Hundreds gather for Wausau’s Chalkfest

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – This year was the 18th yearly Chalkfest Wausau artwork celebration and all-around 400 parts of tailored art lined the streets of the 400-block downtown Wausau.

The sidewalks of the 400-block were remodeled into a museum of artwork for Chalkfest.

“It’s a total perception of group about here. I adore how it delivers people collectively,” explained Miranda Orlikowski, a chalk artist.

This is Miranda Orlikowski’s 13th yr participating in Chalkfest Wausau. She has been the featured artist for the festival for 4 a long time.

“This calendar year is my initial first piece that I have accomplished. All of my other pieces have been quite film-themed, pop culture-motivated recreations of other credited artists’ get the job done. But this one listed here was a mash of a bunch of various artists’ models and then I just put it jointly,” explained Orlikowski.

This year’s function of artwork took Orlikowski about 32 hours to entire. She said the inspiration for her piece of artwork arrived from issues she likes to do.

“I focus in portraiture and I really like drawing horses as nicely,” claimed Orlikowski.

Chalk artists use lots of distinct procedures, like smudging, to make their masterpieces. Orlikowski stated she prepped her piece with line function just before filling in the drawing with colour.

“I use equally the dry chalk and h2o. So I’ll put down a base layer and I’ll smudge it in and then I’ll spray it down with drinking water to variety of seal it down to the concrete,” mentioned Orlikowski.

Temperature can wash away the artwork with time, but Orlikowski reported her strategy keeps her artwork in location for a extended sum of time.

“Spraying it with the h2o does maintain it down for extended periods of time so wetting the chalk form of turns it into a variety of paint,” stated Orlikowski.

She reported as prolonged as the rain doesn’t wash away the chalk, the artwork must previous for a week to 2 weeks. There ended up 10 artists who received honorable point out for their artwork. The best 5 Chalkfest winners were awarded chalk-shaped trophies.

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