Summer Recap
July 2025 Glen Park Art Festival, Williamsville, NY - Nature’s Wonders Theme - First Place Award
My kids are back in school and I’ve finally found a little bit of time to look back on all of this summer’s creative endeavors. June and July were FILLED TO THE BRIM with chalk art and mural making.
Children’s Book Festival - Canalside Buffalo
I kicked off my summer chalking at the Canalside Children’s Book Festival in Buffalo, NY. Recreating artwork from children’s literature might be one of my favorite chalking themes yet. The weather and scenery were as beautiful as ever and the kids who showed up were the sweetest and most encouraging kids!
On the heels of that event, I began installing a mural I designed during the spring for a local wealth management company whose property is surrounded by the most stunning gardens. Those gardens became the inspiration for much of the project. My client wanted to bring color to the property and gave me generous creative freedom to design the perfect piece. The July heat was no joke and proved the biggest challenge—I often painted in the cooler evening hours, when a (photo-shy) family of white-tailed deer would quietly keep me company. Obstacles aside, I loved designing these florals and am so happy with how the mural turned out.
While the mural was a weekday project throughout July, I was also spending my July weekends hitting the pavement and chalking. I feel like I had a creative breakthrough with my chalking this summer. Have you ever heard this quote from Maya Angelou - “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”? I experienced the reality of that this summer with each chalk piece I did. The more I drew, the more I saw possibilities for the next piece. By the end of the summer I’d managed to work more detail into my pieces and learned to build value and saturation in some fresh ways. I attempted my first 3D effect with Mario driving through the walls of the Buffalo Riverworks Silos. I teamed up with my daughter for the second year to draw Stitch as Elvis for the Lockport Chalk Walk. And I brought home first place awards for my Canalfest Chipmunk piece and my Glen Park Art Fest Mandarin Fish piece.
I miss chalking so much right now. Thankfully, I still have one more chance to chalk this fall in Buffalo. And who knows—maybe I’ll find a few more opportunities beyond my hometown. If you know of any chalk festivals or events out of town, I’d love to hear about them. I’d be glad to pack up my pastels and travel a bit to keep my creativity flowing through the off-season.
“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
- Maya Angelou
I shifted gears and took a little downtime for the back half of my summer, spending more moments with family and friends before the kids headed back to school. I still managed to squeeze in a couple of unique art workshops. One of my longtime friends invited me to create a paint party for his 8-year-old daughter’s birthday. She’s a talented gymnast and wanted all things gymnastics-themed. I designed a banner for the girls to color as they arrived, and after a quick bounce in the bounce house, they settled in to create their own acrylic-on-canvas paintings of a gymnast. I guided them through the basics, but the creativity was all theirs—each girl decorated her gymnast’s leotard and background in her own style, so no two paintings were alike. The girls were gentle, attentive, and wonderfully focused. I had such a blast hanging out with them!
At the end of August, I had the privilege of returning to Goody Girl Flower Farm in Lockport, NY, for a pick, paint, and sip night. Guests explored the beautiful flower fields, gathering their own cosmos, zinnias, and greenery to arrange in small vases before heading inside to paint the blooms they had chosen. This was my second year teaming up with Marina Goody for the event at her flower farm, and it was every bit as joyful as the first, with another wonderful group of warm, creative women.
Looking back on the summer, I’m so grateful for the variety of creative opportunities I was able to enjoy and the community I got to share them with. The chalking community is full of artists cheering each other on (with a little friendly banter and competition mixed in). The people I had the chance to teach and inspire were warm, welcoming, and endlessly creative. And the festival-goers—always so encouraging—reminded me how much joy art can bring to others. I can’t wait to see what the fall season holds.
