed in character throughout the entire time! The overhead shot of the MMC mural beautifully displays its "central hub" status...especially with those bold colors and radiating points as if saying, "there's more chalk murals surrounding this central spot!" Creative works often invoke mixed emotions and interpretations because everyone's past experiences and values are unique...interesting to read what some of the viewers thought. That was a clever "Mick Louse" photo :-) Like how that little girl wore MM ears while studying the mural, and the flashback insert of Alli in her MM ears...that brought a smile! Kudos and hats off to ALL the chalk artist participants and their HARD work under a hot sun to share a part of their creative selves!!!! EOM
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