It started out as a hobby. Now Texas woman is celebrated as a creative chalk artist

Who said an art gallery has to be indoors?

Certainly not Jan Riggins, whose gallery is any space of sidewalk or walkway to be found. She is a chalk artist, creating works of art on such surfaces for all passersby to enjoy.

“Around seven years ago, I saw a post on Facebook for a new chalk art festival starting in Fort Worth, and it invited people to come and ‘learn a new hobby,’” she said.

Riggins, of Fort Worth, had been curious about chalk art, and though she had artistic ability, inside she wondered if she had the talent to be good at it. She does, as she found out when she explored deeper.

“Everything I saw online seemed so much more vibrant than anything I could create, so I was excited to learn more,” she said. “I attended the festival and met some of the professional artists and spent the day in 100-degree weather creating my first piece on a 4x4 piece of plywood. I was hooked and eagerly signed up again the next year.”

Her artwork has been seen at a variety of festivals throughout North Texas, even throughout the state and in other states. She’s created art in Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida and Boston, with more locations to come this year, she said.

Hardly a weekend goes by when she’s not creating somewhere, and not only at festivals. Combined with her job as general manager for Express Employment Professionals Fort Worth offices and a developer representative for the DFW Express offices, there’s not much downtime — but she’s perfectly fine with being so busy, she said.

“I have been quite busy in the DFW area over the last year working with very many companies and organizations. The City of Grapevine has been a great supporter and I appreciate the opportunities that I have been given there,” she said. “The Near Southside organization in Fort Worth is a huge supporter. I have painted a mural with that group, chalked at Arts Goggle and have been in talks about future chalking events.”

Honing her craft during the pandemic

Riggins is also making up for lost time. Prior to COVID, she had only chalked a handful of times at local festivals. Then, of course, it was all shut down because of the pandemic.

Until she decided she didn’t need a festival, just a sidewalk and her chalk, to be creative.

“One weekend, I decided that my HOA (homeowners association) wouldn’t object if I chalked on my own sidewalk, so I chalked out a couple of images, and my daughter was so excited that we did another one together later that night,” she said. “Our neighbors were so excited to have something to come by and look at that we started chalking several times a week.”

Soon she and daughter Olivia were getting requests from others in the neighborhood and frequently going to houses to chalk something for birthdays, graduations, or even drive-by baby showers.

“What this was doing was giving me a great activity to do with my daughter (13 at the time), it helped with stress in my personal and work life, and I was getting a lot of practice,” she said. “Once things started opening up a bit, I started getting hired out by companies to create these temporary art pieces … and festivals started happening again.”

Temporary art has everlasting impact

Art has been a part of Riggins’ life since she was young. Her grandmother and mother were always painting and sharing art books and magazines. She took a different path in school and went to college for music performance, but she always found reasons to draw.

“I never thought it would lead to anything and that it would always just be a fun hobby,” she said.

Riggins was still painting through last year but now finds herself so busy with chalk art that she hasn’t been able to start any new paintings lately. She does, however, enjoy creating small body art paintings on her hand.

“It still gives me the experience of painting, but I can finish a piece in a short amount of time. And because I wash these off immediately after finishing, it feels very therapeutic as well,” she said.

Riggins still has that original piece of chalk art she created years ago on plywood. However, even her best work is temporary. After all, it’s mostly outdoors and the weather isn’t as appreciative of great artwork as humans can be.

“The temporary aspect was a little bit of an issue for me when I first started several years ago. However, over the past two years, I have come to love the temporary aspect,” she said. “I feel like I’m focusing more on the process and how incredibly lucky I feel to be sitting outside, doing what I love, and producing something that people seem to love.

“ ... I feel so lucky to have found this art form, it has opened up so many more opportunities for me than traditional art — and it’s something that I look forward to doing each and every time.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.