Book of Days

Here in Lake Worth it’s our 20th Annual Street Painting Festival this weekend, and it is raining as I write this. Just a bit, a little shower with some lightning in the distance, just enough to keep us on our toes. But it always rains during the Street Painting Festival. God’s way, perhaps, of saying, Yep, that’s a pretty nifty trick you Lake Worthers have come up with: closing down the main streets downtown and creating exquisite artworks on the pavement, paintings made of chalk on asphalt… but I’m still in charge.

There is an old joke my grandfather used to tell about two guys at an outdoor concert. They’ve gone to hear the local orchestra, no doubt playing something by Puccini or Rossini, but suddenly there is a rumble of thunder and a burst of lightning and the sky opens up and the rain scatters everyone, orchestra and audience alike. The two friends are drenched. Under cover of a rooftop in the square, one friend says to the other, “Eh, se Dio non capisce di musica ….” That is, “If God doesn’t understand about music….” well then, what can you do?

So maybe God doesn’t understand about art. There are, nonetheless, great masterpieces created each year on the streets of Downtown Lake Worth, and it is a great lesson in letting go, for these artworks are as ephemeral as they get. They last only until the next rain, and even if is should stay dry for a few days, as soon as the traffic returns to town the artwork is under foot and under wheels and dust quickly returns to dust.

Last year’s Saturday night rain at the Street Painting Festival was a real gully-washer. This year, so far, it is just a light rain, a few passing showers. Nothing more than an annoyance, but still, a reminder. Meanwhile, the air tonight smells of rain, the smell of ozone carried on the wind. The smell is clean, fresh, and it is carried over the streets of Lake Worth, over the rooftops, through the palms and orange trees, across the lagoon, over the dunes and out onto the deep dark Atlantic.

Image by Convivio neighbor Guy Icangelo, who photographed this street painting on Lake Avenue. This year’s Street Painting Festival has an old movie theme, and this iconic image is from an early silent film. Do you recognize it?