Landlord tells Kansas tenant to stop her chalk art. The feud has TikTok perplexed

A chalk art controversy has a Kansas resident and her landlord feuding, and millions of TikTok viewers are engrossed in the drama.

Kara Vaughn posted a TikTok video May 28 showing her drawing Pokémon characters with chalk outside her apartment in Hutchinson. But as the video continues, Vaughn washes away the art with water.

It’s because her landlord called the art “disrespectful” and said it needed to be removed, according to the video.

“She immediately tells me that what I was doing was disrespectful and not OK,” Vaughn said in the TikTok. “I explained that it was chalk art and it would wash away once it rained.”

TikTok viewers called Vaughn’s art “beautiful” and are showing support for the artist. More than 10 million people have watched the initial video as of Tuesday, June 6.

But that was just the beginning of the feud between Vaughn and her landlord.

‘It’s not art to me’

Vaughn said in a follow-up video that she had contacted city officials, who told her she is allowed to draw with chalk on city sidewalks. The Hutchinson News confirmed there are no city ordinances about chalk art on public sidewalks.

But a lawyer who creates TikToks under the @dadchats moniker says landlords can prohibit tenants from defacing property and maintaining the outside of a building.

Vaughn and her landlord spoke on the phone about the issue, and the landlord initially apologized for how the situation was handled. The landlord appeared to sound more confrontational after Vaughn told her the city has allowed her chalk art.

The landlord called the chalk art “graffiti” and vowed to get an attorney involved, she says in the phone conversation recorded in a TikTok.

“I’m just disappointed,” the landlord said. “Nobody does this to somebody else’s property. It’s art to you, but it’s not art to me. It’s not something that you go out and do in front of my property.”

Vaughn, who KSNW reported is a middle school art teacher, said she was “not trying to start any problems” and was simply chalk painting as a summer activity.

The landlord said the chalk art feud “is going to be a real problem for us.”

“If you want your lease, I’m sure there’s nothing in there about you drawing, so why don’t you just start drawing everywhere,” the landlord said. “But I will go to an attorney because I’m very unhappy about all of this. So I’m sorry that you have little respect for any of our feelings.”

TikTok responds — ‘Omg it is CHALK’

More than 20 million people have watched the video of Vaughn’s phone conversation with her landlord, and the TikTok viewers are overwhelmingly in support of the artist.

Many of them are wondering why washable sidewalk chalk has become a point of contention.

“Omg it is CHALK for crying out loud. I can’t believe this is even real,” one commenter said.

“If I ever get this pressed about CHALK, then someone put me out to pasture,” another commenter said.

Vaughn said in a GoFundMe her lease is up soon and she has plans to move to a new building.

What’s next for Vaughn?

After her TikTok videos went viral and her city’s newspaper reported about the topic, she woke up to colorful chalk art drawn on the sidewalks outside her apartment drawn by encouraging locals.

“Words cannot describe the feeling I felt when I walked outside my apartment today to these two girls running out to me with open arms ready to show me all the artwork they had start making after seeing my story,” she said in the TikTok.

She now has plans for a Chalk the Town event in Hutchinson, with a focus on “sharing love, kindness and positivity within the community.”

Vaughn has not stopped creating her chalk art. Additional videos uploaded after her initial confrontation has shown her drawing cartoon characters from “The Fairly Oddparents,” “Bluey” and more.

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