Laura's Chalk

When I walked out onto the Leidseplein after lunch with Scarlet on Thursday (see last post), I saw Laura. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and she had been there, she said, since just before 3, starting this chalk painting.

I was in heaven and stuck around for over an hour, taking photos. When I realized how slowly it was going, I asked her if she'd still be there around 6p? "Oh yes," she said. So I went home to the apartment 10 minutes away and worked up the last post of my 3 blogger meet-ups in less than a week.

Then, back to the Leidseplein!

See how much she had done while I was gone!
By now it was almost 6p and the sun was going down.

This time I met Sava who lives here in Amsterdam and likes to help Laura by filling in the grunt work...the open spaces. That's his wheelchair.
Laura herself is from Florence, Italy, and has quite a network of friends who are chalk artists like herself. But this was her first time doing chalk "on the floor" here in Amsterdam.

She's 21 years old and has been chalk painting since she was 17!
What a beautiful, energetic, captivating, contagious smile.

Even though this was her model, she says she almost always puts herself, her own face, in her pictures!

After another hour of watching and taking more photos, I realized that I probably could go back and eat my supper and still get back in time before she finished up. When I asked, she said she expected to be done by 10p.

So I was back at 8p. It was dark except for the yellow street lights of the Leidseplein and all the bustling activity of the nearby cafes and other street artists.

The last thing to finish was the lady's hand on the book.

Once it was done, by 9p (six hours of work!), Sava graciously offered me a drink of wine that his parents had made (little red plastic glass). I would not have refused it for anything. The best wine in the world because of the moment and the celebration.

And then he said I must be in a photo with Laura. Why didn't I think of that! I had been using the tripod and my camera's timer for all the night photos (no flash). He put two and two together and said the camera could take our picture together. And it did!

I really was in heaven! I told Laura that every time I see chalk art on the Internet, it makes me cry because of how long it takes and knowing that a sudden rain will wash it all away. Talk about unselfish creativity. She LIVES for this. This is her life. She doesn't want to do anything else.

Yesterday I made a photo album of 86 photos and e-mailed it to both Laura and Sava. It was my gift to them after what they gave to me. I will never forget it. An eternalized moment of Laura's Chalk that I will cherish forever!

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For those of you who want to see the album, copy and paste this URL in your browser:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=176139181/a=15711689_15711689/
t_=15711689