Visual artists used chalk to turn the streets into their own canvas at the Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival.
The annual event took place over the weekend, drawing thousands of attendees who enjoyed vendors as they took in music and hundreds of original art that touched on a variety of themes.
From pop-cultural portraits of the Rocky film series to artwork with personal influences, there was plenty to take in.
For artists like Jessi Queen and her husband, Zach Herndon, their work explores themes surrounding family and human beauty.
Queen, originally from Atlanta, Georgia, has been painting at this festival since 2016. On the first day of the festival, she said the artistic journey, story and meaning behind the art on the pavement matters just as much as the technical skills.
Queen said her unfinished, 10x12 chalk portrait of a woman with glaring hazel eyes, high cheekbones, peacock features illustrates the joy and struggles of womanhood, “representing the different types of women and their backgrounds.” It was based on Gabriella Porter, a photographer in Germany.
“A little bit of artwork from women who are suffering from Iran to women who are being deported,” Queen’s said. “[It’s] just kind of a different subject matter that I like to touch on.”
The traveling parents work as separate artists.
Herndon’s drew a 10x10 chalk art mural, based on a selfie of his wife in the style of Roy Lichtenstein's pop art movement. For his chalk portraits, he said he likes to pick solid colors that pop, illustrate low-lights on the face and its various shapes. As it unfolds, it becomes pleasing at every step of the process.
“I think that people like to see people doing things and they also are drawn to just people in general in art. Like when we talk to one another, we talk to each other in our eyes,” Herndon said. “So putting eyes down first allows us for people to have something to connect with or like right off the bat with my work.”
It wasn’t just visual art capturing eyes on several blocks. The teenage band Flavor Train captivated people with their blues, funk and rock covers.
The band is made up Charlie DeBay on vocals and bass, Nick Bencosme on the drums, and Miles Hoyt, on lead guitar. Hoyt, who is legally blind, says performing extends beyond an activity he enjoys with his bandmates. It’s cathartic.
“I started losing my sight at age six, I think,” Hoyt said. “When I started playing the guitar, it sort of made me feel better with getting my frustrations out.”
The street art in Downtown Lake Worth Beach will last until the rain and elements wash it away.
