• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Ivann Garc, an artist from Guanajuato, Mexico, draws the Madonna with chalk blessed by Father Jason Worley, pastor of St. Ursula Church in Parkville, during the Madonnari Arts Festival Sept. 6-8 in Little Italy. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Madonnari Arts Festival revives chalk work with Renaissance roots

September 9, 2019
By Mary K. Tilghman
Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Feature, Local News, News

Michael Kirby, a Baltimore artist and one of the founders of the Madonnari Arts Festival in Baltimore, talks with visitors admiring his rendition of the Mona Lisa at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and S. High Street in Little Italy. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Gray clouds threatened to burst open as 42 artists crouched over 10-foot-by-10-foot cracked, oil-stained patches of South High Street Sept. 6. It was business as usual. With Little Italy’s fifth annual Madonnari Arts Festival about to begin, they had to get their works of art done pronto.

Michael Kirby’s Mona Lisa, at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and High, included one important change. Instead of an Italian background, the famous DaVinci subject smiled in front of a Baltimore skyline. Kirby, a co-founder of the festival, said he was paying tribute to the city and the original Renaissance man 500 years after his death.

Madonnari refers to artists who draw Madonnas, Kirby explained. An Italian, Catholic tradition begun in the 16th century, madonnari now draw secular as well as religious images, he said.

With subjects as varied as saints and Madonnas, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Potter, madonnari came from Italy and Belgium, Germany and Mexico, along with about 10 local artists and local students.

Ivann Garc, a Mexican painter, worked with pastels blessed in the opening ceremonies by Father Jason Worley, pastor of St. Ursula in Parkville.

Ivann Garc, an artist from Guanajuato, Mexico, uses chalk to depict the Madonna and Child during the Madonnari Arts Festival Sept. 6 – 8 in Little Italy. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Although Kirby recreated Raphael’s Sistine Madonna for the inaugural festival in 2015, this year he and his children Daniela, 12, and Rafael, 10, went with Harry Potter.

“They decide on the artwork,” Kirby said. “They do everything. I try to do as little as possible.”

A graduate of Archbishop Curley High School who worships at St. Casimir and Holy Rosary in Baltimore, Kirby was studying in Europe 25 years ago when he encountered madonnaro Flavio Coppola as he drew on the streets of Florence.

“I started drawing right next to him,” Kirby said.

Working beside Coppola, he learned the techniques of putting soft pastels to the rough pavement surfaces. “If you do it every week, you have to get better,” said Kirby, who remains grateful for the patience of Coppola. “He was super nice to a stupid American,” Kirby said.

Now a full-time artist and founder of the Murals of Baltimore studio, Kirby continues in the madonnari tradition as only the second American to achieve the distinction of “master madonnaro.”

He likes the transitory nature of chalk art.

“It washes away,” he said. “You have to deal with the weather, not just the rain but the sun as well. … There’s always complications. That’s the challenge and the fun part, too, to see if you’re smart enough to get around it.”

In addition, madonnari work in the presence of others, on a dirty broken surface.

“You’re going to see something new, something different and only for a short time,” Kirby said. “If you don’t go, you miss it.”

In 2015, he partnered with Cyd Wolf and her husband, Germano Fabiani, a restaurant owner, to celebrate the ancient street art in Little Italy.

Wolf said she and her husband wanted to do something uplifting after the death of Freddie Gray. “What can we do to make this a better place?” Wolf remembered thinking. Her husband, a Florence native familiar with madonnari, suggested the festival.

Andrea Starinieri, an Italian artist from Pescara, Italy, puts the finishing touches on a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Madonnari Arts Festival in Little Italy. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“For years, he wanted to do this,” she said.

The arts festival continues to grow, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.

“People loved it so we kept doing it,” Kirby said.

Professionals work beside amateurs, Europeans next to Americans.

“We really want people to interact with each other and see what the world has to offer,” Kirby said.

Elizabeth Humphries and Gurmannat Kalra, graduate students at the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences, chose brain images to fit this year’s theme of “Courage.” Their MRI images illustrated how the flight and fight responses, also called the courage and fear responses, light up the brain.

“It’s traditional in medical schools to illustrate your findings,” said Humphries, a Catholic native of Prince George’s County.

Kirby said family responsibilities kept him home in recent years, but as his children grow, that could change. In fact, in October the three of them will participate in “Chalktoberfest” Oct. 12-13 in Marietta, Ga.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Mary K. Tilghman

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pope Leo to return to practice of ‘imposing’ pallium on new archbishops

  • Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and associate pastor assignments

  • Pope’s brother says even as a baby, future pontiff had a spiritual ‘air’ about him

  • Diversity is cause for strength, not division, pope tells Rome clergy

  • Pope sets Sept. 7 for joint canonization of Blesseds Acutis and Frassati

| Latest Local News |

Radio Interview: Books and Authors: Inspiring Trailblazers

Future priest from Congo has a heart of service

Sister Joan Minella, former principal and pastoral life director, dies

Archbishop Lori offers encouragement to charitable agencies affected by federal cuts

Incoming superior general of Oblate Sisters of Providence outlines priorities

| Latest World News |

U.S. bishop calls for ardent prayer, diplomacy as Israel-Iran strikes continue

Suspect arrested for murdered Minnesota lawmaker, husband

Iconic Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Paris celebrates its 150th birthday

Pope urges Madagascar’s bishops to protect creation as prophetic mission

At audience with martyr’s mother, pope prays for peace in Congo

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • U.S. bishop calls for ardent prayer, diplomacy as Israel-Iran strikes continue
  • Suspect arrested for murdered Minnesota lawmaker, husband
  • Iconic Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Paris celebrates its 150th birthday
  • Pope urges Madagascar’s bishops to protect creation as prophetic mission
  • At audience with martyr’s mother, pope prays for peace in Congo
  • Sharing joy of discovery contributes to peace, pope tells astronomers
  • Pope addresses instances of violence against Christians, prays for peace
  • Radio Interview: Books and Authors: Inspiring Trailblazers
  • USCCB, Catholic Charities among 200 NGOs in House probe on migrant aid

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED