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NUNAVUT - Many local residents are already familiar with the work of urban artist Michael Penney, though his imaginative designs are not displayed in any galleries or books or even online.

Penney is the guy who writes phrases in Inuktitut syllabics on concrete surfaces all across town. Sidewalks, steps, benches and picnic tables are liberated from their drab greyness by Penney's colourful chalk work.

The medium of Michael Penney's urban art is chalk on concrete and the message is in Inuktitut. - Daron Letts/NNSL photos

Translations of Michael Penney's chalk phrases: - Who among us has mana? - Are we enjoying summer, yet? - Are you consuming too much alcohol? - It shall be washed away in the rain. - The wind will blow some of it away. - I hope the flagpoles don't blow away. - Do we understand? - Be calm. - Where to next?

"I think it's really beautiful because it doesn't last," Penney said as he neatly wrote a sentence on a sidewalk near the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre on Friday afternoon. "It's not an attempt at eternal fame. It's going to be gone and then I can come up with new art. It's a creative release for me and it's a sober activity."

Penney grew up in Yellowknife, but his mother is from Baffin Island and works as an Inuktitut/English translator here.

The Inuktitut sentences Penney writes often comment on the urban spaces they adorn. Some of his words pose friendly questions to employees at City Hall, others greet folks entering a building and some are just random non sequiturs.

None of the chalked sentiments is overtly political. In fact, they are all gentle in spirit.

"Linguistically all Inuktitut phrases are supposed to lack malice," Penney said. "The language is more playful than English. English is a language that attempts to define everything it sees and hears."

A few primly-dressed office workers accelerated their pace as they passed Penney in mid-artistry on Friday afternoon. To some passersby it seemed like the artist was breaking a rule.

And he was. He was drawing a purple sun. But he can justify it.

"The sun can be drawn in many different colours given that the universe is a massive unexplored expanse that we cannot be aware of at all times," he said.

Penney said he is seldom bothered while creating his art. On one occasion a security guard got into a bit of a huff. Penney said he responded by retreating to a distant sidewalk, where he wrote "don't get angry" as a message of meditation.

"Civility is not encrusted in our marrow," he said. "It's a work in progress."