Earlier this year, we shared the story of an amazing artist in Fort Worth bringing a spark of joy to her neighbors during the pandemic.
Ten months later, Jan Riggins is still spreading something good but has since expanded beyond her neighborhood.
She specializes in chalk art, especially the three dimensional kind.
And if you've recently walked around Grapevine, the "Christmas Capital of Texas," you may have noticed pieces of her art popping out of the walkways. The city caught wind of her talent and asked her to create new pieces every week for several weeks up until Christmas.
But Riggins has done so much more.
She has created pieces at Mockingbird Station in Dallas. She brought special requests to life for people's birthday's on their driveway in her neighborhood and continued to bring joy to her own driveway for people to see on their walks.
She even drew a beautiful butterfly outside a nursing home window in Garland, after a woman reached out to Riggins in an effort to surprise her mother she hadn't seen in months.
"There’s something about art, people get excited about seeing people create things," Riggins said. "It’s all about just finding those little moments of happiness in whatever way you can appreciate it or provide it."
Her own young daughter, Olivia is taking after her, helping out mom on several pieces and creating her own throughout the summer.
In the past, Riggins has worked several chalk art festivals but this is her busiest year ever. Since March, she's created more than 80 pieces, with more planned going into 2021.
"In unexpected ways, it’s been very good therapy for me. And I’m glad that it helps support other people," she said. "Hopefully other people have some things like that, too, in their lives.”
