Chalk artists get to work in downtown Lake Worth
Annual festival turns pavement into giant outdoor art gallery.
LAKE WORTH — The eyes, those piercing brown eyes that look as though they’re boring into your soul, are the first things you notice about David Lepore’s chalk painting portrait of Princess Leia.
They’re hypnotic. Seemingly alive, like they’re about to pop off Lucerne Avenue as the “Star Wars” steely rebel leader, played by the late Carrie Fisher, prepares for battle.
“Leia is such a strong woman, a fighter. I like that,” said Lepore, a Wellington resident who owns his own flooring business and who has been painting professionally for eight years. “This will help keep her legacy alive.”
Although Lepore, 50, is covered in black chalk, the work is far from finished.
The Death Star and a TIE fighter, the symbol of the Imperial Fleet, must be added. Lepore is still tinkering with the background.
He stands back, checks out his creation, wipes sweat off his brow.
“This is work,” Lepore said, sighing. “But I’m used to it.”
More t han 600 ot her s a r tists, many wearing knee-pads and drinking gallons of bottled water, were working just as hard as Lepore on Saturday during the 23rd annual Street Painting Festival, Lake Worth’s signature event that turns Lake and Lucerne ave- nues into a dazzling, giant outdoor art gallery.
More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the two-day festival that concludes today. Mother Nature cooperated beautifully with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s Saturday afternoon.
“The Street Painting karma has been with us so far,” said Maryanne Webber, the festival’s executive director and artist coordinator who has helped produce every festival. “We couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
The works of art ranged from a g i a nt shark , a unicorn a nd Super Mario to his purple badness, Prince.
Katie Schrock of West Palm Beach was taking in her first festival and said she loved what she saw.
“It feels a little crowded, but that’s a good thing,” said Schrock, 32. “The process is the best part. You have something from nothing. The painters have this idea in their head and then we get to see every stage. It’s cooler than just seeing the final product.”
Brittany Cornett, 27, recently moved to Lake Worth. She said everyone has been telling her about the festival.
“I kept hearing it’s the thing to do,” she said. “I loved watching kids play with chalk the most.”
Of the 260 stations that were ROYAL PALM BEACH — People living along Sandpiper Avenue in Royal Palm Beach have seen speeding cars for years.
The speed limit is just 25 mph on the narrow road lined with single story houses just off of Royal Palm Beach Boulevard, but locals say most drivers ignore the signs.
Mike Gershberg saw a driver exceeding 50 mph lose control and smash into two of his parked vehicles, he told the Village Council last week.
He’s often c alling the Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Office about speeders and he won’t let his daughters into the street.
“I have a high school daughter and a junior high school daughter ... and what they cannot do is ride a bicycle, ride a skateboard or roller skates because they never learned how because we live on Sandpiper Avenue,” he said.
Help may be on the way.
The Village Council passed an ordinance Feb. 16 to establish a process for residents to get traffic calming on their streets.
Now, anyone can circulate a petition to ask for a traffic study. If they get a majority of residents on the street to sign, the village staff will study the street traffic. If it hits specific benchmarks for speeding and cut-through issues, the council can vote to install speed bumps, raise the road or crosswalks or narrow roads.
The village also circled four streets that could use traffic calming right away. In addition to Sandpiper, they looked at Sparrow Drive, Ponce De Leon Street and La Mancha Avenue.
Though the process now gives residents a way to possibly take the safety of their neighborhood into their own hands, Lori McHale said Sandpiper needs traffic calming now.
“What is it going to take for this (council) to realize we have a serious problem?” she asked. “We don’t have time.”
Another resident’s suggestion was for law enforcement to be