It all started with a girl. 

It was 1991 and Dave Johnston was young and in love.  But his girlfriend at the time had decided to leave the strip malls of Scarborough behind for the fjords of Sweden, and like any heartbroken hopeless romantic, Johnston wasn't about to let a few thousand miles stand between him and his better half.  The only problem was finding the money for a plane ticket, but Johnston had an idea, albeit a far-fetched one at the time. 

With no formal training in art, he decided to try his hand at creating chalk drawings on city sidewalks.  Putting away every nickle and quarter that was tossed his way, he accomplished his goal.  The relationship wouldn't last, but he had found a new direction in life. 

"I saw some guy doing it one time and I thought hey I can draw, I should try that," he explains while taking a few moments away from an ambitious project at Buskerfest.  "I had to get to Sweden at the time to see my girlfriend, so I saved up as much as I could with tips from sidewalk art and made it to Sweden.  When I got back I thought this could be a career."

Since then, Johnston has become a recognizable figure on some of Toronto's busiest street corners, transforming dismal slabs of grey, lifeless concrete into dazzling works of art.  His subjects range from superheroes like Batman, to complex Italian Renaissance pieces.  (check out more of his works here.)

 "I got 52% in art class, go figure, now I'm living as an artist," he quips. 

His initial efforts were admittedly crude, but after countless hours on his hands and knees, he soon began to make a transformation that was akin to the superheroes he finds so intriguing.  

Dave Johnston slowly became the Chalkmaster, a tag that has given him world-wide recognition. 

But it wasn't as simple as slipping into a phone booth. 

"There was definitely some lean years, you can't tell by how fat I am, but it's only recently that I got my head on straight," he admits with a smile.  "I know what I'm doing now and I know what I want.  I know how to budget, all that grown up stuff.  But there were definitely lean years."

"I didn't have a lot of confidence (when I started), I came from a background of a couple of foster homes, kind of poor, we didn't have access to a lot of art supplies.  Everybody says you don't make it as an artist so you get a job, but then I realized no, if I want to be an artist I have to make it happen."

At 38 and a father of two, Chalkmaster has expanded his efforts and doesn't rely solely on his chalk work for an income.  When he's not on the street he'll work corporate gigs, special events, festivals, and private commissions.  He now paints on canvas and works on elaborate murals to make ends meet.

"I'm not rich but I've got it way better than a lot of people thanks to the support I get."

"(The first piece I ever did) was Spiderman, and it was not very good.  And then I started doing Disney characters in front of Union Station, and I was up at Yonge and Eglinton doing movie posters, or trying to.  I would make $50 and think, 'Wow, I made 50 bucks!'  Try making 50 bucks a day when you're 38."

"Artists have it hard in this world," he adds.  "People say do it as a hobby, but it's part of you.  But it's a hard one to make because the world doesn't always support it...People used to say to me every day, why don't you get a job with your art, you could do any job you wanted...now they say 'I look forward to seeing you here,' so that's kind of cool."

What hasn't been cool, is this summer's weather.  If it weren't for his side projects and some diligent saving, Johnston admits he may have gone broke after Toronto set records for precipitation. 

"You know what I want to do to Mother Nature? I just want to burn a bunch of plastic spoons," he jokes.  "But thanks to being a bit smarter than I used to be...now it doesn't affect me as much because I put 80% away of everything I make, so it doesn't affect me as much, but it definitely messes me up."

It can also be disheartening to work for days on a drawing that is suddenly washed away.  But chalk artists are a different breed.  They have to put their egos aside and realize that their masterpieces will be stomped on by thousands of stampeding rat racers. 

"It used to bother me," he explains, clasping his hands, which are raw and stained from continually rubbing chalk in the sidewalk.   "At first I was like, 'stay off my art, it's so rude'...I've got a permit to do it now, but the fact is this is still a sidewalk, if they choose to walk on it, I'm the guy who is sitting there in the middle of it and I'm thinking it's kind of part of the art in a way...the odd footprint is a part of what I'm doing."

As far as the fleeting nature of his creations, Chalkmaster doesn't seem to mind that a sudden shower can erase his efforts in seconds time.

"At the end of the day it doesn't bother me.  It's like when you go see a play...all you're taking with you is the memory, you're taking a memory, it's not about the product or buying it."

"My talent, or my skills...it's a gift obviously because it's allowed me to survive and travel around the world, but I've only been able to do that by sharing it with other people, so I've got this belief that art is for the people.  The people are what make your art."

"I'm living a dream man."

michael.talbot@citynews.rogers.com