Chalk Art Ministry & Teaching

W. Karl Steele is remembered as the first black-light chalk artist. Public speaking came hard to him, and drawing gave him a way to carry a message without depending on words.

In a gospel chalk talk, the artist draws a full scene by hand before a live audience while a message or hymn is given — the picture finished in minutes. Steele took the form somewhere new: he made his own luminous chalk so that, when the house lights fell and an ultraviolet “black light” came up, images hidden in the drawing blazed into view.

He first showed it in the early 1940s at Maranatha Conference Center in Muskegon, Michigan — drawing the translation of Elijah, then switching on the black light to reveal a fiery chariot hidden within the scene. He had been part of Maranatha from its founding in 1936, and remained part of its ministry for over forty years.

He built his own easels and lighting, and even devised a switching mechanism to fade one scene into the next as he illustrated Bible stories and hymns. By 1955 he was credited with some 5,000 drawings made over about fifteen years for audiences across the country — among them his best-known piece, “Stranger in Galilee.” He traveled with a repertoire of about fifty scenes, drew to live local music, and never charged for his work.

His influence carried on through the artists he taught. His student Esther Frye brought gospel chalk art into churches, camps, and prisons; through her it reached Ding Teuling, who named Steele the first black-light chalk artist and became a teacher of the form himself. In histories of gospel chalk art, Steele’s name stands among its pioneers — alongside P. H. Kadey, Esther Frye, Phil Saint, and Ding Teuling.