The organizer of Salem’s first Sidewalk Chalk Art contest says she was ‘blown away’ with the talent and is promising an even bigger event next year.
Michelle Barbee says 14 adults and six youth teams participated in the contest that filled the city parking lot on West McMackin west of the Salem Fire Protection District.
“I am tickled to death with how it turned out. I did not know what to expect. We had never done anything like this before and didn’t have anything local to base it on. We just kind of jumped off the cliff this year and it went much more smoothly than I dreamed it would. We had an excellent volunteer group, great community support, and were very supportive of the whole event. We’ve had fantastic feedback from everyone.”
Barbee says even more wanted to enter the day of the event, but all the space had been allocated.
The winner in the adult division and for Best Use of Color was Josey Charlton.
“I wanted something that was going to be full of color and something I love. And there is nothing more I love than Jesus so I said who could say no to Jesus? And I thought I could take Jesus and do something modern with it and I think I did that by doing a pallet and a paintbrush. He is the master artist. It was more complicated than I thought and I had to use different techniques to pull it off.”
Charlton is a lifelong artist but normally does acrylic painting, murals, and most recently sculpting dolls.
“My fingers are raw right now. You are on your hands and knees. With an easel you are not so this is very difficult but very similar.”
Charlton says she started by drawing a grid and then used an inspirational photo to get the proportions right.
The top winner in the youth division was Natalie Ambuehl and Noah Stratton with their entry ‘Road Trip Car’. The Best 3D award went to Dakota Hunter’s entry ‘Explore Outer Space’. The Best Reproduction award went to Mike Tiemann.
The winner of second place in the youth division was the team of Claire Gordon and Jaci Gammon. Third place went to Emerald and Isla Charlton.
Second place in the adult division went to Kaitlin Nix and third place to Wilma Jourdan.
The Youth Winner drawn by Natalie Ambuehl and Noah Stratton entitled ‘Road Trip Car’. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
The 3-D winner Dakota Hunter’s entry ‘Explore Outer Space’. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Best Reproduction entered by Mike Tiemann. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Chalk artists busy at work on Saturday creating their chalk art. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
All the chalk artists gather for a photo after the competition. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
