Chalkboard Art Is Booming Business

Seattle PI:

They toil over the perfect shade of pigment, the architectural details of an elaborate building, the luminescence of a wine glass.

Yet their work can be obliterated with a few fingers or a wet rag.

They are chalkboard artists. And though they live in comparative obscurity, their creations are everywhere — restaurants, coffee shops, bars, stores and offices. In fact, Seattle is a hub for chalkboard art.

The early years were rough going for April Cody, who was a single mother of three. “I naively quit my job and started doing it full-time,” said the artist. Nobody else was then doing it as a full-time business, so life was full of cold calls and rejection. It took about three years until Cody could support her family with her business, Chairman of the Boards.

John Rozich paid his bills doing retail display for department stores for years, while he did chalkboard art on the side. Three years ago, he began making a living at it full-time.

Rozich, who works mostly in the garage of his Magnolia home, said it takes him three to four hours to do a smaller, 2-by-3-foot board.

But, local vistas are his money scenes. “If I had a nickel for every time I did the Space Needle, I’d have $10. Or, Mount Rainier for that matter,” said Rozich, who charges about $80 an hour.

Many of the biggest clients for this medium are liquor-distribution companies, which commission chalkboards to hang in restaurants and bars.

“It’s a way to get the visibility of our product out so it doesn’t get left on the back bar or buried in the menu,” said Ken Fenton, manager of Southern Wine Spirits West, which distributes brands such as Tanqueray, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff.

Fenton said his company commissioned between 40 and 50 chalkboards last year, at a cost of $14,000. He said this artistic form of advertising was relatively scarce in the 1990s, but has exploded in the past few years.

For businesses, it’s cheaper than hiring a professional photographer or paying for setup fees at print shops. Most artists charge for the cost of the boards, plus about $35 a square foot to decorate them. They can be changed or updated easily, without destroying the whole work.

Photo by Mike Urban/PI.

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