Photos courtesy of Sheryl Lazenby
Sheryl Lazenby wasn’t always a full-time freelance artist and owner of her own design company.
Up until four years ago, she operated within the corporate space, doing marketing and graphic design. Suddenly, due to the unforeseen downsizing of an entire department, Lazenby was dismissed.
“So, it was like, ‘OK, now what do you do?’ I’ve had my freelance business for 20 years, but I never really put that much time into (marketing my freelance work),” says Lazenby. “I’ve been (freelancing) full time for four years now and things are really looking up, so that’s a good thing.”
When asked about her journey into chalk art, Lazenby’s eyes light up.
“I had never really heard of it before. There was a call for artists to participate on a Facebook page I follow, 614 Artists, at Easton’s Chalk the Block.”
Easton Town Center’s annual Chalk the Block event challenges artists to create works of art – using chalk as the medium. Each artist is allotted a 100 square foot space in which to transfer a unique and colorful work of art from their mind’s eye to the pavement.
Intrigued by the call to participate, and undeterred by her lack of experience using chalk as a medium, Lazenby submitted artwork immediately.
“So it’s a call for artists to participate and I’m like, ‘Well, I’ll try it.’ I used to paint, I can draw … I’ve never done (chalk art) and I thought, as with everything else, there has to be tutorials on the Internet to figure out how to do it,” she says. “They didn’t want just anybody and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll either hear from them or I won’t.’”
All chalk art is composed on a 100 square foot grid
Shortly after throwing her hat into the ring, Lazenby received an email indicating that she had been selected to participate at the Chalk the Block event. Then, the panic struck. As it turned out, online tutorials directed toward the novice chalk artist were nonexistent.
“Now I have to figure out, who works ten feet by ten feet? That’s our space out there. I didn’t even know where to begin with that,” says Lazenby. “I’m also a photographer so I took one of my photographs and kind of changed it around.”
Despite the lack of knowledge, a new seed of artistic passion had been planted.
“The first event was successful for me because it really hooked me. Usually when you’re an artist, it’s you and the canvas, or it’s you and the camera, or it’s you and the drawing paper, and it’s really a pretty solitary experience. But with (chalk art), there’s people walking around, there’s people asking questions,” she says.
Having the opportunity to interact with people while creating was a novel experience and interesting opportunity for Lazenby. People would stop to take photographs, ask questions and offer commentary on how her work evokes a particular piece of nostalgia or struck a chord with their own personal philosophies.
“There are comments like, ‘Oh my mom loves day lilies, I can’t wait to send her this photograph of your work! or ‘This is like a feminism statement!’ … and it’s just really a different experience for me. It’s really exciting,” says Lazenby.
Rain, Rain Go Away
The question Lazenby fields most often from onlookers: What happens when it rains?
Not only do chalk artists have to take into account the daily weather forecast, they’re up against the clock as well. Depending upon the event schedule, Lazenby may at times only have a maximum of 10 hours to fully complete a project. Even if she finishes ahead of schedule, Mother Nature has the final say.
Lazenby was recently commissioned by the Zanesville Art Museum to bring a piece from its collection out into the community for all to see.
“I’m so thankful to have photographs. It was sad. It was really sad because I was so close to being finished and we had kind of been sprinkled on all day,” she says.
Having a freshly completed piece of chalk art washed away by the rain has happened to her on more than one occasion. And because certain chalk colors wash away more quickly than others, fairly normal photographs can, at times, take on a more abstract feel.
“I did a photo of John Glenn in my driveway and it was kind of spooky because the first thing that went were his eyes, so I had this shell (with) black eye spaces,” says Lazenby.
Lazenby recreates the Feb. 1962 Life Magazine cover featuring John Glenn.
Chalk Futures
In January of last year, Lazenby and five other regional chalk artists banded together to form the Ohio Chalk Art Guild. The original group of six noticed that they all kept showing up at the same events, so the next logical step was to organize.
At this stage, the guild is not completely formalized – there is no membership nor dues for those involved – but the organization is growing, according to Lazenby.
“We’re not to that point yet, but probably getting to that point soon. One of the things about Pickerington that I would really like to see happen is to get some kind of an art movement going … because, as you see from the other communities around, when they start bringing the art in, money starts coming in.”
Lazenby next to her piece inspired by Mattel's Rock'em Sock'em Robert
You can see Sheryl Lazenby’s chalk art at Easton’s next Chalk the Block event on Sept. 30.
Nathan Collins is an editor. Feedback welcome at ncollins@cityscenemediagroup.com