The Times photo by Robert Herrington
Ben “The Chalk Guy” Glenn uses colorful chalk on a black bedsheet to create a work of art he referenced in his motivational speech at Noblesville Middle School Thursday afternoon.
The Times photo by Robert Herrington
After finishing his work, Ben “The Chalk Guy” Glenn describes the process to Noblesville Middle School students before donating it to the school Thursday afternoon.
As the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie theme played, motivational speaker and artist Ben "The Chalk Guy" Glenn, held chalk in his hand like a sword and made drastic swoops across a blank black bedsheet canvas. As the music's tempo increased, so to did Glenn's frantic movement - matching strokes with the song's percussion.
Within minutes of starting, Glenn had finished his piece to the applause of the 1,300-plus Noblesville Middle School students in attendance Thursday afternoon.
"Who knew you could have so much fun with chalk," Glenn joked. "I'm often asked what I call my pieces. I call this one 'draw as fast as you can and pray it looks like something when I get done.'"
Glenn began his motivational speech by utilizing his speed drawing.
"It's very easy to relate a drawing to our lives," he said. "When we start out in life it's like a blank canvas. . . The choices we make mold our lives and sometimes in life we're going to experience mess."
Glenn then transitioned into his fear and dislike of test taking, because of his experience in third grade when he was tested and placed into a special needs classroom.
"Labels are never easy. The first label they ever gave me was 'special,'" Glenn said.
Other labels such as Learning Disabled and Attention Deficit Disorder were later placed on Glenn. He recalled to the students in attendance about how he felt after non-flattering labels were place on him by his peers when they discovered where he was spending the school day.
"I kept thinking life stinks," he said.
Glenn said it was the message from his special needs teacher that provided him with a new outlook.
"She told me to snap out of it and if I sat here and did nothing I would never beat this thing," he said.
Using his drawing again, Glenn drew a thick black line through the artwork saying that in life - like in art - ugliness appears. Despite the "ugliness" of ADD that he deals with, Glenn told the students that his testing back in third grade was actually a good thing that happened in his life despite the troubles he had.
"You can't overcome anything until you know what it is you want to overcome," he said.
Glenn said that sometimes life throws you curveballs and that ugly things happen because of circumstances outside of our control. Other times, he quickly added, the curveballs are from ones own doing because of choices they made.
"Sometimes an ugly gets worse before it gets better," he said.
But like him, Glenn said the NMS students had people at the school who would stand behind them when the ugliness occurs.
"There is nothing better than knowing someone believes in you," he said excitedly. "Before I leave, I want you to be encouraged that your teachers and faculty believe in you and want you to do one thing - keep moving forward."
Mixing his personal stories with humor and art, Glenn received a standing ovation from the students following his speech.
"I thought his presentation was funny," said eighth-grader Hannah Carter.
Before leaving, Glenn polished the "ugly" mark he created on the canvas to complete his work, which he then donated to the school as a remembrance of his speech.
"I like how he took a blank canvas and turned it into something amazing in a lot of different steps," said eighth-grader Ethan Puckett. "We didn't know what he was going to do."
