A Secret Learned from A Chalk Artist
The chalk artist bends low over the cobblestones. She measures out the grid. By feet. Then inches. She refers often to a sketch on paper.
She started about one hour after the official start time, so she has four more hours to finish her chalk drawing before the judging. The chalk artist flips her braid over her shoulder and brushes back a loose strand from her forehead.
Does she know that her art form stretches back to the 16th century when Italian chalk artists, who needed some extra funds, left their Real Jobs as commissioned church artists and took to the streets, sketching for cash as they chalked for the crowds at markets and street fairs?
They were called Madonnari since much of their art involved the Madonna and Child.
Today chalk art is not limited to religious themes, but is wide open to the artists' imaginations.
Two spaces down, an artist finishes her piece. Sunshine and flowers color the parking lot. Another space is filled with a snowman requesting a warm hug.
The chalk artist chooses pale yellow and rough-sketches a stick figure with unknown objects in each of the four corners. She studies a second paper - one with more details. She outlines a head. She adds a body.
The clock ticks one hour. Two. Three.
She seems oblivious to time as she adds blue. Black. Red. Alice in Wonderland takes shape under her skilled fingers.
People stop. Ask questions. Snap pictures, interacting with the artist who has one desire only - to create a beautiful thing out of dust. Chalk dust.
I glance at my watch. Time is running out.
The judges walk among the drawings, jotting notes on a score sheet. The young artist steps back to let them see her work.
Points are tallied. The chalk artist wins one of three awards.
The crowd thins. The artist removes another chalk from her rainbow. She crouches close and adds a border. She blends it with her fingers.
Doesn't she know time has run out? That she is out of minutes? That the time for creating is over?
She continues, oblivious to time tables.
There is chatter among the remaining bystanders - a sadness that after so much work, the pictures will be washed away at the end of the day. Why go to so much trouble to create something that will not last?
Is it possible the chalk artist has learned The Hard-Won Secret?
The secret that each of us only has the guarantee of this present moment.
The secret that time is not running out, it is filling up into timeless eternity and while there are moments in a day, we still have opportunity to create beauty.
The secret that focusing on running out of time leaves us frantic, but focusing on filling up time instills a sense of purpose.
There is weight in the knowledge that all we have is right now, in this immediate present, to enjoy what is before our eyes. Peace is found in this weightedness.
Do we realize we are all, quite simply, chalk artists?
Today on your journey of faith
when the hose comes out to wash away the day
,I pray you have filled up all the moments
as you create something beautiful.
