Another Giant Chalk Portrait: For Anthony Bourdain and All Those He Inspired {time-lapse)

I was trying to decide all week who to chalk for IdeaXFactory's Second Saturday event but couldn't quite settle. When I heard of Bourdain's death and after seeing all the outpour of appreciation my family and friends had for him, all my other concepts were out the window. There seems to be something healing about a tribute for many people. And I figured there's not a better medium to express the ephemeral quality of life than chalk.

It was actually quite a struggle, it was such a windy day! It started off okay, but these big gusts of wind kept coming through and picking up and mixing my chalk! It actually even picked the pop-up tent we had over me. At the end of the day, I was getting frustrated after going back over my darks several times just to have it fade again, and the heat wasn't helping! I decided to put fixitive on it which I think helped a little, but ultimately decided to cover it and come back when the wind settled. I actually ended up working on it the following two evenings (when the forecast predicted lower winds and also because it's cooler!). It was a bit more difficult to see but I had some streetlights to help, and I was working mostly monochromatically anyway.

The last photo I had of it was at night because the rain washed it away Monday morning. I never did quite feel like I captured his likeness (I blame the wind), but my mom thinks it's good! I also think I'm hard on myself. Hope Anthony would have like it anyway!

6'x7' chalk mural

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Here's the time-lapse. At 12,000% speed!