Art Utopia Wiki

Nadine and the Reading Palms chalk drawing by David Zinn, Laguna Beach, California, USA

Looking straight down at a pavement edge of three large, rust-red clay bricks separated by pale grey mortar joints, with a strip of plain grey concrete along the bottom and a bed of tufty, grey-green ornamental grass spilling over the top edge. On the middle brick, a tiny chalk mouse with a pale pink face, a pointed snout and round ears lies in a rope-net hammock under a blue and white checked blanket, holding a small orange book; one pink foot pokes out at the left and her long, ringed tail hangs down through the net. The hammock’s cords are drawn as tied to the two mortar joints on either side, so the joints read as palm trunks and the grass above them as the fronds.
Artwork FileLaguna Beach · USA
Gone2021

Nadine and the
Reading Palms

David Zinn · Chalk and charcoal on brickwork, 1 November 2021 · Laguna Beach, California

Photo as published on Street Art Utopia. The artist sells the same view as a signed print on zinnart.com

  • #DavidZinn
  • #Nadine
  • #NadineAndTheReadingPalms
  • #ChalkArt
  • #SidewalkChalk
  • #LagunaBeach
  • #California

Nadine, a tiny chalk mouse, lies in a hammock with a book on a brick pavement in Laguna Beach, California. The hammock hangs between two mortar joints that stand in for palm trunks, and a bed of real grass above them makes the fronds. David Zinn drew it in chalk and charcoal on 1 November 2021, on a return visit to the town. Like all his chalk, it was temporary.

4 things to know

  1. Dated by the artistZinn’s own shop page gives the day and the place: the drawing “was created in Laguna Beach, CA with chalk & charcoal on inspirational brickwork by David Zinn on November 1, 2021.” zinnart.com
  2. Too relaxed to readHis caption reads: “Even Nadine sometimes gets too relaxed to read!” The joke is in the title: two joints in the brick pavement become palm trunks, the grass growing above them becomes the leaves, and Nadine’s hammock is strung between them. zinnart.com
  3. A visit delayed by the pandemicThe Daily Pilot reported that Zinn first came to Laguna Beach in 2019 and was meant to return the following year, “but the coronavirus pandemic resulted in those plans being postponed.” He came back in early November 2021, and a scavenger hunt invited people to find 10 of his drawings downtown. Daily Pilot
  4. Drawing as a performanceAt a public demonstration on the Promenade on Forest on Saturday 6 November 2021, Zinn told the crowd: “If you’re going to draw in public, it is a weird territory because it is a performance in that you’re doing a thing in public where people can watch.” Daily Pilot

Check-in guide

📍
Laguna Beach, California (zinnart.com). The artist does not say which street. In November 2021 his drawings were placed around the downtown area for a scavenger hunt (Daily Pilot), but no source ties this one to a spot.
🧭
With no sourced spot, the Maps button only searches for downtown Laguna Beach.
🚫
There is nothing left to see: the artist calls the drawing a “temporary street art installation”, made in chalk and charcoal on 1 November 2021. We found no later dated photo.
🎨
The town’s Promenade on Forest is where Zinn drew a flying pig, the “Pigasus”, in public on 6 November 2021 (Daily Pilot).
Open in MapsArtist’s print page

Sightings

  1. 20211 Nov

    Drawn, artist’s record

  2. 20217 Nov

    Daily Pilot: Zinn in town

  3. 202113 Dec

    CBS News report

  4. 20266 Oct

    In SAU “In Their Own World”

The green stamp links to the artist’s own record, which gives the day of the drawing. The amber stamps are reports about his November 2021 visit to Laguna Beach; they do not show this drawing. No source records the day the chalk wore away.

On the record

David Zinn (zinnart.com)Drawing dated 1 November 2021

“Nadine and the Reading Palms” print

“Even Nadine sometimes gets too relaxed to read! This temporary street art installation was created in Laguna Beach, CA with chalk & charcoal on inspirational brickwork by David Zinn on November 1, 2021.”

The artist’s own caption, on the page where he sells the photo as a hand-signed 8 × 10 inch giclée print. The print photo shows the same scene as ours.

Read

Daily Pilot7 November 2021

Chalk it up: Artist David Zinn returns to Laguna Beach with a temporary public art event

“Zinn, who is originally from Ann Arbor, Mich., came to Laguna Beach in 2019. He was set to come back to town the next year, but the coronavirus pandemic resulted in those plans being postponed.”

By Andrew Turner, in the Sunday print edition. The paper adds that “A scavenger hunt invited people to search for 10 of Zinn’s creations in the downtown area.” It does not mention Nadine.

Read

The facts

Artist
David Zinn, chalk artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan (zinnart.com, Daily Pilot) Checked
Title
“Nadine and the Reading Palms”, the title of the artist’s print Checked
Character
Nadine, named in the artist’s caption; one of Zinn’s recurring characters, “a mouse of adventure” (zinnart.com, About the Artist) Checked
Date
1 November 2021 (zinnart.com). Only the artist gives the day; the Daily Pilot confirms he was drawing in Laguna Beach that week Checked
Place
Laguna Beach, California, USA (zinnart.com) Checked
Exact spot
Not published by the artist or anyone else we found Unconfirmed
Medium
Chalk and charcoal on brickwork; the artist calls it “inspirational brickwork” (zinnart.com) Checked
The visit
A temporary public art event in early November 2021; Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Manager Sian Poeschl is quoted on bringing him back (Daily Pilot, CBS News) Checked
Photo
Our photo shows the same scene as the artist’s print; the image file was uploaded to Street Art Utopia in January 2022. The photographer is not named Reported
Status
Gone. The artist calls the work temporary; drawn 1 November 2021, with no later sighting. The day it wore away is not recorded Reported

Related

All sources (6)

This drawing

The artist

  • zinnart.com: About the Artist, the artist’s own page, undated. Names Nadine among his “most enduring characters”: “a mouse of adventure”.

The artist in Laguna Beach

Where we showed it

Artwork File · Last checked 6 October 2026 · Certainty labels follow How We Verify Art · All Artwork Files