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b'David Zinn has more friends than anyone can count. It\\u2019s a rare condition for someone so \\u201cpathologically shy,\\u201d so anxious, and so naturally prone to gloom. Granted, many of his friends have yet to materialize, but it\\u2019s certain they will appear when he needs them most. He just requires a weather-beaten sidewalk and his wooden box of chalk.\\n\\nZinn\\u2019s imaginary posse includes countless whimsical creatures emerging from cracks and stumps, sprouting weeds as hair, and teaching life lessons amid their pock-marked surroundings. So what appears to be a three-dimensional flying pig with a balloon (Philomena, for instance) may be Zinn working through an existential crisis on a cracked piece of pavement.\\n\\n\\u201cI am very comfortable using the obstacles of a non-blank canvas to avoid the much more terrifying prospect of a blank canvas,\\u201d the artist says. \\u201cAnd it\'s something I hope I can carry over to the rest of my life. Because I\'m sometimes shocked with how much I am still prone to seeing an obstacle in life as an obstacle.\\n\\nIn his art, the obstacles represent freedom from the onslaught of myriad choices a blank page presents. Working with found objects sets the stage for Zinn to make his imaginary friends visible to everyone else. You might catch Sluggo, the stalk-eyed green dude emerging from a snowdrift before it melts. Look closely at an abandoned umbrella and you\\u2019ll notice an ideal shelter for Nadine the tiny book-reading mouse. (She\\u2019s bit of a mentor to Zinn, the one who helps him figure out why he\\u2019s here, and what he\\u2019s doing.)\\n\\n\\u201cSince I often don\'t know the fate of my own drawings, I don\'t know who is going to see them or what effect it might have,\\u201d he says. \\u201cSo there\'s a faith aspect of just assuming the best, and that we\'re living in the best possible circumstances that were available at the time.\\u201d\\n\\nPhilosopher Zinn actually graduated with a creative writing degree from U-M\\u2019s Residential College and spent much of his career as a commercial artist and designer. Ann Arbor residents may recognize the posters, signage, advertising, and other promotional work he has produced for clients ranging from U-M\\u2019s Gilbert & Sullivan society to the shops at Kerrytown. And since 1987, locals have grown accustomed to spotting his colorful critters underfoot, only to lose them again as soon as the elements erase them into the ether.\\n\\n\\u201cPeople often want to know why I\'m not sad that these drawings are destroyed by rain and wind,\\u201d Zinn says. \\u201cAnd some people are very uncomfortable with my not-being-uncomfortable about this. But I have found that holding on to things is rarely a source of comfort and ease. That\'s pretty much where anxiety comes from: holding on to things. Letting go is where you find your ease and comfort, not holding on.\\u201d\\n\\nLong ago, Zinn \\u201clet go\\u201d of his identity as \\u201cArtist\\u201d with a capital A. He much prefers the lower-case version, the kind of art that is temporary, outside, and inspired by an existing image. He likens it to pareidolia, the concept of seeing faces in the clouds. He describes his method as \\u201caugmented pareidolia,\\u201d in which he catches a glimpse of something and \\u201cconnects the dots.\\u201d Pretty soon that big flat weed spreading across the cement is a snaggle-toothed fish accepting a piece of cake from an unflappable mouse. In a boat, no less.\\n\\nZinn shares his wisdom with lower-case artists of all ages through Ted Talks, tutorials, and his books, The Chalk Art Handbook, Underfoot Menagerie, and Temporary Preserves. He photographs his work and delights followers on social media with his deceptively cute drawings.\\n\\nThroughout the pandemic of 2020-21, he challenged himself to draw only on the block surrounding his house. It was a boast he\\u2019d been making for years: that he\\u2019d never run out of options. And while it turned out to be true, \\u201cI\\u2019ve been thinking about venturing onto the next block,\\u201d he says.\\n\\nZinn still has a mental list of spots on his to-do list and has learned not to procrastinate when he finds a splotch, a weed, a crack that inspires.\\n\\n\\u201cIt\\u2019s been an opportunity to see that ephemerality is really the universal condition,\\u201d he says, \\u201ceven among things we think of as permanent. I could think, \\u2018Oh, that\'s an interesting crack in the ground, but I\\u2019m going to come back because that crack\\u2019s gonna be there for a long time.\\u2019\\n\\n\\u201cNot always so,\\u201d he continues. \\u201cNot only do cracks get fixed, cracks change over time. They widen and they shift. The permanent ground has more in common with my dust than it does with any kind of actual permanence."'