Daniel Wair, also known to the folks of Statesboro as “The Chalk Guy,” has been drawing chalk art around the Georgia Southern campus for over a decade. You may have seen some of his work around Mellow Mushroom, Sully’s Steamers, East Georgia Regional Hospital, or anywhere near campus.
He has been seen drawing characters like Brian, Stewie, and Herbert from Family Guy; Skeletor, Alien, Jake and Finn from Adventure Time; and has even drawn Georgia Southern’s very own, Gus.
While drawing popular pop culture characters is fun to him, he specializes when it comes to abstract faces. These faces are drawn to create an illusion that you can look at it from two sides and it would look like two completely different faces. His biggest piece was a big cluster of different faces.
How does he get inspired to draw these faces?
Wair has epilepsy. It’s not a severe case where he is having full blown seizures, but it causes him to have to sit down and space out for a bit. When he is spaced out however, he sees these faces. That is why he goes and draws them. He doesn’t have the seizures too often, but his found triggers were sleep deprivation and caffeine.
How did he start doing art?
When Wair was in college, he wasn’t fond of taking notes. The best way he remembered things is when he drew while listening to lectures. Years later, he was watching a YouTube video on a guy that was doing chalk art and wondered how this guy was making the pieces smooth. He then learned the technique and used a chalk set that was given to him from a friend that was doing nothing but collecting dust, and drew Brian from Family Guy outside his local train station.
Seeing people smile and enjoy his work let him know that he wanted to continue doing it.
A few years ago, his wife was offered a job here at Georgia Southern. When they moved down here, Wair was excited to start working around campus. Here, he was able to draw his favorite piece. The reason for it being his favorite is not because of his feelings towards it, but that as he was packing his kit up, a few yards away from the drawing he overheard some students talking about how real it looked.
What now?
While drawing these pieces around Statesboro is Wair’s hobby, it doesn’t bring in a paycheck. He often takes tips whenever he is seen out and about and would like to take commissioned work later in the year.
“The summer is my off season, and the sidewalks get a little too hot here in Georgia,” said Wair.
He wants to do more drawing, but constraints like the weather and transportation get to where he isn’t able to do much. He would also like to draw some more games like hopscotch by the Russell Union again, seeing as students enjoyed it the last time he did it.
His dream is to be able to get an arts degree at Georgia Southern and work for them full time doing chalk art around campus.
If you would like to see more of his work, you can view it here:
