9th Avenue Food Festival 2009

Here we go again

"March Watch"
Oil on canvas
32 x 40 inches

My favorite street fair is happening this week-end and I'll be walking up and down the avenue, camera in hand. I try not to miss this annual event - it has proven to be a wonderful place for ideas and I've done many paintings over the years of 9th Avenue and the festival.

This painting is unusual in that I took several photos of people in their windows and created one collage painting. Folks would be looking out their windows or sitting on their fire escapes during this festival in the 70's and 80's but it is not a common sight anymore. Perhaps this is due to the gentrification that 9th Avenue has experienced, the newer glass-fronted building facades, or a passing of the older residents to whom sitting in one's window and checking out the street action was a common sight.

I do sometimes stop and choose something to eat - this is, after all a food festival. If you're a chow hound this festival is great way to sample foods from all over the world. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and this year's festival will be as great as the many I've attended in years past.