Sarasota International Chalk Festival, November 2013

In November we returned to Sarasota Florida for the 2013 international chalk festival. This year, Sarasota celebrated Veteran's Day with the theme of "Legacy of Valor." We decided to celebrate a Legacy of Valor with a reenactment of the famous painting by Emanuel Leutze of General Washington Crossing the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War. To do this we gathered a platoon of revolutionary students and set the scene with a stage of home-made props: a refrigerator box for a boat. Hockey Sticks, push-brooms and a rubber duck. Sofa cushions made perfect stand-ins for icebergs (Who knew?). Meanwhile, in Sarasota, an outstanding bunch of artists recreated the original painting right next to us.

The adventure begins with General George "Olivia" Washington standing proudly with her troops.

Lieutenant "Sophie" has Washington's back. This was about as far as we got on our first day of chalking before the rains came in.

Following the rains we started again on Saturday morning. The damage was relatively minor, with the flag taking most of the hit. (Insert "Star Spangled Banner" metaphor here)

While the flag dried out we moved forward with General Washington and Corporal Sean, our flag man.

Cheryl, looking the wrong way.

The seriousness of the crew.

Wayne working on Corporal Sean's uniform.

With the flag completed, General Olivia standing proud, Lieutenant Sophie guarding her back and Corporal Sean bearing the flag, we finished our work for Saturday.

Distorted view from the top of the image.

On Sunday the sponsor of the first square that we painted in Sarasota visited. They brought along some rubber duckies to keep the one in our image company. They also let us know that their ducks were named "Jake." All of them. Individually and collectively.

Pictured: Jake the duck, his brother, Jake the duck, his other brother, Jake, his medium brother, Jake, and his little brother, Jake.

Private Anna, oarsman (and the disembodied leg of our pilot Manny).

Our one legged pilot Manny and Everett, our other oarsman, sweep into place.

The distorted top down view.

Nearing the seventy five percent level. The crowd of people flowing by reaches its peak. (More than 100,000 people came to the festival!)

Cheryl makes waves as things are getting into ship-shape!

One of the silly details that was little noticed: No Stamps. Liberty Bell. This Side Up. No Kings.

How many Redcoats has this crew taken out?

Oarsman Everett detail.

Corporal Sean detail.

Oarsman Anna detail.

Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake and Jake detail.

The completed image top-down.

Cheryl and Wayne rowing down the street (merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily of course).

Washington Crossing the Back Yard, completed.

< Previous Festival | Street Painting Index | Next Festival >
Return to our homepage.