Why the Sarasota Chalk Festival?

Sarasota brings me together with all my friends across the country and from around the world!

Why do you street paint?

I love street painting because it is big, and I don’t have to carry it around or ship it, or store it. I get to talk with people while I paint. And I have to design it quickly, as I do so many so rapidly, so it pulls from a spontaneous place in me, and I don’t usually have time to obsess about it. That way I have to ask myself what am I looking at right now, and what do I want to say about it?

Biography:

I was born in Seattle and moved to a Ellensburg at age ten. I finally got a horse when I was 16, but drew them all my life. I went to college in Pullman, Washington where I got my BFA in fine art education, after spending my junior year at the Institute of American Universities, in Aix-en-Provence, France. 
I married Jake Panzarella in 1969 and we moved my horse and dog to San Francisco where Jake was in the army. We had our two sons, and I freelanced as an artist, illustrator, and teacher, working in many diverse media. During these years I was able to travel with friends to exotic places in India, the Orient, and Africa. 
I began chalk drawing in California in 1994 and have been working in festivals across the country and around the world ever since. At the international competition in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy, I achieved the highest ranking of Maestro in 2000 and won their top prize of the Maestros in 2002. 
Street painting in chalk has done a lot more for me than provide trophies. It has given me an opportunity to design work for myself, beyond my commercial work for clients. Without realizing it, I was developing my own body of personal work within the context of “performance” work. The ephemeral nature of work that will be washed away provides a liberating effect. And sometimes I end up with something worth painting onto canvas. But I was surprised to discover after years of designing these pieces, I had developed a mechanism to access and design more personal paintings which I will reserve for serious galleries. From this most unlikely format, I am continuing to move from the commercial realm into the realm of Fine Art, and self-discovery.

Years Participated:

2010 "Halloween/Fall"
2011 "Pavement Art Through The Ages"
2012 "Circus City, USA"
2013 "Legacy of Valor"
2014 "Extinct & Endangered Species"
2015 "Eat, Drink & Be Merry"
2016 "Love & Peace"
2017 "Evanescent" 
2018 EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO RED TIDE
2019 "Sarasota Chalk Festival" April