ARTISTS CHALK IT UP TO EXPERIENCE COLORFUL YET SHORT-LIVED PASTELS SHOW ZEST, SPIRIT OF THE MOMENT.Byline: Andy Samuelson Staff Writer PASADENA - Their skin and clothes smudged with chalk, five friends in their 20s colored a patch of street in front of City Hall with black, blue, gold and yellow hues in a scene depicting the chaos of urban life. Visitors to the ninth annual Absolut Chalk street-art festival along Garfield Avenue stopped to watch as one of the young friends, Marina Hernandez, colored in the mushroom-shaped cloud over cloud over Verb 1. (of the sky or weather) to become cloudy: it was clouding over and we thought it would rain 2. silhouetted buildings. ``It's good they watch,'' she said Saturday, shaded under an umbrella. ``That way they know what you have to go through to finish it.'' Jerry Ortega said they likely will finish their drawing today, when the art festival continues between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in front of Pasadena City Hall Pasadena City Hall, completed in 1927, is a significant example of the City Beautiful movement of the 1920's. History In 1923, the people of Pasadena approved a bond measure issuing $3.5 million towards the development of a civic center. at 100 N. Garfield Ave. The Light Bringer Project, a nonprofit group, sponsors the annual event that brings together about 500 artists each year in an area the size of two football fields. Participants sketch in a surface about half the size of a parking space using chalk that will eventually wash away. ``Any type of community should have this, anyway,'' said Dominique Ochoa, one of the five friends from Highland Park Highland Park. 1 City (1990 pop. 30,575), Lake co., NE Ill., a suburb of Chicago on Lake Michigan; inc. 1869. It is a retail business and medical center for the North Shore area. . ``It gives people something to do.'' About 30 feet from Ochoa, eight others sketched circle shapes and filled them with red, yellow, green, blue and brown colors - an M&M's package that had split open and spilled some of the round candies. For inspiration, the artists had a large bowl filled with the actual candy nearby and invited onlookers to help themselves to the chocolates, which they kept in the shade to prevent melting. ``I fell in love with the idea of drawing food,'' said David McRobbie, who designed the candy drawing on his computer. ``Food art can be colorful and fun.'' Last year, McRobbie's group won a prize for most whimsical whim·si·cal adj. 1. Determined by, arising from, or marked by whim or caprice. See Synonyms at arbitrary. 2. Erratic in behavior or degree of unpredictability: a whimsical personality. drawing for a sketch of a melting ice cream cone An ice cream cone or cornet is a cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, in which ice cream is served, allowing it to be eaten without a bowl or spoon. that dripped into a storm drain storm drain n. 1. A storm sewer. 2. A catch basin. . Like the other drawings, his torn candy wrapper A data structure or software that contains ("wraps around") other data or software, so that the contained elements can exist in the newer system. The term is often used with component software, where a wrapper is placed around a legacy routine to make it behave like an object. sketch will soon fade from the effects of weather and the cars driving over it. ``I like that it doesn't last,'' McRobbie said. ``It has an element of the moment, a sense of enjoy it while you can.'' Artists endured the heat as they squatted, knelt knelt v. A past tense and a past participle of kneel. knelt Verb the past of kneel knelt kneel and lay flat on cracked concrete. Many wore pads on their elbows and knees. Elizabeth Salisbury of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. wore a large sun hat and shaded glasses to protect her from the sun. She hoped rain would fall Saturday even though it would immediately destroy everyone's work, including her own drawing of a woman with green hair and blue skin, looking on with large eyes. ``Imagine all the works that have been lost because of wars or for political reasons,'' she said. ``I'd like it to be permanent, but it's not.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Artist Jaime Ochoa of Los Angeles was one of 500 artists who chalked the streets Saturday near Pasadena's City Hall. (2) Sara Marquez of Pasadena works on her sidewalk-art entry for Pasadena's Chalk on the Walk festival. Daniel J. Quinajon/Pasadena Star News |
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