Rudy Kistler is on an adventure. He escaped the cold winter in Goulburn, Australia to travel to the warmer climate of Japan – chalking all the way.

In mid-July he made his way to Jiyu-no Mori Gakuen (Forest of Freedom High School),  to conduct a chalk workshop.

His wife, fellow artist Konatsu Honda, attended the school which is considered a unique liberal academy with a student driven program. Each year, the students contribute money to the budget for elective classes. They decide how they spend the budget and they chose Rudy to teach them chalk art. “ I believe in this kind of school and really want to share my art with the kids there.”

Chalk-art-workshop-Japan

Rudy Kistler and students at Jiyu-no Mori Gakuen, Japan. Photo: Tadayuki Sakamoto

Mind you, they came close to having to cancel the class.

“The eighth typhoon of the year was termed a ‘super typhoon’ by the Japanese meteorological bureau and was forecast to descend on the Kanto (Tokyo) area the day before we were to do our artwork, needless to say we were prepared to cancel the event.  However, by Thursday night it appeared to be breaking up and dissipating.  The Big Wind (typhoon in Japanese) turned out to be a mild breeze when it reached us. We had perfect sunny weather for the day and a crisp clear blue sky to work under.”

Rudy chose the concept for the piece, dubbed “Danger Course” because he want an image people could interact with rather than just pose with.

Japanese chalk art workshop

The students get to work. Photo: Tadayuki Sakamoto

“I started sketching it out at 7:30am and the kids joined me at 9:30 to fill it in quickly with colour and we finished around midday. Everyone at the school loved it, there was a lot of interest when we were beginning, but once the image became recognisable people really started expressing amazement at what we were doing.”

“People here are very interested in 3D and public art, the response was fantastic. Many of the students told me they’ve seen this kind of thing on the web, but it was their first time to see it in person.”

The team at Zest are looking forward to having Rudy back on home ground next month!

Check out video footage of Rudy in the ‘Danger Zone’. If you can’t see the footage below check it out on YouTube.


 

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive quarterly updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!