SPRINGFIELD – A Springfield resident has found a way to bring joy to people in a difficult time.

Amy Reyor said she majored in fine arts in college, but never pursued an art career after graduating. Now working as a massage therapist, she said she found herself not working, bored and anxious. So she turned to something that conformed her and calmed her nerves: her art.

Reyor said she was sitting in her dining room working on homework after her recent return to school when inspiration struck. “I was sitting in the dining room, I saw mass numbers of people walking down the street [and] I was walking the dogs more than normal,” she said. “We’re all in the boat, all feeling extra anxious.”

Reyor picked up her sidewalk chalks and got to work. Soon after drawing on the sidewalk outside of her home, she said she started getting positive feedback. “I started dabbling and getting a lot of response,” she said.

From there, she put photos of her work on the Nextdoor app, where people can connect with others within their neighborhood. “I thought it was making a lot of people happy, so I put it on Nextdoor,” she said. From there, she said her artwork gained even more attention.

“Then it grew and people were encouraging me to put it on social media. I was getting messages from friends” who’d seen her drawings on a variety of social media outlets.

Recently, she took her elaborate chalk drawings outside of her Springfield neighborhood to Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters in East Longmeadow. She said the recommendation to do a coffee drawing came shortly after she did a donut drawing. While people recommended doing the drawing at Starbucks, she said she preferred to keep the attention on local coffee shops.

“I reached out to them, when I did my donut drawing they said I should do a coffee. That was around the time that things were reopening,” she explained. Reyor joked that she “thought about doing it Banksy style,” but decided not to as “she didn’t want to make anyone mad.”

Reyor said it took a bit for her to get to the coffee shop because of a surgery that prevented her from leaning, but she was finally able to do coffee-inspired sidewalk chalk at the East Longmeadow location. She said she drew “after hours so people weren’t hovering.” She also joked she “knew I’d be in the way.”

She said taking up chalk drawing has given her an outlet during an otherwise difficult time. “It’s my own outlet to get my anxiety out. It was really fun, it’s been fun to get back into,” she said. “It re-awoke my creative side, I have missed this.

“I’m just kind of rolling with it. In the past I didn’t do art unless I planned for it, and that got me into this weird stagnant place,” she said. Reyor said she has a “crazy list of ideas, but the weather has to cooperate too.” She said, “It’s been a really neat thing in a strange time.”

Additionally she said it helped her learn more about her neighbors and neighborhood as she’s originally from Maryland. “I don’t know a lot of people in the neighborhood, it’s been good to learn about the neighborhood and my neighborhood,” she said.

While Reyor said she has ideas for potential drawings in the fall and even colder weather, but it is dependent on her schedule and ability. Those interested in Reyor’s chalk drawings can find them at @artonoosevelt.