Kansas City is widely known for its strong arts community and Park University students are no strangers to being a part of it.

On Sept. 6 and 7, Kansas City held its 7th annual Chalk and Walk event in the Crown Center walking square.

Troy Elliott, a junior studying secondary art education, took part in the festival for the first time and thanks to the push from one of his professors.

“I was studying abroad in Italy when Matt LaRose emailed me to say he had nominated me to participate,” Elliott said.
With only one day to submit a photo of the piece he would draw for the festival and decide whether or not to go to the event, Elliott was pressed for time.

“While I was in Italy, I was taking a sketchbook class,” he said, “so I knew I wanted to use anatomy for my picture. I wanted to do a piece by Thomas Hart Benton, but that fell through because his pieces are so detailed.”

With the piece needing to be done in chalk, Elliott said he wanted to do a piece with lots of outlining with bright colors and attention to detail with the colors and shading.

From there, he chose to do a piece that related back to his favorite artist, Wayne Thiebaud.

Rather than choosing one of Thiebaud’s pieces to use for his chalk drawing, Elliott decided to make his art more of a tribute to his favorite artist.

“It was more of an emotional thing,” he said. “He is my favorite artist and has really influenced a lot of paintings.”

With this chalk art festival being the first of its kind for Elliott, he said he went in to the festival not really knowing what to expect.

“I started off with a basic outline with a grid done in chalk for the bodies,” he said. “Because the area was so large, I couldn’t hold my idea out in front of me and sketch it onto the pavement.”

Elliott also said since paintings are what he usually does, chalk art is quite different.

“Shading is different for both forms of art,” he said. “Unlike painting, chalk art requires a lot more rubbing to get the colors to blend and work together.”

Rene Leighty, a senior art major, has a class with Elliott and was at the Chalk and Walk event while he was working on his piece.

She said Crown Center is a great place for the festival to take place because of all the people who walk through that area.

“It’s a high traffic area,” she said. “As the artists draw and work on their art, people can walk by and see what all is being done.”

Leighty said she thought Elliott made a good choice on the piece and the artist for his work.

“It was a very beautiful piece,” she said, “with all the colors and shapes working well with the chalk.”

But after a full 16 hours of work put into his chalk piece, Elliott said this was probably a one-time thing for him.

“It was definitely a rewarding experience and very fun,” he said. “I was able to do what I love and represent my favorite artist and Park.”