Colin White, an Ottawa artist, shows off one of 10 sketches he made for Chinatown Remixed, a month-long festival highlighting local artists. Brea Elford, Centretown NewsAmongst the sea of paintings and sculptures on display at the Chinatown Remixed Arts Festival, some small but intricate drawings line the sidewalks of Somerset Street West—stopping the passersby who happen to look closely enough.
The sidewalk art is the work of Colin White, a Centretown-based artist best known for his vibrant ink illustrations of urban settings that highlight Ottawa’s architecture.
However, at this year’s annual arts festival in Chinatown, he’s traded his sketchbook for stencils in an unexpected medium: chalk.
“I’m specifically using chalk paint that decays with sun and rain and footsteps. My thinking of this was to bring people to the place that I made these illustrations originally, so it was sort of like a map,” White explained.
The festival runs until Oct. 29
and pairs artists with unusual venues, including restaurants, storefronts, hair salons, and grocery stores along Somerset Street West.
It also has a mandate that all artists receive an honorarium for their participation.
White’s work uses stencils to showcase minuscule details such as cracks and bricks on windows and doors around Chinatown.
In one image, he depicts a semi-abstract window from Koreana restaurant. The lines and bricks smudge and blend together with the concrete backing of the sidewalk, giving the piece an added pop of texture.
“With chalk I wanted to have the images decay just as buildings and the urban environment decays, simply as it gets weathered and aged,” he said. “I framed things with a white layer of chalk paint and then used black on top of it to create more contrast. It’s getting an interesting effect — we’ve had one or two rainfalls and it’s smearing a bit already. It’s quite nice.”
Festival-goer Son Nguyen didn’t notice the tiny drawings right away, as the iPad-sized art only takes up a mere fraction of the sidewalk.
“I saw the paintings down the street in the store, but I didn’t see this,” he said, referring to White’s art.
Last year, White took part in a group show, displaying a series of prints in an alleyway—a drastic difference from the interactivity his stencils encourage.
“It’s the idea of how can you put on an art show in public space? When you pass through the city, people are distracted by their phones or the person they’re talking to, or they’re watching out for cars,” he said. “But you’ve got all these small elements of the city and you notice the big obvious things and it’s rare that you would notice the details on a window or signage.”
Photographer and collage-maker Kristina Corre is one of the organizers of the festival. She works with White as a part of Ottawa Urban Sketchers, a group that travels across the city to draw different locations.
“Chalk on sidewalks makes a lot of sense as a medium for Colin,” she said. “Colin’s sketches capture the element of time on vernacular buildings, and his chalk works are exposed to, and allowed to be transformed in time as well.”
Corre said the festival is meaningful to the local arts scene.
“The festival’s important for Centretown because it gives people a no-pressure opportunity to explore a great neighbourhood,” she said. “I know for small shops like Possible Worlds
Now in its eighth year, the festival is smaller this year in the number of exhibits and participating venues because it is operating almost entirely on a City of Ottawa grant.
In the past, Remixed received funding from the Somerset Street Chinatown Business Improvement Area, however in 2015 they decided to stop funding the festival.
“Last year, Remixed operated on funds raised in previous years, sponsor donations, and through fundraising events,” Corre said.
But the festival’s downsizing is not a worry for White.
“Centretown is blossoming,” he said. “There’s a lot of room for art, and a demand for it within the larger community.”