Mission Valley chalk artist Cecelia Linayao said she has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember, but her parents, much like a lot of immigrant families, initially hoped she had pursued a career in law or medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your family comes to the U.S. from another country, they always want you grow up to be something that is a little more solid,\u201d Linayao said. \u201cThey always felt that art was nice, but it wasn\u2019t something that I\u2019d be able to build a career in. I\u2019ve been very fortunate to choose my passion as my profession. Not only did I choose it as my major when I attended Cal State Long Beach, I\u2019m lucky that I\u2019m able to be working.\u201d<\/p>\n Linayao has won multiple awards for her chalk paintings and has traveled all around the world to create them. Most recently, she created a 12-foot chalk mural on canvas of Pope Francis that was presented to him on Sept. 25 when he addressed the United Nations.<\/p>\n Chalk, she is the first to concede, is a non-traditional art medium. When students pursue a degree in fine arts, they are generally trained in drawing and painting. Linayao said it wasn\u2019t until she saw street art for the first time at a chalk festival, that she knew this was her calling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was something so different from what I experienced in classical education. This was big and loud and it was 12 feet of full color, and I wanted to be able to do that,\u201d she said, adding that at the same time, it was a bit intimidating.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re working with canvas or paper, it\u2019s always so much smaller. My first street painting was 6-feet by 4-feet. Do you know how big that is?\u201d Linayao said, laughing. \u201cAfter that I was hooked, and today I don\u2019t do anything that is smaller than 12 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the biggest pieces she has done to date was a recreation of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Linayao said she worked with a talented group of high school students and young artists to bring the piece to life.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel so fortunate to do this as my profession that my way of giving back is to always involve students or people who aren\u2019t able to make art their profession, but love it and want to be involved with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Those who are interested in seeing her in action can do so at the Little Italy FESTA! on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n Street painting, and specifically chalk art, she noted, is an Italian tradition that dates back to the 14th century.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful that they continue that tradition here in Little Italy and I love that they insist on Italian-themed pieces. That way we are teaching people about art and art history without them even knowing it,\u201d Lilayao said.<\/p>\n She also pointed out that street art works are temporary; they aren\u2019t designed to last for a long time. All of that really forces the artist, and the audience, to embrace the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to see it in photos but to see it being created is an entirely different experience. It\u2019s amazing and special, and there are all those layers in this type of art which is what makes it so different than the traditional in-studio painting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the studio you don\u2019t get audience feedback and you\u2019re not able to vibe off that energy. Working in my studio is so different from the contrast of doing public performance art.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve seen chalk art in the past, she said, that\u2019s not to say you shouldn\u2019t attend another live art performance.<\/p>\n \u201cThe art is different and you are different because you\u2019re not in the same space you were last year,\u201d she said. \u201cFor people who have never seen chalk art live, now is your chance to experience it. The fact that it\u2019s temporary is what makes it so special.\u201d<\/p>\n Linayao will be displaying her chalk art Oct. 10 at the Little Italy FESTA! For more information visit littleitalysd.com\/events\/little-italy-festa<\/a>. Learn more about Linayao\u2019s work at\u00a0cecelialinayaofineart.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014Margie M. Palmer es una escritora independiente con sede en San Diego que ha estado acumulando art\u00edculos en una gran cantidad de publicaciones de noticias durante los \u00faltimos 10 a\u00f1os. Puedes localizarla en margiep@alumni.pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Margie M. Palmer<\/p>","protected":false},"author":746,"featured_media":233126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Chalk it up to artistry","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11557,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/746"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Chalk](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Cecelia_Linayao_Uncubed15_Break_Thru-web-605-top.jpg\")
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(Photo by trippscoff using drone technology)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>