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Artists from near and far will be recreating great art on
Telford Ave. this weekend.
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For the third consecutive year, Telford Avenue in Clifton is the setting this weekend for Streetscapes: A Street Painting Festival, an event where teams of local artists reproduce historic masterpieces in chalk, directly onto the pavement. While it might seem novel to onlookers, these are no ordinary murals, and the artists aren't using ordinary chalk.
Each year, event coordinator Kip Eagen hosts a workshop where artists learn to make their own chalk from a mixture of pigments, linseed oil, soap and wallpaper paste.
Joan Gallagher Richmond, who has returned with her husband every year to teach the chalk-making technique, points out, "While store-bought sidewalk chalk is useful to create a base for the murals, handmade chalk holds longer and offers more vibrant colors." Either way, the works only last as long as the weather holds. After about two rains, the paintings become as faint and fleeting as the moment of their creation.
To complement the local artists, many of whom have participated in Streetscapes since its inception, a visiting artist is invited each year to produce a mammoth mural of his own. This year it's Rod Tryon, whose street murals have been featured nationally and internationally since America's inaugural street painting festival in 1987. Though he's known for helping with a re-creation of the Sistine Chapel -- all in chalk, of course! -- Tryon's original works range from photo-realistic re-creations of animals to Escher-influenced op-art, all of which are produced with deliberation, cunning and craft that leaves one to pose the question: Why spend so much time on a work that will simply wash away?
For many artists, the ephemeral nature of the works is precisely the attraction to street painting. Described by past participants as a type of performance art, the creation of the works is tantamount to the final product. One only needs to consider the methodical dul-tson-kyil-khor, ("mandala of colored powders.") sand paintings of Tibetan monks to understand why artists return annually to participate in Streetscapes. Not unlike the creation of mandala sand paintings, which are swept away after their completion, there seems to be a Zen to making one's own chalk and crouching over a masterpiece for a weekend.
As a first-time participant this year, I quickly became engulfed in making chalk during the workshop a few weeks ago. I'm ecstatic about being invited to team up with local artists Carol Ann Newsome and Amy Bogard to reproduce Charles Burchfield's "Noon Tide in Late May."
Despite the value that street painting has to artists like me, who spend less time than most laboring over visually based works, Streetscapes is also a valuable educational tool for the general public. The origins of street painting stand as proof, since traditional Venetian street painters of the 16th century were roving artists who reproduced masterpieces in small villages in trade for room and board. For the communities back then, as for ours today, street painting brought traditional artworks out of museums and delivered them to a place more accessible to the "common folk."
A large part of the growing success of Streetscapes lies in the fact that the interaction between the spectators and participants is educational and community based. The festival has a devoted base of participating students and professors from UC, NKU and the Art Academy, not to mention other artists who participate for the fun of it.
The fact that Streetscapes is organized by volunteers and funded entirely by private sources proves the value of the festival within the community. With backing from the Clifton Business and Professional Association, donations from 25 local businesses and merchants and a relatively fresh pavement on Telford, it's safe to say Streetscapes has the potential to become a lasting Cincinnati tradition.
STREETSCAPES happens on Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Telford Ave. at Ludlow in Clifton. The event is part of Enjoy the Arts' 20/20 Festival.
