The chalk drawing contest is an annual festivity that brings together artists and art lovers alike. This contest will take place on April 17, with the artists working on their drawings the entire day. During this time, students can walk by and watch the progress of the drawings throughout the day.
Planning for this contest started way before April 17, with the students having to submit their drawings by March 21 and the finalists being posted a week and a half later. During this time between the submission date and when the list is published, the art teachers vote on which drawings they want to see come to life during the contest.
“[The submissions with] bold, bright colors [usually get chosen the most often],” Liz Lloyd, the organizer of the contest and art teacher, said. “The students that really shade heavily with colored pencil or with paint tend to get voted on the most and it’s easy to tell based on the composition what will get chosen once I receive the entries.”
Though the students have creative freedom over what is showcased in their design, there is one element that must be present in every submission: something that symbolizes the earth for Earth Day on April 22, which is shortly after the contest. In previous years, this event was called Earth Jam, a collective celebration of our Earth, but it has recently been changed to Walnut Art and Field Day. A large majority of the chosen submissions showcase animals, people surrounded by greenery or other natural landscapes.
“It’s definitely hard to get a message across sometimes to explore a deeper meaning without doing something that can be overdone a little bit,” Jason Parker, ‘26, one of the students who submitted a drawing this year and has participated in past years, said. “Usually we try to do some sort of natural scene and then use that to create a visual metaphor.”
Although the artwork is always Earth-themed, something that is changing this year is the location of the contest. Last year, it was held on the plaza, but this year the contest will be held on the blacktop by Marx Stadium in between the bleachers and the plaza.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out on the blacktop versus having the ridges and the texture that’s normally on the concrete up on the plaza,” Lloyd said.
Most students are excited about this change in location and are hoping this makes it easier for other people to walk by while they are working. Since sharing the art that they are creating with others is an important part of this contest, the artists are ecstatic to have others be able to easily see their progress and artwork.
“I think the aspect of teamwork and being able to work together [is important],” Victoria Niu, one of the students who submitted a drawing and has also participated in past years, said. “Once you’re done, the feeling of, ‘Wow, we just did that,’ is really nice.”
No matter what they create or who they do it with, Lloyd feels that the lasting feelings and lessons learned from this contest are priceless. Students learn valuable lessons like teamwork and how to express themselves through art.
“I think that [this contest] is an important freedom of expression,” Lloyd said. “It allows and challenges students to think outside the box but [also to] really look at nature, look at their own lives and come up with an original design.”