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Great Neck Village Hosts Street Painting Event - July 16th, 2009

Mayor Jean Celender is pleased to announce that the Village of Great Neck Plaza, on Long Island, NY is hosting their first street painting event on the Bond Street, North Station Plaza Promenade, scheduled for Thursday, July 16th.

Street painters Rod Tryon and Anthony Cappetto (from Blog Now on streetpainting.tv) will be featured at the event, together creating a beautiful and fun 3-D work of art!  They will also be conducting a workshop for students to observe and learn about street painting and then try their hands at it!

Rod Tryon with his finished 'Koi Pond' 3-D street painting at Artisphere 2008 in Greenville, SC.

An internationallly acclained street painting artist, Rod Tryon has been creating attractive, 3-D illusionary and 2-D reproductions at community festivals for over 20 years.  Rod's recent work includes 3-D illusionary street paintings at the Dubai Shopping Festival in the United Arab Emirates and numerous corporate and not-for-profit events and exhibitions.  Rod recently appeared during the 13th Annual Riverhead Community Mosaic Street Painting Festival in May, where his street painting inspired young artists to create their own masterpieces!

Anthony Cappetto has been active in street painting since 2001 as a participant and a strong supporter of street painters and street painting festivals through this blog, streetpainitng.tv, and several other social networking channels.  Anthony has street painted in Mexico, Italy, Dubai (UAE), California and New York City.

Anthony Cappetto with his 'Garden with Arches' street painting at the YIA Italian Street Painting Festival in CA.  Photo courtesy of Doug Carlton.

Since the street painting art takes several hours to create, this event will start early in the morning to enable the artists to create their street painting in one day.  In addition, the artists will be providing a workshop session of approximately 90 minutes, starting at 10:30 AM on Bond Street, to a group of about 20 students from the Great Neck Arts Center program and COPAY summer day camp.  During the workshop students will learn about the history of street painting art, which dates back to the 16^th century in Italy. 

Besides the street painting, there will be activities for kids (face painting), live music and dining al fresco from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM on Bond Street and North Station Plaza during the Promenade Event.  The Promenade is not only a time of art, dining and music but also a festive event of people coming together who live in the community and enjoy being out on the street on a lovely night in the summer time.

The Promenade events, started last June by the Village in collaboration with the Great Neck Plaza Management Council (the Village’s Business Improvement District), have been hugely successful.  “Why leave Great Neck when you can have fun right here in your own downtown? The Promenades are a lot of fun and we hope by adding this street painting we will be able to inspire a few children to get excited about being involved in the arts,” Mayor Celender stated.  “We are grateful to be able to bring prominent street painters, Rod Tryon and Anthony Cappetto, here to share their street painting talents and offer a street painting art workshop with students,” says Celender. 

This event is free to the public.  Rain date: Friday, July 17^th.

Lorelle Miller's street painting at The Festival of the Arts in La Jolla, CA

Lorelle Miller’s most recent street painting was created at The Festival of the Arts in La Jolla on June 20 & 21. Her 12’ x 12’ street painting is called Countess Rimsky-Korsakova, original painting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter (1805—73).

 

Lorelle was one of several Madonnari (street painters) who participated in “Calle Color”, a special street painting exhibit in this annual art festival.

Lorelle told us "the audience seemed to be very receptive to our art form. They always wonder how we can work so hard and walk away. There was a little rain on Saturday, which we worked through as much as possible...It is always great to reconnect with the other street painting artists and enjoy the camaraderie."

Editor's note: Countess Rimsky-Korsalova was a member of Russian high society in the mid-1800's. She was known for her fashion and was considered the star of many costume balls.   Thanks for sharing this Lorelle!

Alba Rosa Amezcua Contreras & Adriana del Rocio Garcia Hernández at YIA Italian Street Painting Festival

Alba Rosa Amezcua Contreras & Adriana del Rocio Garcia Hernández attended Youth in Arts' Italian Street Painting Festival in San Rafael, CA on June 13 & 14.  Both are from the Monterrey Mexico area, and each took first place in their category at Festival Bella Via in Monterrey to bring them to San Rafael.

Together Alba & Adriana created a beautiful street painting that is a reproduction of the original art 'Grandeza Azteca' by Mexican cultural icon Jesus Helguera. Here are some photos of the process of Alba & Adriana's street painting 'Grandeza Azteca' and the legend that goes with the image.

Adriana (left) and Alba (right) working on the faces in their street painting. 

Adriana finishing up the details of the warrior's face.

 Alba adds color to the woman figure.

 Adriana & Alba work on feathers and fabric.

 Alba works on the background while Adriana adds some tones to the warrior's arm.

The Legend of the Volcanoes Ixtaccihuatl and Popocatépetl

According to the legend, at the beginning of history, when the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Anahuac, before the mountains had reached their permanent form, a beautiful princess named Mixtli was born, in the city of Tenochtitlan.  She was the daughter of Tizoc, the Tlatoani Emperor of the Mexicas.  Mixtli was sought after by numerous noblemen, among them Axooxco, a cruel and bloodthirsty man, who demanded the hand of Mixtli in marriage.  However, Mixtli's heart belonged instead to a humble peasant named Popoca.  Popoca went into battle, to conquer the title of Caballero Aguila.  If he claimed this title of nobility, Popoca would be able to fight Axooxco for the hand of Mixtli.
       

Mixtli knew the danger Popoca was in, and then, wrongly, heard that he was killed.  But in fact, Popoca was returning victorious.  Not realizing this, Mixtli killed herself, rather than live without Popoca.  When Popoca returned to find Mixtli dead, he picked her up and carried her body into the mountains.  Hoping that the cold snow would wake her from sleep, reuniting them alive, Popoca stayed at her feet, bent over, watching for her to come awake.
   

They have remained there ever since, and the body of Mixtli has become the volcano Ixtaccihuatl (the Sleeping Woman), the ever-watchful Popoca has become the volcano Popocatepetl (the Smoking Mountain), and Axooxco has become the Cerro Ajusco (the highpoint of the Distrito Federal).  Ever since, these volcanoes have towered above the city of Mexico.  The romantic legend of this couple has been passed on, ever since the Pre-Columbian era, and so now the people of Mexico know the origin of these magnificent volcanoes.

Group photo with Adriana, Alba, Rosy Loyola from Festival Bella Via, and members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Marin.

Alba (left) and Adriana (right) pose with their finished street painting 'Grandeza Azteca' at Youth in Arts Italian Street Painting Festival in San Rafael, CA. 

They did a great job creating this beautiful street painting!

Street Painting for Art Soup by Shawn McCann

Street painter Shawn McCann sent us these two photos of a street painting he did yesterday at Art Soup in Elk River, Minnesota.  This 10' x 8' street painting took Shawn six hours to create.  The reason this art form is called street painting is because it is created on the street and because the finished work looks like a real painting, with all of the details, the shadows, and the highlights.  Shawn did a great job with this one, especially in just six hours!

Art Soup is a popular outdoor art and music festival held in Elk River, Minnesota, each summer.

The photo below shows the size of the street painting and some of the chalk Shawn used for the artwork. He taped off his work area so when he was finished applying the chalk and removed the tape, he had a nice clean edge around the art.

Shawn appeared on live TV the Thursday before the event to help promote Art Soup and his upcoming appearance. The "Twin Cities Live" program asked Shawn to do a quick 30 minute street painting. Congrats Shawn!