Home

 


 


 

ArtLoveMagic Ad

 
 

  


October 16, 2008            Dallas Zoo            Dallas, TX

Lions,

Tigers,

& Bears

a report of ArtLoveMagic at the Dallas Zoo
by Michael Lagocki

ArtLoveMagic's Michael Lagocki and Josh Boulet headed out to the Dallas Zoo recently to support Big Thought and the Lights on After School Program. Our mission? To draw animals, a lot of animals, in chalk on the ground for over 1,000 screaming school kids.

 

ArtLoveMagic Ad

 

  


God bless tardiness. The program was still getting set up when we showed, so it gave Josh and I a chance to do a "speed zoo" tour. We ran through  the zoo at about 50 miles an hour trying to see every animal in about 15 minutes prior to drawing for the kids. Josh, a sketchbook junkie, was literally turning pages and doing ten second drawings as we ran through the different exhibits.


Once properly inspired, we returned to Big Thought's tables where chalk awaited us. The area that would serve as our canvas was huge! Thousands of square feet of pavement laid in front of us waiting for us to decorate it with drawings of giraffes, baboons, elephants, and flamingos.
 


 
Chalk is a fun medium. It's bright, and fast. It's easy to work with, except that it doesn't allow you to screw up much. Erasing really wasn't much of an option. Josh, who's been masterfully doing wildlife drawings at ArtLoveMagic shows all summer, was killing it! Check out that croc, just waiting to take a bite out of him.
 

ArtLoveMagic Ad

 

   So for about 45 minutes, we had all the area to ourselves, and just filled it here and there with all kinds of creatures from mother nature.

And then... they arrived.

It was not unlike a tidal wave. You could hear them before you could see them. A force of enthusiasm that could level cities. There were happy, they were loud, they were excited... they were seven years old.

The first wave of school kids came in yelling at the top of their lungs and laughing. We gave them chalk and told them to go for it. Suddenly everywhere new drawings were

ArtLoveMagic Ad

 popping up right and left. "Who can draw the best monkey?!?!" I yelled. "Who can draw an elephant!?!?"

The kids were insane! They were so into it I just couldn't keep up. Every second someone else was grabbing my hand wanting to show me what they just drew on the ground. I was really tickled about how it was the most
important thing in the world for them to show me their drawings. "Look what I did!" was the mantra.  But as soon as I would see the drawing, that was it. They didn't want praise, or drawing lessons, they just wanted me to see it, to recognize they had done this. After my eyes hit their drawings, every time, they were then gone in a flash, off to the next one.


ArtLoveMagic Ad

 

  
And just so you know...you gotta watch them seven year olds. They lie! There must of been twenty different kids who tried to convince me they drew the giraffe that I just watched Josh draw. Or even to take credit for my kangaroo. Imagine!

Mostly it was a blur after that. The scattered drawings on the ground morphed into one huge mosaic that spread all over the place. Not that I could even tell. I thought I had a lot of energy but it only took about half of the kids coming through before I could barely stand.

Big Thought really did a beautiful job of making sure there was something interactive and educational for these kids. It was a bit disappointing to see that the other contributors to the program mostly just gave the kids free stuff or promoted products to them. But we had them drawing, talking about animals, working with artists. It was gratifying and both Josh and I were proud of what we
did.

Slowly Josh and I limped out of the zoo. The kids won this round, but we'll be back.

 

Return to the top