|
The downtown streets of a southern Florida town were transformed this past weekend into a temporary outdoor art museum when hundreds of artists created original works using only sticks of chalk.
A crowd of more than 2,000 people converged for the18th Annual Street Painting Festival in Lake Worth, Fla., despite the threat of rain, according to local news reports.
Amateur and professional painters sprawled across the asphalt “painting” dragons, elephants, cars, musicians, and inspired replicas of Da Vincis and Rembrandts, reports said.
The festival’s coordinator, Maryanne Webber told the Sun Sentinel, “Street painting is a type of performance art. The painting is not about the finished work. It's about the process of creating the piece.
“That’s the charm and appeal and beauty of the event. The artists don’t compete with each other. They work, literally, on an equal plane, and they all participate for the love of street painting.”
Street painting is traced back to 16th century Italy, when itinerant artists would use chalk to transform cobblestone streets into makeshift canvases, according to the event’s website.
Pavement murals have been the subject of numerous news reports in Durability + Design. See: Street ‘Compass’ Mural Marks Geographic Heart of Boulder, Colo.; A Whale of a Street Mural in Seattle; and Storm-Drain Murals Deliver Pollution Lesson.
More information on Lake Worth street painting: http://streetpaintingfestivalinc.org/.
|
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
1.jpg)
