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A letter from one of our treasured Street Painters
Dear Dr. & Mrs. Lieberman,
Aunt Lillian, Henry and I had lots of fun and enjoyed hanging out with the real artists. Watching the art work develop in front of our very eyes was a wonderful experience. We all want to say THANK YOU for your kindness and for giving us the opportunity to share in the fun. May G-d Bless you both.
Lillian, Henry and Noel
Festival Vendors 2010
Christy,
Thank you for the phone call this morning. I agree that for many people this is about more than just simply putting chalk on asphalt, it is very much a way to express ones self.
Our family consists of Tom (Dad), Betsy (Mom), Athena (daughter) and Diana (daughter). Our family has been participating in street painting since 2004. We started at one venue in Riverside and over the years have participated in 8 venue locations. We luckily have been asked to participate in an expanding list of venues to include two more venues this year and we really take pride in the fact that we are being recognized and invited to places to do this sort of thing.
The Mission Viejo Fun with Chalk Event is one that we have participated in for 5 years and really truly enjoy attending. The people are great, the venue location is great and the weather is always awesome. For us street painting is something that we can do together as a family, we get to spend time together creating something for the public to enjoy and even though it is a temporary medium we still keep coming back. For us it is about the process, seeing peoples reactions, enjoyment and really spending time togehter being creative.
All four of us come from different backgrounds when it comes to art and creation. Dad didn't really grow up doing "art" in it's truest sense he had different professions until 1997 when he suffered a brain stem stroke. Since then he has been retired really trying to hone his skill in art taking many classes at local community colleges and senior centers. Mom (Betsy) is a dietitian and has never had any training in art but when it comes to street painting helps out with all the backgrounds and does a great job. I (Athena) hold a professional degree in Architecture, currently working toward my license, and enjoy artistic creation and photography a lot and wish to take up other mediums as well. Diana has the most professional training with a degree in Illustration and is currently expanding her knowledge at the Gnomon School for Visual Effects.
This year started out a bit rough for us. Our Dad (Tom) had open heart surgery at the end of January. Since then he has been back in the hospital for post surgery complications three more times. He was admitted to the hospital last Sunday the 18th for the third time and was released on Friday the 23rd at 11am. We showed up to the Norman P Murray Senior Center to start our square that day, we were able to get through some of the square before we ran out of daylight. Our dad rested that day for obvious reasons but he still wanted to be there with us to enjoy everything. Unfortunately his stay outside the hospital didn't last long and we had to take him back to the hospital Saturday evening where he is still currently staying. He is still undergoing tests and we hope for a speedy recovery so that he can move forward with his post-op rehabilitation.
Even though street painting can be grueling on the body it is something we keep coming back to as a family and even though there have been obvious setbacks this year, that may stop some people, we keep striving forward and hope that Dad will be back in a place where he can participate again next year with the rest of us.
Sorry this ended up being so long.
Thank you for the opportunity to tell our story.
If you have any questions email or call me
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