One weekend out of each year, Lake and Lucerne Avenues are colorfully adorned with works of art created out of chalk by adults, children, experienced and novice artists alike, all gathering for the sole purpose of expression through their work. This year, the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival was held from Feb. 21-22 with over 600 artists decorating the pavement and over 100,000 spectators not only enjoying the artistic ambiance but the restaurants, snacks and the plentiful sources of musical entertainment. Each year people create teams of many different sizes, selecting a piece of work they would like to recreate, gathering materials and getting to work. Throughout the weekend, attendees walk the streets and watch as the artists slowly but surely transform the asphalt into a masterpiece. Various Dreyfoos students attend the event and for some it is not just creating pieces of artwork but creating something in memory of a person they care dearly for.

Band junior Marina Wendel has been attending the festival for three years with her 10-year-old brother Wesley. Their attendance at the festival began when a family friend, a Lake Worth shop owner, reached out to the Wendel children to participate in the festival as a way to represent their mother, Susan Spencer-Wendel who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2011. Mrs. Spencer-Wendel lost her strong, inspiring battle with the disease in June of 2014 and what started, as a fun family activity became a tradition to fundraise for and now remember their mother in a positive light. The Wendel’s, friends and family sell water bottles at the festival to raise money for ALS research and Marina assists Wesley in the art piece of his choosing each year.

“[This year] Wesley drew his favorite character from ‘Wreck it Ralph’,” Wendel said. “It’s so fun to see all of the artists doing their own thing, everyone’s so talented its overwhelming.”

One of the best parts of the festival to many students is the sense of togetherness it can bring to a group of friends. Taking the lead of her group, visual junior Zayra Campos worked with visual juniors Palmer Crippen, Daniella Rappel, Jessica Kian and visual sophomores Dalton Taylor, Bailey Triggs and Ellie Jensen to create a “master copy,” which is an exact replica of an artist’s work, of Picasso’s Le demoiselles d’Avignon.

“[The purpose of a master copy is] to learn a skill, to learn to appreciate an artist or, like my group did, to just have some fun creating a piece of an art piece we all enjoy,” Campos said. “Any time we are doing an exact replica of an art piece it has to be called a master copy or else it is considered plagiarizing.”

Throughout the weekend the group presses through the heat and sun to execute the vision they created in planning and watch it come to light, and after the weekend is over, the satisfaction of teamwork and accomplishment still resonate with the artists.

“People can come and see you create these works of art but eventually it all washes away, cars drive by it but its just really the fun of getting to work with everybody,” Campos said. “It was just an awesome experience because we got to work with our friends which is not something we usually do in the visual department, working together in a large group, we were surrounded by Dreyfoos students.”