Quarantined artists respond to Schack’s Chalk Art Contest

When the Schack Art Center in Everett put out the call for entries to its Chalk Art Contest, the response was immediate.

The Schack received nearly 70 entries in just one week, as local artists emailed photos of their chalk creations.

Three categories for the contest were divided by age, but the fourth for Most Joyful Expression was open to all ages. The youngest artist to enter was 2, the oldest was in their 70s.

After Schack staffed reviewed all the entries, they named the winners: Mikayla Williams, Ruth Misich, Isaiah Ellison and Walter Lieberman.

“Even though we are closed, we wanted to continue to encourage others to create and share art,” Abby Powell, who organized the contest, wrote on the Schack website. “It was in this spirit that we created our first-ever Chalk Art Contest.”

All of the Chalk Art Contest’s entries are on display in an online art gallery through May 15. Go to www.schack.org and click on the “Exhibits” tab.

Mikayla Williams, 8, of Everett, won the Kids category for “Geographic Heart.” With the help of her mother and brother, she made a mosaic on the sidewalk featuring a red heart. It’s a popular technique that is spreading by way of Facebook.

With painter’s tape, the third-grader at Jefferson Elementary School divided the sidewalk into geometrical shapes, and colored each shape in a different color or a blend of colors, before peeling off the tape.

Ruth Misich, 17, of Snohomish, won the Teens category for “Untitled.”

She drew the portrait of a woman with clouds for hair, who is glowing in the sunlight. She looks like a goddess.

“I had a very limited color selection, because it was all pastel colors, so I had to work from the highlights rather than from the shadows, which I usually do,” she said.

The junior at Snohomish High School signs up for every art class she can. Right now she’s taking an AP art course. She’s been working in her sketch book more now that we’re in quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus. She mostly does portraiture.

“I’ve always wanted to be an artist,” she said. “I’ve been drawing and doing art since before I can remember.”

Both Mikayla and Ruth won a $20 gift card for art supplies.

Walter Lieberman, 66, from Seattle, won the Adults category for his “Goblet Assembly.”

He entered a drawing he’d done on the floor of the Hot Shop at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. A tour guide for the museum, Lieberman sketches in chalk on the floor to illustrate to visitors what the artists are making and explain the glass processes.

Some of his drawings — including the one from the contest — will appear in the book “Venice and American Studio Glass” by Tina Oldknow and William Warmus. The book will accompany an exhibition at Le Stanze Del Vetro in Venice scheduled for September.

“The other drawings are really nice, too,” said Lieberman, who has been a glass artist for 40 years. “I especially liked the one by (Ruth Misich) that’s of the ephemeral woman figure in faded pink. I thought that was really beautiful.”

Lieberman received a $20 gift card to the Schack’s Gallery Store, as well as a Schack tote, water bottle and journal.

Isaiah Ellison, 18, of Mill Creek, won Most Joyful Expression for “Colorful Lion.” He drew a lion’s face with a rainbow mane in what looks like a paint-by-numbers style. The lion has one blue eye and one green eye.

He received a handmade glass float as his prize.

Powell, the Schack spokeswoman, thought of the contest while on a walk near Grand Avenue Park with her boys. With the stay-at-home order, Powell has been taking Asa, 8, and Oliver, 6, on walks around the neighborhood every day.

“I was trying to think of a way to involve our community in a project that would feel collective, but still maintain proper social distancing,” Powell said. “I stumbled across some chalk art on Grand Avenue and the idea was born.”

Powell posted a photo of the found artwork to promote the Chalk Art Contest on Facebook. That post was shared more than 160 times.

That featured drawing? It was made by 5-year-old Kinley Stonehocker of Everett. With her mother’s help, Kinley created her own kind of hopscotch on the sidewalk.

Passersby were instructed to pop the bubbles, follow the rainbow, hop on the clouds and smile among the stars.