A Dream Years in the Making: My First Time Participating at Chalktoberfest

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If you had told me in 2020 back when I was chalking on my driveway with a pack of Crayola chalk, entertaining my kids, cheering up my neighbors, and sharing my drawings to my friends on social media, that one day I’d be creating a 10’x10’ pastel chalk mural at Chalktoberfest, I would have laughed.

But here we are. Chalktoberfest 2024 in Marietta, Georgia; and I’m participating as a professional artist.

A Pipe Dream

There’s a special kind of magic that happens when something that once felt like a pipe dream suddenly becomes real. Chalktoberfest has always been that event for me, the Super Bowl of Chalk, something I admired from afar, the kind of thing “real” chalk artists did. I was just a mom in a driveway during a pandemic trying to bring a little color and life into a dark time.

But chalk art for me has always had a way of pulling you forward, pulling me towards something. Fast-forward a few years, and I found myself sitting in the heart of Marietta Square staring at a blank 10' x 10' tempera base that was about to become one a great success or epic failure.

Creating a 10'x10' Taylor Swift Chalk Portrait

I chose to draw Taylor Swift for this festival. It was nearing the end of the Era’s Tour and I knew I wanted to do a black-and-white portrait as I had never done that in chalk before. I loved the idea of adding a pop of color for Taylor’s iconic red lip as well. Celebrity realism adds an additional layer of pressure because everyone knows who they are and what they look like – so everyone can be a critic. Despite that pressure and the pressure of the event, I was up for the challenge.   

To achieve this look, I started with 2-3 layers of a white tempera base of Blick Tempera Paint. I use a variety of brands of high-quality chalk pastels, but predominantly used Blick Studio pastels and Mount Vision pastels for this piece.

The People Who Made This Weekend Unforgettable

There is no world where Chalktoberfest or any festival happens without the people behind it, and I am so deeply thankful to the festival organizers, volunteers, and sponsors for making this event happen, and keeping the chalk artists well hydrated and cared for while we worked.

I’m so grateful to have participated in this event and to have experienced this achievement in my journey. I’m grateful for the moments of encouragement and support that were shown from the beginning of my journey until today, from the family/friends that have always believed in me, to my neighbors who were always so kind and appreciated, to the strangers who stopped to watch, to the followers who shared their appreciation from far away, and YOU, however you found me.

Every single person in this community has helped make moments like this possible.

Thanks for being here and can’t wait to see what more is to come.

See more photos of this Taylor Swift chalk drawing here, check out the video below (or go here), and you can even view a quick and fun bonus piece I created here.

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