Friday, May 1, 2009

Street Painting Festival

Our local school district has been hosting a Street Painting Festival for 16 years as a way to raise money for the Art Department. This year it was at a local shopping center in conjunction with an art show by local artists. Teen1 and Teen2 participated and we went to check out the art too. I took these photos of some of my favorites. The sidewalk artists use pastels to create their masterpieces. Working on the sidewalk must be difficult and I know it's messy because most of the artists were covered with smudges. And they use their hands to blend the chalk, so they have no fingerprints by the end of the day.
The really good artists have planned their drawing ahead of time and bring a sketch to go from. And they spend hours working on their piece, and go through boxes of pastels.


And then on Monday morning after the festival is over, the management brings out the hoses and washes it all away until next year.
I'm glad I got these photos as a tribute some great young artists.

4 comments:

Abby Lanes said...

Thank goodness you were there to take photos. They are amazing, and it's sad to me that they get washed away. Rather poetic.
~Abby

Bishop Stone said...

They are too nice to be washed away by a hose. I'd love to see them left to be washed away by nature.

Tara said...

Laura

What great artwork, it seems a shame it'll go with the rain, thanks for sharing

Neabear said...

Such a lot of work to be washed away so quick. Good thing there are cameras to catch the excellent artist work.