3D and Master Chalk Artist Coming to the Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival

PRESS RELEASE
(KANSAS CITY, MO.) —  Five amazing chalk artists will be transforming flat surfaces into dazzling three-dimensional works of art at the 2014 Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival at Crown Center Square, Saturday, September 6th and Sunday, September 7th.

The Festival announced it has secured nationally and internationally known 3D master chalk muralists Jennifer Chaparro, Michael Las Casas, Wayne and Cheryl Renshaw and Craig Thomas. Four of the five muralists will be executing 3D, anamorphic chalk drawings, and a fifth artist will be reproducing a traditional masters chalk mural in honor of Thomas Hart Benton.

This will be a unique opportunity to see 3D chalk art in person. Millions of people have seen these works on the internet, but to see the artists at work in person will be the first at the Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival.

Kansas City Chalk and Walk Arts Educational Programs is a non-profit organization (501C3) that promotes awareness and appreciation of the arts within the community.

Major sponsors include: Sprint, Crown Center, Neighborhood Tourism Development Fund, Francis Family Foundation, Hallmark, Crayola, Missouri Arts Council, Art KC, and many others.

Jennifer Nicholas Chaparro
Jennifer Nichols Chaparro grew up in Southern California, but didn’t start street painting until she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. Her street paintings are either reproductions of masterpieces or large-scale original 3D works. Chaparro has never chalked the same piece twice. Chaparro, founder of the International Street Painting Society, has traveled internationally for her chalk art, and her works have won many awards. She has a BA from UCLA and received her maestro Certification from Florida Chalk Artists Association in 2011, and also works as a graphic designer, mural artist, and will chalk on just about anything.

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Michael Las Casas
Michael Las Casas has been drawing ever since he could hold a crayon and always believed he saw the world in a different way to his peers. As a young man he was drawn to the simple beauty found in nature, and studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin. He is skilled in a wide variety of mediums including charcoal, pastels, pencils, oils. and watercolors. Las Casas works as a Graphic Designer, Screen Printer, and professional Artist and is a standing member of the Color Pencil Society of America, Plein Air Artist’s Society of Florida, and a faculty member of the Armory Art’s Center in West Palm Beach Florida. He has been street painting for twenty years.

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Wayne and Cheryl Renshaw
Wayne and Cheryl Renshaw are a husband and wife street painting team from Santa Clara, California. They have been painting at festivals throughout California since 2000 and are known among the local street painters for their home-made chocolate chip cookies and good humor at the festivals. Their street paintings include a wide variety of images, including three dimensional pieces, reproductions of master works, portraits, illustrations, landscapes, animals and pop-up books. Wayne is a mild mannered Architect with a small practice located in San Jose, California. His emphasis is on commercial architecture: restaurants, shopping centers, high tech facilities, industrial shops, office buildings, even trash enclosures. Cheryl’s day job is that of a landscape designer, specializing in designs that take the Mediterranean climate of California into account. She is on a first-name basis with most of the plants in the area and is always happy to make new floral friends

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Craig Thomas
Craig Thomas is a freelance artist living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. His first introduction to Street Art was from the movie Mary Poppins, in which the characters jump into a street painting. Now he is known for his fine art, murals, and chalk art, and his work has taken him throughout North America to Europe. Thomas works on commercial, public, student and private commissions and enjoys street painting as is gives him the opportunity to interact with the public, who can give him instant gratification and critiques. "Street Painting is an addiction for me. It's extreme yoga. Dealing with the weather, surface, crowds, physical endurance, and time window can become a religious experience for me".

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For more information contact: kcchalkandwalk@aol.com, or Lotti Halpern @ 816-517-2791, www.kcchalkandwalk.org