Despite the many hand wringing pieces you’ll read about helicopter parents and punks walking on lawns, cities are full of independent kids doing everyday things — waiting at bus stops, riding bikes, walking to school, playing games, buying slushies.
And one of things they do is make art. Here are some things I’ve come across walking around.
On the Sidewalk
Kids play games outside, and hopscotch is one of those games. These two sets of squares look a little too neat for little hands to have drawn, but the second course seems to have had contributions from kids that you can see in the detail in the third photo.
Someone (maybe named Nefeli?) laid down a bunch of color and possibly declared their love for MOM.
And here you can see a rainbow, dinosaur, humans and feet.
Other Art
Lots of other art by kids can be seen here and there.
This is a butterfly most likely painted or stained by a child.
And for reasons unknown, on a box on a corner some child left this egg at Easter time decorated with a pun, possibly a leftover from an outdoor egg hunt.
And finally, some kid named Eli decorated his sign advertising a lemonade stand (torn in the shape of an E?) with a lemon and the mysterious slogan “Have a good foot.”
My daughters used to spend hours outside with chalk making artwork or hopscotch setups. I call those my King of the Hill days where I would drink beers in the cul-de-sac with the other dads while we watched the kids play. Good times. The lemonade stand thing reminded me of this infuriating story from near where I live…
https://www.q13fox.com/news/everett-pd-man-scammed-11-year-olds-lemonade-stand-with-fake-100-bill
I really wish we’d see an end to 100s and 50s. With only 20s at least the kid would only be out five bucks.
A few years ago there was major pearl-clutching from a Karen because *GASP* someone used chalk to “vandalize” a wooden fence with BLM wording, etc, in our local facebook group.
Anyways, the comment section didn’t go how she expected it to.
And the absolute best part was the homeowner was in that group and commented that hey that was her and her kids playing with chalk on their own fence so fuck off.
That’s beautiful.
There’s a lot of kids on my street so there is often chalk art around.
Today there was a big hopscotch drawing and earlier this week “WELCOME HOME JUDE” for the new baby that just came home.
Don’t ask me how I got here. I can’t even….
Manchester man draws penises around potholes so the city will fix them