Make your mark in chalk! The City of Chelsea looks forward to the community art project Chalk Art Saturdays 2021 to follow the success of Chalk Art Saturdays 2020. Last year, we encouraged the public to “join in at home.”

Although our Chalk Art Saturdays for this year have ended, we invite the public to view the art throughout the city of Chelsea!

Local artists have created chalk murals on each Saturday and the public is invited to join and view the art! We aim to spark collective art-making at both visible and hidden gem locations, and to Cross Pollinate across communities as we come back together after a year spent apart. Our theme of Cross Pollination dovetails with the roadway murals in the downtown on Division Street and in Chelsea Square – and specific themes and locations correlate with each weekend. Chalk Art Saturdays is created and coordinated by Studioful Design with support from the City of Chelsea.

Check out the results of our Chalk Art sessions below!

Cross Pollination: Bees! June 26, 2021

Chelsea artists create chalk art murals in their city! Each artist focused on the theme of cross pollination featuring bees. Artists Max Corona, Aliyah Saldana-Oswald, Oscar Figueroa Sierra, and Marianne Ramos worked to bring life to Chelsea’s public spaces. At the Public Library, Aliyah and Oscar drew the Impact of Bees - on our earth. On Grove and Broadway Streets, Max illustrates bees’ personalities - not just busy! And at ROCA, Pearl Street Marianne showcases the work of bees - flowers and hives. What can these busy bees teach us about essential and meaningful work? about being together? about play and friends? about creating a fruitful world for all?

Cross Pollination: Trees! July 17, 2021

The second Saturday Chalk Art session asked artists to ponder trees. Marianne Ramos, Amber Torres and Iliana Vadim brought the joy, generosity, beauty, and wisdom of trees Downtown on Washington St at City Hall and Fifth St at Broadway! What can trees - still and standing through sunshine and storms - teach us about life? about being together? about play and friends? about endurance and joy?
Delightful chalk creatures drawn by Amber Torres and some joyful flowers by Iliana Vadim and on 5th Street and Broadway where Marianne showcases trees in bloom.

Cross Pollination: Me! August 7, 2021

Max Corona, Marianne Ramos and Tara Rodriguez, and Amber Torres create personal art during the last week of the Chelsea Chalk Art sessions.

Max shared a tender visual narrative up up up the staircase on Broadway (across from Broadway Glen Apartments) #mentalhealth is what we’ve all been dealing with these past eighteen months and seeking #connection and #support is key. Also important is taking time to acknowledge your own strength. Well done!

Marianne Ramos and Tara Rodriguez showcase the transformation from caterpillar (2019) to cocoon (2020) to butterfly (2021) outside the Broadway Glen Apartments in a beautiful triptych. A lot of planning goes into these temporary works - check out Marianne’s lovely sketches. And a lot of joy goes into creating public art on a Saturday morning!

For her piece at the Civil War Memorial, Claudia Paraschiv collaborated with Amber Torres on conceiving Amber’s Chalk Art mural - portraits of strong women with natural hair and the transformative butterfly in their hair. There was also serendipity in that President Lincoln’s image was also in profile.

Artist Bios

Aliyah Saldana-Oswald (left) and Oscar Figueroa Sierra (right) in front of the Chelsea Public Library. (photo: Matt Frank)

Aliyah Saldana-Oswald, a Chelsea native, creates art as an outlet and as a form of expression; it is very therapeutic for her. Aliyah’s medium is ink and markers, but she continues to expand.

Oscar Figueroa Sierra, a junior at Mass Art in illustration, does art for the sole purpose of becoming the best comic artist of my generation. Why does he want to become a comic book artist? “I want to be remembered and understood through my visual works- through the stories, the expressions, the panels, themes, and the world building that I'll tackle within my comics. All of which will give everyone access to my mind, my world, as well as my emotions.”

Amber Torres poses next to her Chalk Art Mural during our second week session. (photo: Matt Frank)

Amber Torres, originally from Boston, is an illustrator who is passionate about increasing access to the arts for socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Amber is a mover and a shaker who pulls from both her grassroots and institutional connections to curate, host, and facilitate arts programming for colleges, high schools and community centers in the Greater Boston Area. Amber is currently the Youth Programs Coordinator at the Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts in Jamaica Plain. Find her @ambersafro

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

Marianne Ramos is a Chelsea artist and activist with many years of experience. “Whatever I do, art shows up in the mix.” Marianne has lived, worked, and volunteered in Chelsea since 1983. With many college credits, but no degree, Marianne is a self-taught artist best known for her micro-mosaic collages, shell-o-visions, and Pandemic Postcards. Her work has been seen at local galleries.