Artists Jimi Haha and Jeff Alan Huntington spent Friday afternoon in the garden next to Lemongrass painting a 5-foot ceramic chicken.

The sculpture is the first of what could be dozens that will reside along West Street as part of Hatching the Arts in Annapolis. It's a marketing idea developed by the Anne Arundel Arts Council to draw attention to Annapois' Capital Central Arts district.

"It's about time Annapolis did this," Huntington said. "The best way to get people into a museum is to put art out on the streets."

From May to September 2004, 150 panda sculptures decorated downtown Washington, DC, as part of the "PandaMania" art exhibition. In 2001, New York City had the Cow Parade where artists decorated life size cows, and Baltimore was adorned with dozens of colorful crabs in 2007.

Huntington designed one of the DC pandas.

Haha and Huntington work together under the name JaH-HaHa Collaboration and have a studio on Hudson Street.

The theme for their chicken is "Chicken Little that didn't make it across the road," Huntington said. "He was in the middle of hatching and the sky starting falling when he tried to run across the road."

When it's complete, the sculpture will have X's for eyes and a set of tire tracks across its back. The top half will look like the sky and the bottom half will still be encased inside a shell.

Once painted, the chicken will receive a coat of polyurethane to protect it from the elements and from anyone who might want to add their own finishing touches. The finish will allow graffiti to be wiped off.

This chicken is also the only sculpture that will be finished on location. The rest of them will be designed in private and brought to their location when completed.

Haha said, "There are a lot of great artists around here so I'm excited to see what everyone does."