the chalking dad street painter erik greenawalt pittsburgh chalk artists

Concrete is the canvas for the father-daughter duo who creates images done with chalk — reminiscent of the dad’s first drawings for his little girl and her younger sister in the driveway of the family home in North Huntingdon.

Erik Greenawalt first got into chalking as a way to pass time with his daughters. Twenty years later, he runs his own chalk art empire, and even gets to collaborate on projects with his daughters.

A group of 10 artists created indelible tributes to the passengers and crew on Flight 93: chalk portraits of each one along a long concrete walkway at the national memorial near Shanksville.

If you've taken a walk around the block during the coronavirus quarantine, you may have noticed a lot more sidewalk art than normal. 

Artists from across the world transformed The Piece Hall courtyard in Halifax, Great Britain, to an open-air gallery celebrating the industry and natural landscape of the Calder Valley.

Chalk this one up to fatherhood.  At least that's what Erik Greenawalt, aka the Chalking Dad, points to when discussing his evolution as a chalk artist.

Long before Twitter, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and today’s other, ever-invasive social media communication systems, Slippery Rock University students relied on plain and simple chalk messages.

The professional chalk artist from North Huntingdon started drawing chalk art in 2007 when his daughters asked him to draw portraits of favorite characters such as Cinderella and Dora the Explorer in their driveway.

Pittsburgh neighbors started calling Erik Greenawalt “The Chalking Dad” after seeing drawings he did for his daughters in his driveway. The nickname stuck, and he adopted @thechalkingdad for his moniker on social media.