The City of Chelsea launched Chalk Art Saturdays, a city-wide public art initiative in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, inspired by Chalk Art Saturdays in Salem MA. The kick-off for the 6-week program was on June 13 amid weeks of demonstrations for Black Lives Matters. In support of these demonstrations, our first Art Prompt was “Imagine Racial Justice.”
Our Art Prompts (Joy to All Generations, Imagine a Better Normal, Embrace New Rituals) aim to bring out some of our private thoughts and feelings about the COVID-19 pandemic into public space where we can process together through the lens of art.
Community members across the city of Chelsea are invited to make chalk art in public spaces safely near their home. A calendar of Art Prompts will provide a different theme each weekend. To provide inspiration and a showpiece, local artists will create a larger Chalk Art Mural in a prominent location each Saturday morning. Find the artist Chalk Art Murals here or on a daily walk. We are happy to be able to provide stipends in support of participating artists, as well as distribute over 300 chalk sets to residents to participate at home.
With Chalk Art Saturdays, we aim to come together for community art on Saturdays, while safely making art at home! (Rain Day Sundays)
ART PROMPT CALENDAR
CHALK ART MURAL ARCHIVE
July 18: Local Chelsea artist Nelson Saldana creates the sixth and final Chalk Art Mural at the Fire Station for the Art Prompt: Imagine a Better Normal. Nelson shows a woman peering into a crystal ball at the image of a new tree - our future - growing in sunshine. The woman’s hair is the calm blue of water even as she’s surrounded by an intense red background. Nelson was inspired by the work of fire fighters at the Fire Station marking the mural location. (image credit: Katy Rogers)
July 11: Resident and artist Marianne Ramos in collaboration with artist Tara Rodriguez created a joyful mural outside their apartments, for the Art Prompt: Joy / Alegria to All Generations. Flowers of all ages bask in the joyful sun at the center of this whimsical mural. Many residents stopped to admire the artistry. Marianne notes that the mural is also in close proximity to bus stops so many people can enjoy the “joy".” Photos by Katy Rogers
July 11: Young artist Melissa Gallego creates her chalk art mural in response to Art Prompt: Joy / Alegria to All Generations. She envisions a large family tree growing out of the warmth of the sun. Photo credit: Katy Rogers
July 4: Max Pro created the Chalk Art Mural in celebration of July 4 in Bellingham Square. He wrapped his joyful creations around the low wall visible from the street, and into the seating area showing the spark of fireworks. Max’s family joined him on his art-making and the three shared a joyful time of creativity before from festive popsicles. (photo credit: Katy Rogers)
June 27: Melissa Gallego creates the third Chalk Art Mural in Chelsea in Bellingham Square in response to the Art Prompt: Embrace New Rituals. Melissa’s new ritual has been to make “time for art” and that is what inspired this mural, at the center of the granite sitting area - time to reflect about the new rituals in your life. Which do you want to keep moving forward? (photo credit: Katy Rogers)
June 20: Nelson Saldana creates the second Chalk Art Mural in Chelsea at the TD Bank building in Bellingham Square in response to the Art Prompt: We are One. A closer look reveals the outline of two places with a complicated relationship: the United States and the continent of Africa. During this time of demonstrations for racial justice - how do we show that we are neighbors, that we strive to be “one.” (photo credit: Katy Rogers)
Check out media coverage on Nelson Saldana for Chalk Art Saturdays!
June 13: Sinai Galicia created his Chalk Art Mural at the Chelsea Public Library in response to the Art Prompt: "Imagine Racial Justice” (photo credit: Katy Rogers)
CHALK ART COMMUNITY ARCHIVE
Chalk Art Saturdays kicked off in Chelsea with the Art Prompt: Imagine Racial Justice. (left to right) Sinai Galicia created his Chalk Art Mural at the Chelsea Public Library (photo credit: Katy Rogers; Say Their Name Tribute on Stairs (photo credit: Mimi Graney); Chalk Art at the Civil War Memorial by the youth team led in their designs by young artist, Hector Rivera (photo credit: Mimi Graney)
June 13: Local young people took their Black Lives Matter art and messages to the Civil War Memorial. Shown here from left to right are: a participant who joined spontaneously, Hector Rivera, Gaby Cerna, Nasir Adams, Gloria Rodriguez, and Emmanuel Simo and, led in the artwork by Hector Rivera. Chalk Art Saturdays - Art Prompt: Imagine Racial Justice (photo credit: Mimi Graney)
June 13: Say Their Name tribute as you climb the stairs. (photo credit: Mimi Graney)
June 13: Imagine Racial Justice community chalk art around Chelsea! “Imagine we all believe different is good!”
Chalk Art Mural Location Map
ARTIST BIOS
Max Pro was born and raised in Chelsea, and even though at points life took him to other places - he knew that he belonged here. His family has strong roots in Chelsea, with his grandparents migrating here from Cuba. To Max, family is everything and he spends all of his time with his siblings, wife and daughters.
His love for comic books and time travel fuel his creativity, which feeds into everything he does. He owns a custom clothing design business called All Planets that represents suicide awareness and mental health.
He is avidly involved in his community and often finds himself wishing there was more time in the day but always remains thankful for everyone's support, kind words, and good energy - without it he wouldn't be anywhere near where he is today.
Check out his work:
all-planets.site and @all_planets on Instragram
Artist portrait by Katy Rogers.
Nelson Saldana is an artist based in Chelsea, MA. Self-taught, Nelson mostly works in oil paint. Since he was a child, he sketched uncontrollably all the time. Nelson was born in the Bronx, NY, and moved to Chelsea when he was 12 years old. Enormous murals on building sides in N.Y. and the graffiti-filled walls all around him inspired Nelson growing up. Todd Mcfarlane who created Venom in Spider-Man, and later Spawn Comics also had a huge impact on him. Later in life his inspiration came from studying the old oil paint masters from the Renaissance era.
Nelson’s goal in art is simple: create the most art through as many different media as possible and watch what happens. Let's see!
Check out press about Nelson’s first Chalk Art Mural!
Check out more of his art @nelsonwerks on Instagram
Photo Credit: Katy Rogers
Melissa Gallego is a 15 year old student at Malden Catholic and Chelsea resident. Her whole life she has drawn and painted with inspiration from her father. She finds painting relaxing, but drawing with pencil is her favorite way of making art.
Portrait photo courtesy of the artist; sketchbook photo of Imagine Racial Justice Chalk Art Mural design (photo credit: Katy Rogers)
Sinai Galicia is a 16 year old sophomore from Chelsea High School. His major career focus is to be an architect and a interior designer. As a community member of Chelsea, Sinai has participated in art events throughout the city, and looks forward to continuing community art work.
We were happy to have Katy Rogers document Chalk Art Saturdays in Chelsea!
Katy Rogers is a professional photographer in the Greater Boston region specializing in commercial and editorial work.
Upon completion of her BFA from Montserrat College of Art, she established a name for herself as a freelance photojournalist in the local newspaper scene. She has since created thousands of images for various clients ranging from corporations to non-profits. Her photographs are printed in multiple publications with a weekly circulation of more than 100,000 and have been featured in headlines as far as Europe.
Check out more of Katy’s work at KatyRogersArt.com