An artist determined to leave her mark

When most people see gum stuck on pavement, cracks in the sidewalk or spots of peeling paint, they see eyesores.

Riverdale artist Nina Velazquez sees faces. 

Her latest show, “Chalk in My Pocket and Other Happy Accidents,” currently on display at the Riverdale Library at 5540 Mosholu Ave., is filled with photographs of her chalk drawings, many of them creative riffs on the imperfections she encounters during her daily travels. 

 “I try to walk around with chalk in my pocket at all times, because you just never know,” she said as she prepared for her exhibit’s opening on Nov. 20. 

In one of her chalk drawings, three spots of peeling paint on the now-empty Green Tree Restaurant building on Riverdale Avenue become the eyes and mouth of a face when she adds a chalk silhouette. Seen the right way, a wad of gum on the sidewalk in front of the building takes the form of a chin.

“That’s the happy accident part — it just happens, and you’re capturing it,” said Ms. Velazquez.

After applying chalk to concrete or another surface, the artist, who has a studio in Yonkers, snaps the image on her iPhone. Most of her pictures are in black and white and use filters from a photography app. 

 “I’m not billing myself as a photographer, because I would probably offend everyone,” she joked. 

Still, she believes that phone cameras have democratized photography, allowing greater numbers of people to document the world. 

The Robert J. Christen School (P.S. 81) on Riverdale Avenue anchors many of Ms. Velazquez’s works. Her 9-year-old daughter Zoe goes to the school, where Ms. Velazquez is also a Parents Association president and lunch monitor. 

She started drawing in the schoolyard during lunch with a young student who had recently emigrated from Israel and needed a friend. 

“It made a lot of sense to start taking pictures of [the drawings],” she said.