"Via Colori 2008" by Jolie E. Bonnette

Okay, the pictures aren't great because of the angle. It's hard to get good shots of these large squares without being a good height above them. This year I was trying out a new technique involving laying down tempera paint on the road surface before drawing on it. The results we mixed. While the tempera worked well making the colors stay bright and pop more on the dark surface, it was a huge PITA because laying it down was very time consuming and I had issues with it not drying very quickly in the cool weather. I was having to blot the squares dry as I worked on the first day so they at least weren't soaking wet with paint. The second day it was a bit tacky from the overnight damp, but dried quickly once the day warmed.

When I got to Via Colori (being not even half awake when we started laying down the tempera paint), I realized too late that someone had goofed and put me on a 10'x10' square instead of the 6'x6' I had requested. We had to readjust the measurements because my grid was based on six 1 ft squares per side, not ten. While it ended up being better for the detail level of my piece, 100 sq ft of roadway is a LOT for one partially disabled artist to finish over two days. Most people who get these large 10'x10' and 12'x12' squares work in teams of 2-6 (sometimes more). Add to that the fact that I fell TWICE first thing Saturday morning due to dangerously slick pebbled walkways in the park where the festival took place and had to work kneeling on badly bruised and scraped knees and it makes for very slow work. I ended up kicking off my hard soled boots and working in my sock feet despite the cold that first day, sitting on my feet a lot to kind of warm them a bit. That prevented any further accidents.

In the end, my fiance, Brooks, graciously got on hands in knees with me and helped fill in the large color swatches in the background and other areas while I worked on the details in the lower half. You can tell I was able to take a lot more time in the upper three rows of the grid and had to rush through the lower half, unfortunately. I'm not real happy with the hands because I screwed up the positioning of shapes in the squares in my rush and they ended up looking like crap. The lower half of the woman also leaves much to be desired. But, overall, I'm pleased with how the whole piece went because it was a challenge to a) have architecture in the background (I almost NEVER draw/paint architecture because I hate it and suck at it) and b) do the majority of that large a square BY MYSELF while I was injured and have it ready for the pro photographer who came around to take pics at the end of the festival. I hope to have that better image within a month or so. They have a ton of images to sort through before they send the artists the pictures of their squares.

I learned a new technique for laying down the pastel from the young artist who had the square next to mine. He was using scrubber pads to help crush and blend the chalk into the pavement. Using that method, I got a lot more even coverage and saved my fingers some discomfort as well as using less of the vinyl gloves I wear while I work. He graciously gave me a few of his scrubber pads to try on my piece, for which I thanked him. Overall, despite the injuries and other mishaps, the festival was good and I enjoyed it for the most part. The one very unfortunate thing is that I ended up with this HUGE crack in the middle of the woman's face that made it very hard to make her features look good and makes her face look awful from the angle of the photo. From above, it's not nearly so bad.

If you're interested in seeing more images of this work in progress as well as a few of the other pieces at the festival, you can find a slide show of our photos on my MySpace page.