A while back I posted about the annual Italian Street Chalk Painting festival in San Rafael, California which is used to raise money for the Youth in Arts program. Artist Mark Wagner and sculptor Clayton Thiel collaborated to produce an extraordinary example of modern sidewalk art that combined 3 dimensional objects (the twelve sleeping Buddha heads above) with drawings of Saint Rafael (the patron saint of healers) appearing to rise out of an opening in the concrete.
Happily, Mark has posted photographs of the work as it progressed throughout the day, and it's quite fascinating to watch the germ of an idea take shape on the street, and then capture the imagination of the audience. At the end of the event, Mark and Clayton auctioned off the Buddha heads and the proceeds were split between Youth in Arts and the Kids' Chalk Art Project -- a spectacular and hugely ambitious project Mark has been working on to create the largest-ever street chalk drawing in the world next June, 2008 in Alemeda, California. (So big, they are hoping it will be visible from space and are arranging to have it photographed via satellite. Go Mark!)
You can see more of Mark's visionary work here and here on the Endicott Studio and at his wonderful website, Hearts and Bones Studio. Read here for more information about the Kids' Chalk Art Project (and maybe contribute to this once in a life time event)
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