Community free to express creative urges at art festival.
By Miranda A. Holden
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The Art Guild, along with 20 local artists, will use a piece of chalk as their paint brush to create murals along historic Houston Street Saturday for Chalk It Up.
Houston Street will be closed 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday for the event.
The 13th annual Chalk It Up sponsored by ArtPace is a free festival that allows the city of San Antonio to transform the street into a panoramic abstract design.
Participants will create colorful art with family and friends while enjoying food trucks, live music, photo booths and performances.
Argo Group is the festival’s sponsor with additional supporters such as, Centro San Antonio, CPS energy and Frost Bank.
Art Guild President Justin Mendez, Vice President Fernando Lopez, exhibit Coordinator Dante Dispasquale and fine arts freshman Anaia Alejandro will participate at this year’s festival for the first time.
Over the summer, Nina Hassele, curator and co-chair of Contemporary Art Month, selected them to take part in the festival.
She wanted to choose artists who were new to the community and wanted to get their work seen, Hassle said Sept. 27.
Students will have a 4-by-6 concrete space to create an original design by using chalk.
Students will sketch out ideas, each using their own skill set, to come up with a concept the day before, Mendez said.
The festival is a way for the community to unite and express feelings as art for everyone to see, Hassle said.
As an artist, being able to express oneself through art means artistic freedom, he said. It is advantageous for an artist to have an idea and be able to show someone what he or she sees.
“It’s about making something visual that someone can see and interpret in their own way,” Mendez said. “It’s up to the viewer’s understanding of what it is and what it isn’t.”
The majority of his work is expressionistic, being able to express feelings.
Hassle said people could expect to see lots of great art from school communities, emerging artists, feature artists and the entire city.
The event is open and free to the public.
For more information visit http://artpace.org/home/education/community-programs/chalk-it-up.