We are loving the power held within this design that emerged at our April 13th 2019 chalking event!! A geometrical gem patterned with rays of color created by our featured artist Lesley Perdomo! She intuited this glorious design which shapes the shifting diversity paradigm perfectly. The ART of love and acceptance for Autistic people = what this chalk festival has always brought to the streets of the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California! Connecting people to their similarities while celebrating and understanding their differences. Lesley has been a longtime supporter and contributor to this event and we adore the inclusive pattern she laid down for us ALL setting a tone for our epic day!
Lori Antoinette W. owner at LantArt knocked us out with her “supernatural design” OUR personal favorite! On the Autism helix!! Oh yeah…
Lori Antoinette W (LantArt) brings our pragmatic vision to life.
We are still collecting our many thoughts and catching our collective breath from this year’s festivities! Our 9th season having a blast meeting friends old and new while chalking up artful connection for friends and family! It’s always a powerful weekend of high energy and colorful Autism acceptance. Every year growing in strength, information and resilience. Showing up and expressing truth is what Autistic people are doing these days with dignity and style! It’s high time the world embrace this overtly powerful and loving force. In the NOW. Because now is what we have and where we all reside!
Artist Maryellen Szper creator at flyingfrog.com simply expresses it all as she does naturally with her ” I am” design. Autistic people are here and full of power to be tapped!
Like Randall Williams said in our 2018 event video … people wanting to be “plugged in”! Plug people IN to what works for them and watch them regulate their own powerful system! We agree.
Artist Ruth Villa brought powerful JOY in the image of her dancing daughter portrait! The smile factor is huge gazing at the heart Ruth brings everytime. Ruth has founded the Simi Valley Chalk Festival happening next month! Find your bliss with Ruth and the “Chalktribe” in Simi soon…
Grasiela Rodriguez brought the sunshine and fun…and won the most comical prize!
“Personal POWER” was seen everywhere at this year’s event asking people the question of…”How do YOU draw it?” One of our favorite sights was this simple and compelling statement about personal power:
Our heARTists really took this message to our well grounded baseline. Our dear friend and chalk arting neighbor (every year we chalk at the fantastic Ventura Art and Street painting Festival) Larry Diaz empowered us all where it matters. Something Larry’s ART is prone to do. It’s fitting that Larry was able to finally fit our event into his schedule this year. We hope he brings his constant heART back to our 10th ANNIVERSARY celebration…next year and every year thereafter!
Listening to the words performed and expressed from the Citrus Stage at Heritage Plaza was, mesmerizing, empowering and so completely pragmatic. Key to Autistic culture. Getting to the point in extravagant ways. Autistic people always speak from the heart of the matter and we are so excited to see that everyone at our annual event is aligning with this knowledge. Just take a look at the interactive ART, JUGGLE and SOUL our Chalk tribe created to enhance our day spiritually, emotionally, physically and visually!
Stacy Nalapraya literally showing us ABOVE that daily UNIVERSAL JUGGLE in ways that delight our neurodivergent minds.
Kayla Garcia the latest local street painting phenom showed up to Chalk up this amazing rendition of Andy Warhol. She took the Autistic pride design and KTLA Channel 5 took notice as well! WoW!!
Artist Lorelle Miller wowed us with her intense study of the power expressed through maternal love. Generations past, present and future can recognize their soul in this 1 day masterpiece. The importance of the NOW in chalk art. It is all things for a fleeting moment. Much like life! Embrace it intensely while you have it…we feel it and we see it Lorelle. Thank YOU for showing us this interpretation with such beauty and grace.
The divine feminine was also emergent in Chalk Girl Lysa Ashley’s rockin’ image of our own Rocker Mom Susan Sheller! What a stunning image of our event’s soulful songbird. Lysa rocks the chalk and these two paired up for Rock and Chalk Perfection!
New friends showed up and brought their power to share! Evan Sapien proved that the Covina locals had a strong message to share! Thanks Evan you rocked it. We really love the Super Heroes belt! WoW, we are honored. Personal power all the way!!
Clif Gold traveled down from NorCal to COVINA! Clif’s graphic peacock wowed the crowd and Clif won Best use of Color. Astounding for a color blind artist. Perfect for a chalk art event steeped in shifting perceptions about diversity! Clif you are a perfect fit for our inclusive event and we will hold a space for you each and every year!
Our day flowed superbly with master JUGGLER Craig Quat of Quat Props on hand. We aligned with Craig at the 2016 ANCA World Autism Festival and we are so pleased we had Craig her in SoCal! He rolled his special super power out for everyone all festival long. His amazing JUGGLEBOARD invention is a revolution for anyone’s sensory system. If you were lucky enough to connect with Craig you know exactly where we are coming from. Turning on the receptors and sensory feelers we have IS stimulating FUN. Harnessing that energy is what we strive for in an organized world. the JUGGLEBOARD is a practical tool that’s FUN and should be in everyone’s sensory fun & wellness kit! Thanks for inventing it Craig!
Craig had his powerful JUGGLEBOARD engaging all ages and all stages of people. Below he told The City of Covina’s Honorable Mayor John King all about it’s benefits while they had a rousing roll. Craig came to town from Europe, he left Covina and headed to Mexico and South America to spread this amazing technology that innovates fun and crucial connection to ALL PEOPLE! To support Craig’s JOURNEY to help people around the world through social circus PLEASE follow this LINK and fund a little or a lot! YOU choose!
Marcella Swett gets everyone in a SWEET mood with her creative energies. We love and adore the energy her heART adds.
So many stories of empowerment and fun from this day we embrace in the heart of Autism ACCEPTANCE Month. Drums, Speeches, Arias, Dance and an Elvis sound alike! Raul Munoz of L.A. Neurodiversity LAND kicked us off with his passion and pride.
Victor Kar-Kit-Toh’s speech about the power of journaling was fantastic. Rewriting your own script to reinvent what you desire your life to be. How the power is within. Inspiring Victor and so fantastic to meet you in Canada at the ANCA World Autism Festival of 2016 and now see you 3 yrs. later in California.
Allison Warren surprised us all with her ethereal aria. Her performance was unexpected and beautiful. Aligning exactly with what our day usually holds… unexpected beauty. Thank you Allison for raising that bar with your powerful voice…and delighting us with your loving transformative dance! You and your family’s participation brought great pleasure and joy!
What a great day of Autistic culture and connection!
Executive Function helpers, Cyndy and Liz Pritchard (PaperBag Comic) fly in from New York for the 3rd yr. in a row!! Thanks so much, we could not do it without YOU!
So many stories and people making this event their OWN. Exactly what we have always wanted!! To create space for amazing things to emerge unexpectedly! That’s the way we live in the NOW….
What good vibrations with rumbling drums. Thank you to this year’s facilitator Malcolm. You helped COVINA rock it again with the generous use of excellent percussion by our every year sponsor REMO RMC in the beautiful city of Valencia!
Joyce Hatzidakis’ shirt says it ALL. We love it Joyce and what you always bring!!
There are HUNDREDS MORE photos to find from our event courtesy of the fantastical photographer William Kidston…browse and save to your heart’s desire RIGHT HERE. We wish we could high light each and every artist and image! We thank you all for just showing up to rock, chalk and roll with US!.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR. Saturday, April 18th 2020!! ~with Love, Kelly & Wyatt G.
