I have covered graffiti and posters seen around Brooklyn here at The New Leaf Journal. Another thing I have seen, but not previously covered, is chalk. I was walking along on the evening of October 2, 2024, when chalk art on a step of a stoop leading up to a Cobble Hill brownstone caught my attention. Fittingly for October, the chalk art was Halloween-themed:
On the top chalked-step, we appear to have, from left to right, a ghost, pumpkin, and witch’s hat. The ghost reminds me a bit of the ghosts in Pacman, which leads me to suspect, in conjunction with the surprisingly detailed pumpkin and spatially aware witch’s hat, that an adult had played at least some role in the chalk art along with a child. (I somehow doubt kids these days are too familiar with Pacman, but perhaps I am wrong.) I would guess an adult, or at least an older young person, handled the outlines while a kid drew in the faces. Below the step, we have “BOO!” written with very nice handwriting and at about four-o-clock from “BOO!” there is a cat head. I imagine if the cat were colored, it would be black. The cat looks to my eyes to be a more characteristically child-like drawing than the pumpkin, witch’s hat, and “BOO!” (the ghost looks like it may have been more of a joint effort). But that is just my idle speculation.