Street Painting Festival

It was a hazy Sunday morning here in Florida, nice enough to be outdoors but not sunny enough for the beach. My plan was to go get some rays today but as the weather was not too agreeable I decided to go check out Fort Worth's 14Th Annual Street Painting Festival that I had seen a blurb about on the news last night. Their site says that the great tradition of street painting began in Italy in the 16Th century. A crowd would gather whenever an itinerant artist used his chalks to turn the ordinary pavement into a fine work of art. Although the "painting" would only last until the next rain, the tradition of street painting has endured over 400 years.

Artists using chalk took the pavement as canvas and transformed downtown Lake Worth into a temporary outdoor museum of original art and masterpiece reproductions. A lot of the artists were being sponsored by local businesses, schools and institutions and the turn out was a mix of suburban families, tattooed hipsters, young couples with strollers and excited teenagers. There were also many pet owners toting their dogs around that really made me miss Booboo.

Besides the paintings on the asphalt there were many tempting food vendors, jazz bands and small tents selling cocktails, T-shirts and what-nots. The local shops were mostly open and holding sidewalk sales. Several cafes and restaurants had their tables outside and there were long lines to grab a bite to eat. The quality of work ranged from the "I can do that" to the truly amazingly detailed chalk paintings. I picked a few of my favorites to post here on the blog but there were way too many more that also deserved a mention. A couple of hours after I got home this huge rain storm came down full force and saddens me that probably most of the work, many still unfinished, was washed away. I am glad I took pictures!