Silver Springs November 2014

 Silver Springs was great! It was a very small event, as one of the biggest chalk festivals took place that weekend as well, but I had a blast here with a small group of just 4 artists. We were sitting in the beautiful park, chalking at our leisure, and enjoying the weather. The surface was great and we had an overhang on the sidewalk (no sun!). So it was amazing, not to mention how well we were treated by the organizers.... needless to say I am excited to go back.

 My first day I came late, did my dog Harley in about 2 hours then started on the other dogs the second day, about 1 dog every 15-30 minutes. So I have to estimate about 8 hours total (if that).

Who are these other dogs? Some are related, some belong to portrait clients, some are for the other artists, and some are friends with my dog Harley on instagram - @harleythehusky

Marietta ChalkFest in Georgia 2014

This past weekend I was at my favorite festival of the year – Marietta ChalkFest! They expanded a bit from last year so there was a huge selection of artists from all over. It is always great to make new friends and catch up with the ones you don’t get to see that often. I have never met a group of people with so much energy and passion, it is so uplifting.

Marietta is my favorite festival for many reasons, but how we are treated and organization are the two big ones. The people that put together the festival really go out of their way to make sure you feel welcome, are comfortable, and to let you know that you are appreciated. With each visit my Husband and I are just more and more determined that Georgia is where we need to be. Enough praise just cannot be given to the organizers for their organization. They really had thought of everything – we had tarp’s lining the street so we could all cover for rain as a group, guys with leaf blowers to move the rain off the plastic, and even hand washing stations! It was incredible.

It was a Halloween themed festival this year so I decided to do a Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) piece. It was 10x10ft and took about 12 hours, although that is just a guess since there were lots of rain delays. And my sponsor was Resurgens Orthopaedics, which I decided to incorporate into the piece instead of just below.

Family Days Festival in Port Orange, FL - 2014

This past weekend I was at Family Days Festival in Port Orange, FL for their 15th annual chalk festival. The chalk portion is hosted by Arthaus a great non-profit that runs art classes and event's in the area. I havn't done this festival since 2012 so it was great to come back, it is a beautiful festival with lots of shade and designated chalking space (so fewer people walk on your work).

I did my new twin nieces, Nylah and Sophia, they were about 8 months in my reference picture.

 

5x5 ft, 6 hours

Presidents Award

CreARTivity Video Feature

Remember when I was on CreARTivity WDSC-15 a few weeks ago? Well they have uploaded it to youtube so now I can share it with anyone who missed the feature! I answer tons of Street Art questions, as well as do a small demo.

I have yet to bring myself to watch it, but I hear good reviews - let me know what you think!

Circus Arts United

I am a little behind in posting, so to catch you up a bit I was part of Circus Arts United a few weekends ago, where I was invited to be part of their company to create some amazing art along with various other street performers who were fire spinning, juggling, acrobatics, ect. Their entire group is available for hire, so I encourage you to check out their website and some of the amazing stuff they do. I hope to do more work with them in the future.

I participated in two shows,  April 4th Fort Myers Art Walk and April 5th Diamond Head resort, grand opening which was also a promo for Wicked Dolphin rum .

7x12, 5.3 hours, Fantasy creation
Inspired/modified replica of Melanie Stimmell's piece (at customer's request) at the Art Walk.

The bricks were tough, but I have now officially done my first "legit" 3D piece.

7x5, 5.3 hours, Fantasy creation
Inspired/modified replica of Julian Beever's piece (at customer's request) at the Diamond Head resort grand opening in Ft Myers.

Yes that is a parking spot, strange surface to work on, but beats the heat.

CreARTivity WDSC-15

“Tune in TONIGHT to WDSC-15 at 7:30PM for CreARTivity, a weekly, live, call-in show featuring cutting edge artists and their cutting edge art. Join our host, Lou McNally and his guest, artist Chelsey Austin, for a program featuring Street Art! Have your questions answered LIVE during the show by calling 1-800-901-9238, or email at WDSC@daytonastate.edu”

Viewable to everyone in Florida, I will be talking about street art, answering questions, and doing a demo! Next week I will make a blog posting answering more questions as a follow up - be sure to tune in!

Uptown Art Expo - 2014

I have a confession... I am in love with Alecia Moore. I have been forever. P!nk is my all time favorite musician, hands down.

This year I decided to celebrate her by doing a portrait - and what better place than the Uptown Art Expo in Altamonte, FL since one of their main theme's is music. It took about 5 hours, 5x7ft.

I got off to a good start as some college students from Daytona stopped by to film by progress (more on that in my next post) although the day did not look promising as bad weather loomed. We tapped everything up and left as it started to pour. The next morning everything was ruined but myself and a few other artists were determined to get through and finish our pieces. Well, our determination paid off as the remaining 5 artists all got an award - and I won best of show!