Words: Charles Regnante
Senior Beth Lyman was looking for things to do over the summer. While skimming through the Internet, she stumbled upon the Columbia Festival of Arts ninth annual Chalk it Up competition, a sidewalk street art contest, held on June 15th and 16th.
“I instantly thought it would be a great idea,” said Lyman. She then informed fellow art students, seniors Morris Mou and Erin Yamaguchi about the competition. Both seniors jumped at the chance to join Lyman in the contest. “I love art, and I’ll take whatever opportunities I can get,” said Yamaguchi.
“Even though I had never drawn with chalk before, it sounded like a really fun opportunity,” Mou commented.
The three art students, who are also the National Art Honor Society leaders, had one goal in the competition: to create a cool piece of art, but one that had meaning too. They decided to model their drawing after Baltimore’s Inner Harbor because it was something everybody could recognize.
Their chalk drawing of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor at night merged the unique artistic styles of each artist. “Chalk artwork is never detail-orientated. It’s all about style,” Lyman explained.
“The nature of the medium that we were working with really helped to communicate the styles we had,” Mou added. When the piece was finally finished, they took a step back and stood in awe. “I didn’t realize we could make something like that,” said Mou.
Their hard work paid off. The Centennial student group took home the contest’s 3rd place (Tourism’s Talent Salute Award) in the adult category. Lyman summed up the groups experience saying, “It was really just a fun time had by all of us. Even though it’s fun to win, it’s the overall experience that truly matters.”
