Over 100 people — including nearby residents, artists and volunteers — put chalk to asphalt at Beechwood Cemetery over the weekend in an effort to beat a Guinness World Record for the largest display of pavement chalk art.
The current record for the largest chalk display is held by a health insurance company called Novitas BKK in a small town in Itzehoe, Germany. They created 944 chalk drawings in 2019.
Nick McCarthy, Beechwood Cemetery’s director of marketing communications, wanted Ottawa to reach 1,000.
“We’ll be very proud to say that we had a Guinness World Record attempt or a win,” McCarthy said.
Although vying for the title, McCarthy said the effort is about more than just breaking a world record. The overall theme behind Sunday’s art display was community.
“Not only an opportunity for the community to come together, but an opportunity for the community to celebrate each other, to honour each other, to honour the sacrifices.” McCarthy said.
Sarah Laviolette and her daughter Olive Hammell regularly visit the cemetery for their cousin and grandfather, who are buried in the military section of the grounds.
For them, the chalk art fundraiser was a chance to take their artistic backgrounds to a space known for grieving, and make it a little brighter.
“I think cemeteries are very misunderstood and having the kids out here drawing … it really just warms my heart,” Laviolette said.
Her daughter agrees.
“Most people just think of cemeteries as (depressing) … but it’s nice when it’s more of a family experience,” Hammell said. “You are there to visit friends and family, whether they’re here or not.”
If you think about it right, not everything is permanent, and in this case you have this beautiful art that will be here and gone, very much like a lot of us.– Nick McCarthy, Beechwood Cemetery
Hammell’s chalk illustration started as a circle and turned into an anime portrait about half an hour later. She said she captured the theme of community through the colours she chose to work with.
“All the colours are working together to create one art piece. Some of them may have different contrasts to each other, but they still work together,” Hammell said.
By McCarthy’s rough count, over 500 chalk drawings decorated the cemetery grounds by late afternoon. While Beechwood can conduct its own final tally, a submission and review by Guinness can take anywhere from 12 weeks to six months.
With rain in Ottawa’s forecast, hundreds of the chalk drawings may have a short stay on the grounds. Hours of effort will be washed away, but McCarthy said he doesn’t view that as a bad thing.
“If you think about it right, not everything is permanent,” he said. “In this case, you have this beautiful art that will be here and gone, very much like a lot of us.”
