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Chalk Artist inspired by Viennese art

For the past four days, visitors to E for All Expo have seen Melanie Stimmell hard at work on a 15 x 15 piece of art created entirely using chalk. Stimmell, inspired by Renaissance period art, brought that sensibility to her work, although it has a decidedly modern twist.

Stimmell spent from the show's opening on Thursday to late Saturday evening working on the creation -- a rich tapestry depicting a woman, man and dragon intertwined. The woman is triumphantly holding aloft a game controller.

Stimmell says the work was inspired by a fountain that sits outside a museum in Vienna, Austria.

"My original thought was to have very strong female character," Stimmell told me. "But I a draw a lot of inspiration from the Renaissance."

She worked from photo references, originally from pictures of the original fountain. The she created sketches on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, and scaled the work up -- sketching out a grid on her 15 x 15 foot canvas.

Stimmell said that she prefers to work on a large canvas, but is sometimes disappointed after her art -- often put directly on the street, on asphalt, is washed away after the events she works at. This is different -- her work will be hung in the offices of G4, which sponsored her presence at the inaugural E for All.