How one family’s sidewalk chalk art brings joy to neighbors during quarantine

This family turned their driveway into a museum of masterpieces

A beautiful butterfly. (Courtesy photo.)

We’ve all had to get creative during quarantine to keep ourselves entertained, and for one family in Texas, sidewalk chalk art not only brought joy to them, but to their entire neighborhood.

Amber Lujan said she and her family started drawing on the sidewalk and driveway of her home back in March when people first started to quarantine, and since then, the art has become a hit among neighbors walking with their families, dogs or people going on runs.

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“We would spend the morning doing our online schoolwork, and we’d spend the evenings out front,” Lujan said. “Our neighbors would go out walking in the evenings because the weather was nice. We’d see a lot of families we’d never seen before walking with their kids. Our neighborhood Facebook group had suggestions for entertaining the neighborhood children on their walks, for example, putting bears and rainbows in the windows. We decided to do the chalk art because it gave us something to do, too.”

Lujan's "Alice In Wonderland" creation. (Courtesy photo.)

Little did Lujan know that her family’s sidewalk art would soon become the talk of the neighborhood.

The first set of artwork the family did included depicting characters from “Alice In Wonderland,” and Lujan said she noticed a lot of families, some she had never even seen before, stopping to admire the work and take photos.

“We did some Easter pieces next, and then random scenes, and people started looking for them on their walks, stopping to take pictures to share with their friends,” Lujan said. “Sometimes if I wait a few days after a rain to put down new art, the neighbors will tell me they were worried we were done for good.”

Lujan's daughter and one of her pieces of art. (Courtesy photo.)

Some neighbors loved the artwork so much that they would drop off boxes of chalk so more creations could get made.

“I’ve gotten to meet a lot of neighbors through this,” Lujan said. “Some walk by just to see what’s new,.”

Lujan said she likes to draw characters from books and scenes from nature, and her husband likes to draw video game characters. Her kids doodle and add in their own stuff, too.

How cute is this bear? (Courtesy photo.)

Lately, they’ve seen fewer people walking by to admire the artwork, but Lujan thinks the family will continue to decorate the driveway with masterpieces.

“We don’t see a lot of families with little kids anymore, but we keep putting down art because the dog-walkers and athletic folk still like to see it,” Lujan said. “If it gets too hot this summer, I imagine we’ll slow down, and depending on what school looks like in the fall, we may lose the time to do it, but we’ll keep dreaming up and drawing in new pieces for as long as we’re able.”


About the Author:

Jack is a Digital Content Editor with a degree in creative writing and French from Western Michigan University. He specializes in writing about movies, food and the latest TV shows.