A chalk art labyrinth continues a tradition at Forest Grove Elementary School.

The Chalk Art Festival has been a thing in Pacific Grove’s Forest Grove Elementary School for almost a decade. This year, it was hosted by one of the school moms, an artist and art teacher Kim Kasner Stone, who designed the project and engaged 328 students to color in it.

The effect is a 56-foot wide functional circle labyrinth on the school’s basketball court. Dozens of parents helped, especially Amber Pacheco and Leigh Brodie, who spent hours with Kasner Stone prepping the project.

“We are continuing the school's tradition," Kasner Stone says. “We are having such a positive response.”

This time the students chose their own colors and some drew a favorite character. The “walls” of the labyrinth were made of individual rectangles for each student to color in their own name design. Students were able to create a background and use a contrasting color to add their name. 

Kasner Stone was inspired by the very concept of a labyrinth. “Labyrinths can be found all over the world, from medieval Europe to ancient India, as well as in some of our own American public parks, “ she wrote in an artist statement. “Their purpose is to inspire meditation and calmness for those who walk through it."

It took the whole day for students to complete the project. “They love to color and they were really excited,” Kasner Stone says.

Naturally, chalk art is not permanent; it takes one storm to destroy it, but that aspect of the medium is also beautiful.

“It’s like building a sandcastle,” Kasner Stone says. “It’s all about the experience, being in a moment.”

So far, the students are really careful with it, including teenagers who visit the court on weekends. They take pleasure in walking and running the labyrinth.