What's worse - being ignored or being attacked?

As a street painter, we learn quickly to adapt to changing conditions (weather, surface, materials, etc.).  We understand that those are things that make every experience different.  But there are other conditions that we deal with that have to do with human behavior.

Here is a link to a video interview with a local TV station about the damage a local group did to my chalk art at the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival in 2013.  The group, which I will not name, did not like the subject matter in the art, which was chosen by the state of Florida for the Viva Florida 500 poster. 

I was heckled, and then when I was done and took a break, they made noise, threw flyers around and then splattered the art with fake blood.  When the local deputy on duty was notified of this, they said the art was "worthless" and it was a public street, so nothing could be done. 

Really.  Worthless?  It was bad enough to have someone ignore the 2 1/2 days of work I voluntarily donated to the event, and the beauty of the art, but then to have the sheriff act as judge and jury and pass judgement, was heartbreaking.

Hopefully, we can educate the public about street painting as an art form.

18th Annual Lake Worth Street Painting Festival

The forecast was not good.  Rain, wind, and thunderstorms.  Gloomy weather was with us all weekend, but we made it through.  It was windy all weekend, and we had a short period of showers from 9 - 10 am on Saturday morning.  We were all raring to go, and it was hard to stand around and wait.  Most of us had plastic to cover, and the rain was light enough that we were able to uncover and start working fairly quickly.

Plastic and folding chairs save the day.

End of day on Saturday.

My piece, an original composition of a three headed dragon coming up out of a hole in the ground, was my largest piece yet at this event (10' x 20').  It was also a first for a 3D piece for me at this event.  I usually do much more traditional work.

View from the opposite direction.

Carmen working on Sunday.

Carmen was able to participate this year, at the last minute.  She choose to do a Bouguereau on an area that was about 6' x 8'.  She didn't finish, but it was beautiful none the less, and was a big crowd pleaser.  

Cheryl and Wayne Renshaw brought a three headed dragon puppet, which looks like lunch in this photo.

I actually finished earlier than I thought I would.  I was worried I couldn't finish it by myself, but I was done by about 2pm on Sunday (total of 16 hours work).

The crowds were often lined up to take pictures and view the art from the "sweet spot".  I often heard comments from the crowd that this art would make an awesome tattoo and that I should be a tattoo artist.  Maybe someday - you never know.  If you had told me I would be chalking the streets at age 50 for a living when I was 20, I would have thought you were nuts.

Here is the video - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Art) by Craig Houdeshell:

New Street Painting Event in Coral Springs was a Hit!

Coral Springs Museum of Art sponsored the first annual "Chalk It Up For Art"  Street Painting Festival in Broward County.  Participants ranged from elementary to high school students to professional and novice adult artists.  Held outside the museum on Saturday, March 12, 2011, museum Executive Director Barbara O'Keefe hopes it will be the first of many more to come.

I did  my first "Madonna" piece for this event.  It was about 5 feet x 7 feet, since I only had about 6 hours to complete, and then I had to help judge the event.



Honorable Mention - Betty Diaz

 

Honorable Mention -
Richard Del Ponte



Winner - High School Division

   

Winner (Professional) -
Jaime Taaffe



It's a Winner at the Disney Festival of the Masters!

I was very excited to win the "Best Portraiture/Figurative Award" at the Disney/FCAA Festival of the Masters street painting competition on November 12-14, 2010.  I chose to reproduce a photo titled Natural History by Lithium Picnic that I found on DeviantArt.  It was not only rich and gorgeous, but it also had a fall type theme.  This event is an invitational for FCAA members, and does not allow 3D or cartoon works.  The finished piece was about 6'x7' done directly on concrete with only chalk in about 19 hours (2 days).  I experimented with using Eternity Chalks for the light colors, and really liked the way they covered the surface. 

We started on Friday morning, and I was pretty much finished by 5pm on Saturday.  Judging was moved up to 10am on Sunday, so everyone was doing last minute touchups.  Luckily the weather was great and we didn't have to worry about rain.  I was under an acorn tree that kept pelting us, but I was grateful for the shade.

I also received my Qualificato Certification from the Florida Chalk Artist Association (FCAA).  There was one other who received the Qualificato (second level) and two who received the Semplice Certification (first level).

Chalk Festival brings together artists from Florida to Italy

The First International Chalk Festival in Sarasota brought together artists from across the U.S. and Europe.  The level of artistry was amazing, and encompassed both three large 3D works, and also the traditional madonnari style street paintings.  The 3D paintings started a couple days ahead of the weekend event.  Each work was completed by a team of 3-5 artists.  They began by laying down paint and then going in to add details with chalk, as the crowds waited in line to stand at the apex of the work so they could view it in the correct perspective.  The traditional chalk artists (my daughter and I included), started VERY early Saturday morning - 6:30 am - before dawn's early light!  We used some white tempera on certain areas of our work, because the asphalt was very black.  Some artists blocked in large areas with colored tempera, which I think is kind of cheating.  I prefer to have all the color done in chalk.

This was the first time I had done a "recognizable figure", as I usually do reproductions of master paintings or my own photos and designs.  This picture was from an original painting by Alex Ross for the 70th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz.  People really connected with this character and I can't tell you how many times I heard "I'll get you my pretty".  It was popular with all ages, too, as both seniors and young children recognized the character.

We worked til dusk on Saturday.  It got really hot (in the 90's) and most of the artists really slowed down in the middle of the day.  I was in total sun from 10am - 6pm.  Sunday we got back to work around 8am.  Both Carmen and I finished about midday (about 2pm for me).  Sunday was also very hot, which was why I was trying to get done earlier in the day.  As you can see from the photo at the left, there were a lot of people in costume both days.  Attendance was great, much better than last year, probably about 30,000 each day??? 

Judging was around 3pm, but the awards presentation wasn't until 6pm, so we had to wait around.  The best thing about the festival was getting to connect with so many other artists who all have the same passion. 



Rain Almost Washes Out Street Painting Festival in Daytona



We assess the damage early Sunday morning.



The 11th Annual Arthaus Street Painting Festival (part of the Port Orange Family Days) was a success, despite two downpours on Saturday. The first was around noon, and wasn't too bad. Most everyone was able to cover up, and get back to work about an hour later. But the second one came at 5 pm after a full day of chalking and literally washed away most of our work. It was very discouraging, but this is Florida, and we all know that it "occasionally" rains in Florida. I waited for the majority of water to run off, then we tented it loosely with plastic.

Sunday at 7:30 am we uncovered it to let it continue drying so I could get to work as soon as possible. I just barely finished at 12:30, in time for the judging at 1 pm.  (I didn't know I could paint a tree in 15 minutes!)  When you have to rush, it isn't as good as you want it to be, but it still looked pretty good, and I was happy to have it finished.

This "Artist's Choice" winner was a photo I liked, but I changed the background to make it more colorful. It was the perfect proportion for the odd 5' x 10' sized area and was a real crowd pleaser, especially with the kids. After the prizes were awarded, we waited around for about a half hour for the shadow to cover the entire work, so that the pictures would turn out well.  Thanks to Craig for taking such great photos during the event!

Tom Sawyer was the theme for the Stuart ArtsFest 2010. It was to celebrate the reading program and included Riverboat John and free copies of the book.

This art was originally from a book cover (artist unknown). I started at 10:00 am on Saturday on the 4' x 6' piece. I worked a total of about 10 hours and finished about 1:30 pm on Sunday. I was rushing a bit on Sunday, because the weather was threatening rain all day, but we dodged the bullet.

Best in Show Winner!

The first annual Haines City Street Painting Festival was held March 6, 2010. About 30-40 artists participated in this new event, and I received the "Best in Show" Award for my chalk art of a Norman Rock well painting titled "Springtime"!

This was a one day event, so it limited the size of the work to 5' x 7'. It was pretty chilly in the morning, but once we got to midday, it was warm and sunny.

I had never seen this particular work before, and thought it would be appropriate for the small town feel of this springtime event. It was definitely a crowd-pleaser!

All In A Day's Work

Check out this cool video. Click the link to a YouTube video showing the whole first day of the event (Avenida de Colores in Sarasota, Florida, 2009), taken from a second story window overlooking the street. I'm in the upper left hand corner of the video.

It gives an interesting view of how long it takes to produce one of these works. And this is just Saturday, from about 9am to 9pm. We then worked most of the day, til 3pm on Sunday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EbooRDIxWk

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

Bloom N Garden N Chalk Fest

Jennifer & Carmen participated in the first Bloom N Garden N Chalk Fest in Safety Harbor, Florida over the weekend of March 28th and 29th. We got started around 8am, and put down a layer of white tempera paint on the sidewalk. It was the first time we officially had to work on the sidewalk. We had two spots next to each other in front of the local art gallery shop.


Saturday was pretty warm and very windy. We each had a 4.5' x 8' space. Carmen did a reproduction of a Bougereau and I did a piece by Jim Warren titled "Awkward Age".

Sunday morning we got heavy showers. We all covered our pieces with plastic and duct tape fairly well. We decided to uncover them to let them start drying out around 8am, but then another bunch of showers came and washed some of us out.

We just had time to lay a new piece of plastic over Carmen's piece, but mine was sacrificed. Around 11am, we saw blue skies and decided to see how quickly we could recover. They moved the judging back an hour to 3pm, so we all hunkered down and got to work.