Chalk art prodigy taking shape in Shakopee

Shakopee Valley News

A tiger stares up from the pavement. 

It's not a real tiger, of course, but a chalk drawing by 10-year-old Allison Olstad. She drew it during a chalk art camp in Savage.

For five days, artist Shawn McCann taught the children how to blend the soft artist chalk, grid photos to draw proportionately, use shadows and light to bring the drawing up into life from the driveway.

Olstad loved it. She's been an artist from a young age, probably 2 or 3 by her parents' estimate, and previously, was a painter. But now, she loved chalk.

McCann noticed her dedication and asked her to be a part of the upcoming Street Art Festival at Canterbury Park on Aug. 12-13 which will feature graffiti and chalk art.

"There were a lot of amazing artists and kids that were doing it, but after every day she'd go home and practice some more and bring in pictures of what she'd do after class," McCann said. "She just really had that kind of dedication you could tell that was needed to kind of be a part of something for a weekend-long activity."

Olstad is the youngest participating artist, though there will be a kid's section at the festival for young ones to play with the chalk. She'll have her own 5-by-5 square and will draw next to professional street artists.

"I think it would be a good time to get to know people and see how they get tips and tricks and stuff," Olstad said.

McCann has shown some of Olstad's work to artists around the world and they were impressed.

"Allison really is going to show a lot of promise and for her age, what she's able to do is absolutely amazing," McCann said. "All the professionals that have seen the pictures that she's worked on are just absolutely amazed, even some of the ones from Bahrain and France are like, 'wow.' She's going to be joining the street art family sooner than we think."

Five chalk artists will attend the festival, including Olstad. Each artist will plan out something ahead of time and each piece will likely involve horses, since the festival is at Canterbury Park. Olstad has been looking at a horse calendar for inspiration.

The festival is a perfect match for Olstad, who said her dream job would involve "horses and really anything art or animals."

Chalk art is getting popular in the Twin Cities area, McCann said. McCann is from the area, but travels the country throughout the year attending festivals or doing tours.

"It's exciting to see more and more events getting going," McCann said. "It's fun to bring a small chalk fest to the south side and it'll be fun to see how people respond to that and I couldn't think of a better place to be than Canterbury."

Is there anything bad about being a chalk artist? 

"It's really messy," Olstad said.

Information can be found on the event page at www.canterburypark.com.