We are a husband and wife couple who are fascinated by the temporary medium of chalk art. Our purpose is to engage our audience and to bring a smile to those who interact with our 3D illusions. Our chalk artwork is light-hearted, full of character, and a lot of fun. We travel the country, flying as far east as Pittsburg and as far south as Las Cruces, New Mexico. And trust us when we say, it’s not easy getting big bags of chalk past security at the airport.
While we work to create these wonderful pieces for the public, what many observers and bystanders do not know is that the one creating the chalk art pieces is suffering from a debilitating auto-immune disease. I received two liver transplants as a result of this disease, and each day can be a struggle as it continues to wreak havoc on my body. The conditions of chalk art can be brutal for anybody, but being compromised as I am, it is even more so for me. Despite this, I work through it, bearing my soul in each piece of art, as I present it as my gift to humanity.
While working as commercial artists, chalk art found us. It complemented our professional training as illustrators and challenged what we knew to be possible in art. We were fascinated with the medium the first time exposed to it in the summer of 2003.
I love the ephemeral nature of the medium, I love being under the sun, enduring the elements, and of course, with my background in theatre and puppetry, I loved the performance and education aspects. It seems as if I have a knack for the medium. Soon I started winning awards, and as I started getting gigs all over the country, it really dawned on me that I finally found something that I could really make my own. In 2010, I started to explore how to add the illusionary aspect to the chalk art.
When my high school guidance councilor asked me to describe what I wanted to do when I grew up, it never dawned on me to mention travel the world and draw on other people’s streets. Yet, that’s what ended up happening. And with Cherish on my team, it is wonderful–a blessing–and we are happy to share our journeys with you.
It all started while we were doing an event at Carnegie Mellon University. I invited my aunt, who is also an artist, to help us pull off this epic waterfall scene. Over the course of two days, she started referring to our trio as the “people of the chalk.” Donning sunglasses and fancy hats, we embraced the name as we marched in with our chalks every morning. When we came home in chalk-covered clothing, it seemed like the perfect name, and we have been the “People of the Chalk” ever since.
