Artists decorate sidewalks, sculpt ice at Summerlin festival

By Jeff O'Brien

Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 | 10:31 p.m.

With the hot afternoon sun beating down on her back, Marlene Jozdani of Summerlin remained focused on the task that lay before her — a vibrant and colorful array of abstract images created with pastels.

Jozdani was one of several sidewalk chalk artists at the eighth-annual Summerlin Art Festival, a free event that drew more than 10,000 visitors to Summerlin Centre Community Park on Saturday and Sunday.

A professional artist who has been using sidewalk chalk for the past three years, Jozdani said it would take approximately nine hours to finish her latest creation — an illustration featuring the mountains of Red Rock Canyon and the blue waters of Lake Mead wrapped around a blend of different shapes and colors.

“I like it, it’s different,” Jozdani said of using concrete sidewalks as her canvas. “A lot of people don’t think that chalk or pastel can create images like this.”

The sight of dark rain clouds in the distance led to some artists bringing tarps just in case they needed to cover their creations, but Jozdani wasn’t overly concerned.

“It’s only going to be out here until tomorrow,” she said. “If it washes away, it washes away. I’m not too worried about it.”

The Summerlin Art Festival featured two events in one — La Strada dell’Arte, the sidewalk painting festival adopted from Italian tradition, and the Celebration of the Arts, which included more than 125 artists and craftsmen from throughout the southwestern United States displaying and selling their work.

Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas was on-hand with its brand of “food art,” which featured carved pumpkins and fruits and vegetables cut into the shapes of flowers.

But the highlights were two eye-catching ice sculptures, one of them a graceful swan and the other a sailfish leaping out of the ocean. Both were created by Chanh Boupha of Le Cordon Bleu, who has 30 years of experience in ice carvings.

Boupha , who uses a chainsaw, hammer and chisel, said each sculpture took him only 20 minutes to create.

“It’s all in my head,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for so long, I know exactly where to make the cuts and which angles to use.”

The ice sculptures are typically created for special events such as banquets, weddings and parties, Boupha said.

Each block weighs 300 pounds and takes approximately seven days to freeze before it is ready. Baking soda is also mixed with the ice to slow down the melting process.

“Depending on the weather, they usually last about three hours before it melts away,” Boupha said.

Visitors were also treated to a performance by Stomp Out Loud, a dance and music ensemble that regularly performs at Planet Hollywood.

Using only trash cans, wooden poles, clapping and stomping, the group offered a series of raucous, high-energy routines that pumped up the crowd.

For Janeth Arriaga of Las Vegas, it was her first time at the Summerlin Art Festival.

“I’m impressed,” she said. “There’s a lot of variety here. I might have to buy something, but probably something small.”

She couldn’t resist running over to one of the ice sculptures and touching it.

“I had to see what it felt like,” Arriaga said. “But I don’t want it to melt!”

Jeff O’Brien can be reached at 990-8957 or [email protected].