Chalk it up: Artist David Zinn returns to Laguna Beach
The sky above was an overcast gray, and while no rain came on Saturday morning, puddles of color began to appear en masse on the pavement on Forest Avenue in Laguna Beach, as kids scribbled away with chalk to their hearts’ content.
David Zinn returned to Laguna Beach, entertaining dozens who turned out at the Promenade on Forest to take in the sights and sounds of the 52-year-old renowned street artist at work.
Surrounded by an admiring crowd as he worked on a fresh piece underneath a tent, Zinn engaged in a casual back-and-forth with his audience, blurring the lines of artist and street performer.
“If you’re going to draw in public, it is a weird territory because it is a performance in that you’re doing a thing in public where people can watch,” Zinn said. “It is a very bad performance in that there’s no ‘ta-da’ at the end.”
His audience might disagree. Many stayed after the completion of the work, posing for pictures with the artist and his chalk-covered hands, as well as with the flying pig that he had illustrated in the street.
The piece itself was referred to as a ‘Pigasus,’ a name Zinn said he incorporated after kids told him it was the appropriate title given the pig’s airborne features, not unlike the mythical flying horse Pegasus.
Zinn also entertained the audience with his wit, sometimes sharing anecdotes. At other times, he lightened the mood, such as when one local resident offered him a reprieve from his work with a drink.
“It’s a little scary because that’s liquid,” Zinn quipped while stepping back from his artwork to crack open a can to quench his thirst. “And that’s dust, and I don’t want them to get anywhere near each other.”
To take the pressure out of his work, Zinn said he often views his creations as doodling or scribbling.
“When you get right down to it, it is all scribbling,” Zinn said. “Some of it is more precise, but I’ve also run into enough people who enjoy making marks in a way that I would find unpleasant that it kind of makes sense that we all have our own happy place.”
The event showed another side of the Promenade on Forest apart from the shopping and dining experience.
Zinn, who is originally from Ann Arbor, Mich., came to Laguna Beach in 2019. He was set to come back to town the next year, but the coronavirus pandemic resulted in those plans being postponed.
“It was such a positive experience for people to participate that we got overwhelming response to bring him back, and we are again now,” Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl said. “Businesses have been so supportive in allowing him to use their spaces and really change the way you look at downtown for a moment.
“It’s wonderful that we have these cross-generational activities and programming the whole community can participate in,” Poeschl added.
A scavenger hunt invited people to search for 10 of Zinn’s creations in the downtown. Those that located them were entered into a drawing to receive Zinn merchandise.
Monae Alyxe, 25, of Riverside came to the temporary public art event with her mother. She carried a notebook with her, writing several points down as Zinn spoke to his onlookers while illustrating and coloring the Pigasus. Afterward, she watched as little kids continued to draw with chalk in the surrounding area.
“It’s also teaching our kids creativity,” Alyxe said. “The arts are being taken out of our schools, and kids aren’t really exposed to this kind of play anymore. It’s really important to foster creativity because if we’re going to be moving forward as a society, we need to be creative.”
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