Frederick City’s “First Saturday” is always a highlight, bringing people together with a different theme every month. When I heard the theme for this one was chalk art, I decided to give it a shot. Not just any chalk drawing, though—I wanted to create something big: my first anamorphic art piece.
Anamorphic art, if you’ve never heard of it, is basically a mind-bending optical illusion. The image looks totally distorted unless you’re standing in just the right spot. But from that angle, it pops into 3D, like it’s coming to life right there in front of you. It’s all about playing with perspective, and while it sounds cool, I’d never done anything like it before.
I started by diving into research—watching videos, sketching ideas, and trying to wrap my head around the technique. Designing it on paper was one thing, but scaling it up to sidewalk size? That was a whole other challenge.
The day of the event, I was all in. I spent five straight hours hunched over the pavement, chalk in hand. Let me tell you, my hamstrings, glutes, and lower back were on fire. But I was determined to make it work. Every line and smudge of chalk felt like a gamble, but the beauty of chalk is that mistakes wash away. That gave me the freedom to try something new without fear.
When I finally stepped back to look at the finished piece, “cool”. People stopped, stared, and took pictures. Kids stood in the right spot and “fell into” the illusion, laughing and pointing. The reactions were priceless.
What really caught people off guard was learning that it was all temporary. The next good rain would wash it away like it had never been there. That hit me hard, in a good way. It made me think about the Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas I’d read about while planning this project.
Tibetan monks create these incredible sand mandalas by placing tiny grains of colored sand in intricate patterns. It can take weeks of painstaking work, but as soon as it’s done, they sweep it all away. It’s not destruction; it’s a ritual to remind us that nothing lasts forever.
Thinking about that made me appreciate my chalk piece even more. It wasn’t meant to last. It was meant to be enjoyed in the moment and then let go. That’s not something I think about often, but it felt important.
