By Renny Klein
At this year’s Chalk the Walk, Mount Vernon had a few high schoolers and a middle schooler participate the first weekend in May.
Sara and Aubrey Lyon, juniors at MVHS, chalked a puzzle called “The Phoenix” that they had used as kids. The previous year they had chalked the Disney Castle, and they enjoyed the kids’ reactions upon seeing the iconic image. This year they chose the image from the puzzle because, “It was very colorful and pretty, and we thought it would be a good challenge,” said Sara. Aside from finding the image and resizing it to fit their square proportionally, the Lyons didn’t do a whole lot to prepare.
“We just sort of go for it, “ said Aubrey, as she worked steadily on the piece. According to Sara, resizing is the more tricky part, but once that is done, they just have fun bringing the piece to life. Art has always been a big part of Sara and Aubrey’s life, and Chalk the Walk is an event created for such young artists to express themselves and showcase their talent to their community and work with a medium that a lot of people don’t often use.
Eighth grader Maggie Lynott also participated in this year’s Chalk the Walk. She had participated the year previously, chalking a picture of a cat. Maggie really enjoyed her first year, and her favorite part was seeing the kids’ expressions as they saw her drawing. She decided to participate in Chalk the Walk after her friends encouraged her to do so, saying that she had always been talented in the arts. Maggie gave it a try, had a great time, and decided to participate again in this year’s Chalk the Walk.
This year Maggie chose the iconic picture, “The Afghan Girl”, which is a portrait of Sharbat Gula by Steve McCurry, and was a National Geographic cover in 1985 and has been famous since. Maggie didn’t really have a reason for choosing “The Afghan Girl,” “ I thought it would be cool to do,” said Maggie. Maggie started by outlining the shapes and features of Gula and worked first on the eyes and mouth. From their she worked outwards, and by the end of Chalk the Walk Maggie had definitely captured the sharp, bright gaze of Sharbat Gula that had stared at the world back in 1985. This year Maggie won first place with her piece, and will be the Featured Artist in next year’s Chalk the Walk.
Video of Chalk the Walk
