'Chalk God' has an overnight brush with celebrity

Hou Zhengfeng had no idea that posting his art works online would make him an overnight celebrity.

The 36-year-old, a freelance interior decorator in Henan province, is now popularly known as the "Chalk God".

He posted his 3D chalk works in mid October on Tianya.cn, a popular domestic forum, and his work was soon all over the Internet.

Netizens compared him to the dream designer in the Hollywood hit film Inception, as his lifelike works are a visual puzzle.

"I never expected to become famous like this," he says.

Hou's pavement chalk pictures feature "steps" going underground; Terracotta Warriors emerging from the pavement; and the sacred lotus seat for Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy.

Some of his works are close to people's daily lives, such as the four small plots of land with vegetables sprouting from a marble floor, which represents the craze for the "stealing vegetables" game on social networking sites.

Meanwhile, a fake certificate agency with a service telephone number, epitomizes the rampant fake certificate business in China.

"I try to pay close attention to people's livelihoods in my works," Hou says.

He started working on 3D chalk pictures at the end of 2008, after reading an online post about 3D crayon pictures on the streets in Denmark. He was so impressed, he decided to draw some of his own.

Though he loved drawing as a kid, he did not get a chance to study art until he was 18. This laid a foundation for his admission to university as an interior decoration major. But he rarely drew after graduation.

"I dusted the cobwebs off my drawing skills after not having drawn anything for about 10 years," he says.

Using his knowledge of perspective and foreshortening he applied it to drawing on the ground. The only difference, he says, is that people are always on the same plane as the picture.

He now draws in his spare time and creates a dozen works every two years, though some are not finished.

Whenever he produces a new work he will upload it to his blog. He posted all his works recently, expecting just a few hundred replies.

Chalk, charcoal pencils, string, and occasionally his son's oil painting sticks to add color, are all he needs for his paintings.

"I choose chalk because it is portable and cheap," he says.

At first, he just drew to kill time on outings with his 8-year-old son, Hou Maoxin. Weather permitting, he would go out on weekends to create the artworks with him.

Sometimes, he would first draw an outline and let his son do the rest of the work.

A variety of flat surfaces have become his canvas, such as roads, public squares and pavements in the park.

He says few people watch him when he chalks, as they don't know what he is doing. When the work is finished, he finds primary school students often get the picture more quickly than adults because they see the world with a fresher perspective.

"If it's just for fun, people can learn it (quite easily). But it takes time and energy to be a real master of drawing," he says.

While he says he's not bothered too much about fame, he does say the biggest difference since he got noticed is that his mobile phone battery needs recharging more often as people call him to inquire about the 3D pictures.

"There are many controversies about Web celebrities. I am very glad that most netizens praise me rather than criticize me, " he says.

China Daily

(China Daily 11/13/2010 page11)