CELEBRATING & INSPIRING THROUGH CHALK ART

by Charlotte Kovalchuk • photos courtesy Anita Laurentz

As a chalk artist, Anita Laurentz has found beauty in ephemerality. “I’m actively doing something that is big and also brief. You can’t take it home with you. It takes hours to get it done and then, bye bye.”

Specializing in portraits of people and animals, Anita didn’t consider chalk art until 2009 when she took an art class taught by John Howell, founder of the Round Rock Chalk Walk festival. Originally from Houston, she had just moved to Lago Vista from Austin with her husband and two sons and wanted to start painting again. John encouraged her to give chalk art a try, and Anita has been adding her art flair to the annual festival ever since.

When she’s not teaching art at Liberty Hill High School, that is. While she doesn’t have as much time for her own art as she used to, Anita says, “I am where I’m supposed to be for sure. I love teaching kids and I love being at Liberty Hill High School. It’s the most wonderful place to be. The kids are unique, and their artwork is inspiring.”

WINNING HEARTS & AWARDS

During this year’s festival in October, more than 60 artists were given a 10’ by 10’ square space on the pavement and a set of chalk to work with over the course of several hours. The process is the same as transferring a mural on the wall, only on the ground, Anita says. She prefers using the grid method – splitting the design into proportional squares that fit the wall space then drawing lines or using strings to mark the squares on the wall.

She says she learned the hard way about the need for cushions when creating chalk art. “One year I lost feeling in my right hand when I was leaning on it for hours. I thought it would be fine after a couple days but it took four weeks to turn back to normal. Now I take every cushion in the world,” she says with a laugh.

She adds, “Everyone is covered in chalk. You’ll look over and see others covered in chalk and realize you are too – a big black smear above your eyebrow or around your nose. It’s fun.”

To fit this year’s bee theme, Anita drew a bee portrait (above) that won in the Best Bee-Related Art category. She believes what stood out most was the realistic reflectiveness of the eyes. That successful replication of her subject, whether on the canvas or ground, is one of her favorite parts of being an artist. “One year I did the Afghan girl from the cover of National Geographic. I wanted to take a picture to show my friends and when I had my camera over the art, my phone recognized the picture and told me what it was. That told me everything was in the right place. Having the art be what you want it to look like –that's my objective.”

A teacher at heart, Anita’s other favorite thing about participating in the Round Rock Chalk Walk is using it to teach the importance of art. “The students I work with get to see that art matters. It matters that people are doing art, that they’re trying in any way at all—no matter what it is—to make a statement about something in their life or about enjoying life. It matters.”

Check out more of Anita's work at AnitaLaurentz.com