Chalk rabbit met Third Avenue need for bunny

What can I say? I'm a slave to my inspiration.

The idea popped into my head a few days before the free Chalk on the Block event, put on by the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center, the Moses Lake Business Association and the Columbia Basin Allied Arts outside the Museum as part of the annual Moses Lake Spring Festival last year: Third Avenue needs a rabbit.

So, after having breakfast in Soap Lake with a couple friends camping in the area, I found myself driving by just as the event was taking place, and decided to pull over and let artistic expression take the wheel.

Why a rabbit? Why not a rabbit, I say.

It was probably not the most artistic or realistic entry there - when was the last time you saw a blue rabbit anywhere but the ice cream aisle of a grocery store - but it was an awful lot of fun.

Even though the sun bore down, the gravel was hot beneath my knee and I pulled muscles I never even knew I had in my effort to cover and shade just about every angle of my lapine creation, it was exciting to be out amongst the other artists and the community, and make some small contribution.

Look at the subtlety of my creation. Look at the nuance. The way the rabbit proffers his yellow flower to the world of Third Avenue. Is he asking to be loved? Accepted? Or is he offering his love and acceptance?

Look at how much blue chalk I had to use. My gosh, I had to run and grab a couple more sticks for just the body alone.

Of course, now I'm Friday evening quarterbacking my own work a year later: Why does the rabbit only have one ear? What about that embarrassing gap of street visible where a tiny shoulder might be? Where are his whiskers? Oh, what the critics must have thought …

Still, it was an awfully fun experience. I'm glad for the opportunity to participate. And to witness the changes to the rabbit over the following week, as he faded beneath parades and foot and automobile traffic to become street surface once again, along with the other chalk masterpieces.

I'm hoping to be able to do it again this year, as all three entities are again offering Chalk on the Block Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The medium was temporary, but I got a memory which lingered forever.