PICTURESQUE GROUND COVER ARTISTS OF PASADENA'S CHALK-PAINTING FESTIVAL HONE THEIR CRAFT ON THE STREETS.

Byline: Michelle J. Mills Staff Writer

'IT'S REALLY A MUSEUM without walls,'' says Thomas Coston, executive producer of the Absolut Chalk Street Painting Festival.

The Light Bringer Project's Absolut Chalk Festival will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend in Pasadena. Artists will create scenes with everything from robots to fairies, cars to a fresco from the Sistine Chapel.

The artists create these masterpieces on the sidewalks around Pasadena City Hall over the course of a weekend.

``This is my one chance every year to cut loose and let my creativity flow,'' says David McRobbie of Pasadena, who is a graphic artist for the Grizzard Agency and handles direct mail fund raising for nonprofit organizations. He has participated in the Absolut Chalk Festival for the past nine years.

McRobbie invites all his friends to help create his mural. The piece this time around will depict a clash between healthy and junk food.

This year, the festival's centerpiece, the Absolut Court of Champions, will feature ``Best of Festival'' muralists from the past nine years.

There also will be 13 monks from the Gyuto Vajrayana Center in San Jose who will participate in the festival's opening and closing ceremonies and construct a sand mandala. Throughout the event, acoustic musicians representing world cultures will stroll the site, pausing to serenade artists and admirers. You may visit the Absolut Art Gallery, a display of 200 small canvas paintings that are for sale in silent auction, and try creating your own mural in Chalkland.

The seed for the Absolut Chalk Festival was planted when an intern of the Light Bringer Project returned from Paris with photos of a street painter and his work. In Europe, street painting (chalk) competitions are prestigious, with three-time winners garnering the coveted title of Master Street Painter.

To organize their own event, the Light Bringer staff sought the help of artist Kurt Wenner, whose work has received international acclaim. He has received numerous awards and honors, including eight gold medals and the title of Master Street Painter.

During the festival's first year, Wenner led 125 artists down an uncertain path. Most of the artists had never worked in chalk and they bravely took on their unruly canvas of pavement, along with its cracks, dirt and oil stains.

This year, there are 700 artists and the Light Bringer Project has conducted a series of workshops to assist them in preparing for the show. The event is open to all artists, and many of the veterans give the novices advice and help with application.

Salvador Luna, who came from the Philippines to settle in San Gabriel, is excited about the chance to participate in the festival for the first time.

``The first time I saw it, I was impressed,'' Luna says of his previous visits to the event. ``I want to give my insight and I want to help other artists.''

Luna will render an image of a hand grasping an American flag as it breaks through a wall.

He will use dirt, pavement cracks and other ``problems'' to his advantage. He is hoping to get a work space with a crack and will incorporate it, as well as rocks, dirt and other natural items, into his mural.

``I have an idea on how I can make the crack (in his artwork) a real crack,'' Luna says.

ABSOLUT CHALK STREET PAINTING FESTIVAL

Where: Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena.

When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Sunday.

Tickets: Free. Call [phone].

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