Driveways become artist’s canvas
By Greg Seubert
Nancy Garness has found four silver linings to the coronavirus pandemic.
They are, in no particular order, two driveways, a little imagination and a lot of chalk.
Take a drive along the east shore of Bear Lake south of Manawa and it’s easy to spot the cottage that Garness and her husband Bryan purchased 12 years ago.
It’s the one next to a large, colorful chalk drawing of a giraffe, bald eagle, pair of hummingbirds or whatever Garness comes up with.
Her newest hobby started earlier this year at her town of Merton home west of Milwaukee.
“Back when the pandemic first started and people had to be on lockdown, my parents went out and they adhered hearts to their mailbox,” Garness said. “They said, ‘You ought to do this, it’s nice for people walking by.’ I didn’t really have anything I could stick on my mailbox.
“Other family members were telling me that they were putting messages and pictures on windows,” she said. “Our driveway back home is really long and nobody would have seen anything on our windows. I know a lot of people were doing chalk art and I thought, ‘Chalk art, I can do that at the end of my driveway and people would be able to see that.’”
Starting simple
Garness drew her first piece of artwork in April.
“I think it was a very simple outline of a heart with a flower on the inside and a butterfly on top of it,” she said. “After that, I tried to do a 3-D box with clouds on the inside and tulips were growing out of the inside of the box. They were small and simplistic. I was just testing it and wanted to get something out there quick.
“I had time and wanted to do something for people in my neighborhood to have a little bit of enjoyment and bring the community together by seeing something enjoyable,” she said. “That was my main goal of doing it.”
Garness eventually brought her artistic talent to the family cottage.
Her scenes so far included two hummingbirds and roses.
“I did that one because my parents and siblings back home feed hummingbirds and love hummingbirds and my mom has rose bushes,” Garness said. “That one I did in honor of my parents and people back home. I used four different designs. I don’t come up with these designs out of my head. I go online and look at other professional chalk art or else I’ll do it from photographs. I had four different designs of hummingbirds in different positions. I used four different pictures to put it together the way I wanted it.”
Her creations eventually became more elaborate, including one in Merton based on “Alice in Wonderland.”
“I had three gigantic mushrooms and on top of one was the White Rabbit,” Garness said. “That’s all I thought I was going to do. A walker went by and she said, ‘You know, sometimes it would be nice if you would do a caterpillar.’ There’s the blue caterpillar from ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ so I put a blue caterpillar on top of one of the mushrooms and the Cheshire Cat on the other mushroom.
“I was getting addicted,” she added. “I wanted to do more, but it was taking up my whole driveway. Further up the driveway, I did Alice falling down on top of this scenery. It ended up being quite large.”
Chalk shortage
Garness has created more than 40 drawings so far at her home and cottage, but COVID-19 almost shut her down.
“Because of the pandemic, chalk was very hard to get and it got very expensive,” she said. “People were doing it with their kids because it was something to do. I would go online and get the best deal I could find. I go through chalk very fast and use a lot of different colors.”
She started making her own chalk.
“I went online to find the recipe and ordered two five-pound tubs of plaster of paris,” she said. “I added water and tempera paint and when I ran out of paint, I used some old food coloring I had. After that, I found out I was able to get big boxes of 120 to 140 pieces of sidewalk chalk at a much better price.”
While other artists are able to enjoy their work for years, Garness watches her creations get washed away by rain.
“They’re completely gone,” she said. “They were chalk one day and the next day, it’s just a driveway again. At first, I was disappointed when I would do one and it would rain a day or two later when I didn’t expect rain. Now, I see it as an opportunity to create a brand-new design.”
Lots of photos
Garness has friends who have asked her why she doesn’t create art on paper or canvas.
“I really enjoy doing the chalk,” she said. “It’s fun to do and other people can see it and enjoy it. It would be nice to have it forever and maybe hang on my wall, but at this point, this is working out really well for me and I do have photos. Trust me, a lot of photos.”
Although Garness enjoys creating her new temporary works of art, there are some drawbacks.
“It’s pretty hard on my body because I’m doing it on asphalt,” she said. “Asphalt is bumpy and uses more chalk. I have to use knee pads and I’ve already gone through two sets of knee pads.”
On the other hand, she enjoys the reaction from people who see her work.
“The most joy I get is from neighbors who look at my creations,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of feedback from my neighbors back home. One neighbor sent me a very nice card thanking me for doing that for them. I did a design of the picture that was on the front of the card at the end of my driveway.”
Winter is only a few months away and Garness shows no sign of slowing down.
“I’m not a special artist or anything,” she said. “The last time that I took any art classes was in high school. After college, I did some arts and crafts classes where I would make something and paint it, but I haven’t done anything for years. I just took this up and really enjoy it.”