Carmen wins First Place!

Carmen's winning artwork. She won first place in the Student Division at the Avenida de Colores Street Painting Festival in Sarasota, Florida. She even beat a team of 4 girls from Dreyfoos High School of the Arts. Pretty impressive for a 14 year old in eighth grade!

Carmen got started about 7:30 am on Saturday. She used a paper template for the 4 foot x 6 foot area on the sidewalk. Luckily, she was in the shade most of the afternoon.

We aren't sure who the original artist of the piece was, but we think it was by Sophie Anderson. Here Carmen, finally finished around 1pm on Sunday, sits back and talks with another artist. Carmen was definitely one of the crowd favorites, and gathered one of the largest amounts of cash in her People's Choice donation box.

Jennifer Recreates "The Flapper" at Avenida de Colores 2009

We travelled to Sarasota, Florida this past weekend to participate in the Second Annual Avenida de Colores Street Painting Festival. Lori Escalara, the featured artist from San Diego, is on the right, and my picture is on the left.

I decided to do a Life magazine cover from the 1920's titled "The Flapper" by Leyendecker. We started early, about 7:30am.

The weather was great (no rain!) but extremely hot. Thank goodness we were allowed to bring umbrellas. But it was a constant battle to keep the umbrellas upright, because of the wind. And the asphalt was unbelievably hot in the middle of the day.

My sponsor was Melissa Clark Designs, who has a web design business in Boston, but was down visiting for the festival.

This was the largest piece I've attemped on my own. It was 10 feet across by 12 feet high. I finished most of it after 12 hours of work on Saturday. Sunday I finished the word Life at the top and filled in the white background. I also did a bit of touch up on the hands and feet. I finished about noon on Sunday. To see a good overview of the event, check out this You Tube video done by Sarasota Alive!: http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/index.php?cid=147585&src=directory&view=video&srctype=detail&refno=748&category=This%2520Week&curlid=305