The Chalk Artist

The chalk artist of the title is Collin, a 23-year-old who works variously as a waiter, a bicycle mechanic, and a scenic designer and actor in an itinerant theater company. He is content with his freewheeling lifestyle until he gets involved with Nina, a serious-minded high school teacher struggling to control and engage her students in her first year on the job. Wanting to offer Collin more stability, Nina gets him a position at her father's video game company, Arkadia, working as an artist for an immersive game called UnderWorld. We also follow a search for identity by two of Nina's students, the twins Diana and Aidan. Diana explores body issues and sexuality, while Aidan becomes increasingly immersed in UnderWorld. One needn't be a gamer to follow the descriptions of the various aspects of the universe depicted, from the design and marketing processes within Arkadia to fan culture and the playing experience.