News & Media

Chalk the Block

Ohio Wesleyan Student Selected to Create Artwork at Easton Town Center Event

Update:

OWU student Cece Colwell ’22 successfully completed her Ohio Wesleyan-themed artwork for Easton Town Center’s Sept. 29-30 Chalk the Block event. Read more about Colwell and her prize-winning chalk art and see more photos of her work below. Congratulations, Cece!

Original Story:

Ohio Wesleyan University freshman Cece Colwell chalks up her passion for creating sidewalk art to her sixth-grade art teacher.

“Actually, it's kind of a funny story,” says Colwell, a Zoology and Spanish double-major from Hilliard, Ohio. “My art teacher at the time … said that chalk wasn't a true medium. When she said that, it really upset me because I've always believed that anything can be used to make art.

“I went home that day, and I made a huge hummingbird with chalk in my driveway,” she says. “It wasn't very good, but my mom liked it. So I kept going.”

And she’s become an in-demand artist.

For the third time, Colwell has been selected to participate in Easton Town Center’s annual Chalk the Block event. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 29, she’ll create an OWU-themed artwork on a 10-foot-by-10-foot sidewalk square at Easton, 160 Easton Town Center, Columbus. On Sept. 30, she and more than 40 other artists will show off their final creations.

In 2016, Colwell earned the Best New Artist Award at the Easton event for her depiction of TV’s “The Simpsons.” She also won the People's Choice award for both 2018 and 2017 at the Ohio State Fair, with drawings of animals from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and of the Beach Boys’ iconic “Pet Sounds” album cover.

For the upcoming Easton event, Colwell has been looking at OWU photos and logos, and sketching ideas for her artwork. And she looks forward to seeing what the other artists draw, too.

“I love to see all of the different things that the artists have created at the end of the two days,” she says.