Photos: Personal Journeys: Pied Piper of the Beltline

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Photos: Chantelle Rytter is shaping the culture of Atlanta, one joyful parade at a time.

Chantelle Rytter leads the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade last month. After kicking off the Art on the Atlanta Beltline public art showcase for four years now, the parade has been given permanent status as an annual event.

Chantelle cheers as she speaks to the crowd before the parade.

An estimated 10,000 people marched in the 2013 Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade or watched it pass by as it snaked along the eastside trail from Old Fourth Ward to Midtown. Chantelle hopes to someday host a lantern parade on the westside trail.

Chantelle demonstrates how to make a top hat lantern as participants David Durand (from left), Mark Alfonso and Jill Wiscombe look on at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club in Little Five Points.

Chantelle (background center) instructs participants (from left) Bret Williams; his children, Grady, 7, and Dexter, 3; and wife Stephanie Williams as they make lantern hats.

Chantelle, who lives in a Depression-era shotgun cottage filled with her whimsical creations, built her first parade float for the Dundalk, Md., Fourth of July parade when she was in eighth grade. She later worked a seasonal job at Blaine Kern Studios, building Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans.

Chantelle, founder of the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons, is surrounded by the group's Day of the Dead skeleton puppets, which will appear in the Little Five Points Halloween Parade.

Chantelle and original Krewe member Thomas Hoomes receive the Witches Cup in 2003 for best float in the Little Five Points Halloween Parade.

Chantelle experiments with new lantern forms on her back deck. This giant stick fish has been created with thin strips of bamboo and masking tape. Eventually, she'll cover it with tissue paper or perhaps a thin, translucent fabric.

Chantelle makes her way to the front of the pack to lead the Great Atlanta Bicycle Parade down Peachtree Street last month. She organizes four bike parades a year for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition's Atlanta Streets Alive events.

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Chantelle Rytter leads the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade last month. After kicking off the Art on the Atlanta Beltline public art showcase for four years now, the parade has been given permanent status as an annual event.

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