Ben Glenn, The Chalkguy
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Ben Glenn, "The Chalkguy", was born October 6, 1973 and is a professional speaker, performing chalk artist, author and ADHD life specialist.
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[edit] Early life
Ben was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but grew up and went to school in Plainfield, Illinois. Diagnosed in third grade with Learning Disabilities, Ben spent most of his school career in Special Education classes, being an under-achiever and battling issues of low self-esteem. He attended college at St. Xavier in Oak Lawn, Illinois, with the goal of earning a degree in Education, but ultimately dropped out to pursue public speaking full-time.
[edit] Career
Ben has always seen his career as more of a calling. In 1992, Ben met Bill Leach, a man who was instrumental in the course of Ben's life. Leach was an 80-something chalk artist who'd been doing chalk talks for almost 50 years by the time he and Ben met. Taking Ben under his wing, Leach encouraged him in his faith and also in his art. When Leach died in 1994, with no children of his own, he left his legacy of Living Art and all his "chalkin'" equipment to Ben. Still in college, Ben began to speak and draw for local youth groups and summer camps, but within the year, his speaking schedule was becoming so busy that he decided to take a break from college to see where Living Art would take him.
Now, more than a decade later, Ben has not had a spare moment to stop and look back. Equally in demand by churches, schools, associations and corporations, Ben's schedule has him on the road 200 days out of the year.
Ben was key in transforming the church-based, born-in-the-50s, evangelizing tool of chalk talks into a dynamic, multi-media presentation that works equally well for business professionals as it does for high schools students. He re-named the medium Chalk Media. Using giant 6x8 foot canvases, which are actually Martha Stewart bedsheets, to create beautiful landscapes in approximately 12 minutes, Ben's performance art is reminiscent of Denny Dent's, Two-fisted Art Attack, the biggest difference being the subject matter (landscapes instead of portraits) and the medium (chalk instead of paint).
[edit] Books
- Big Enough; Finding Faith to Move Mountains (ISBN 0-967568-00-5)
- Simply Special; Learning to Love your ADHD (ISBN 0-9675680-3-X)
[edit] Quotations
- "I'm not normal. I'm special!"— Ben Glenn
- "Don't be cheap with compliments. Be blessed by blessing someone else through the power of encouragement." — Ben Glenn
- "God makes no junk." — Ben Glenn
- "Who doesn't love Little Debbies? They're twelve individually wrapped snack cakes for a dollar-nineteen!" — Ben Glenn
[edit] Trivia
Ben's art piece "From Sea to Shining Sea" was on display in Terminal A of Tampa International Airport.
[edit] Personal life
Married since 1995, Ben has two daughters and lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Undiagnosed with ADHD until his early 20s, Ben is passionate about educating others about what ADHD is and what it isn't.
[edit] External links
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