Via Colori

Via Colori is in downtown Seaside on November 10th and 11th. It will be a combination of street and canvas painting. Since Seaside has installed bricks in most of the area that used to be smooth concrete, it's hard to fit in all the painting in the remaining concrete area. They painted some of them on the bricks last year, but it wasn't easy. Businesses will have canvases of either 30" x 40" ($500) or 24" x 36" ($300). Families will have 6' x 6' ($200) squares on the road. The canvases will be auctioned off at the end of the event. Many of these will be painted by some great local artists, so good deals will probably be available. All proceeds benefit the Seaside Neighborhood School. If you haven't been or participated before, it's a fun event, so stop on by. If you'd like to have a square of your own, please let me know and I'll get you in touch with the right person.

The Walton Funn October 10, 2007

The Year Via Colori Went Terribly Wrong

Visitors and residents of south Walton know and love the annual Via Colori, or Italian street painting festival that occurs in Seaside every fall.

None could have guessed at the controversy and drama that unfolded at this year’s event.

“Well I’ve been watching those great Simon Schama’s Power of Art shows on PBS, and have been inspired by the way all the great artists thumbed their noses at the establishment.” said artist Rob McNeil.

“So I recreated a version of Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam in fusili and penne pasta.”

“Some have asked if I was Divinely inspired,………..I believe it was more Al Dente inspired” “But the difference is really just an exercise in splitting Angel Hair Pasta……….”, McNeil explained.


Critics were not impressed.

Other artists went off the rails in other ways. Brian Minch chose to paint his square using bits of doggy-doo picked up from the Beaches of South Walton. “I’m trying to make a statement”, Minch went on to explain, “either people clean up after their dogs or I will rub their haughty art loving noses in it…”

Artist Catherine Baker was less controversial, choosing to represent a Seaside streetscape with the use of a Lite-Brite board.

Tacky art mediums aside; the final slap in the face to Via Colori came when artist Bill Foster painted a work he entitled, The Triumph of Suburbanism -a scene showing bulldozers plowing Seaside under and replacing it with modular tract housing and strip malls.

Seaside representatives expressed a concern with the ‘lawlessness of the art’ at this year’s Via Colori and indicated that next year’s event will be more tightly controlled with the establishment of a New Urbanism Art Code which will set clear guidelines for subjects and colors to be used.

Thanks for the info!

I thought the bricks added a lot to the funkiness of some of the paintings (though I know it made it much harder).

Why can't the artists just donate paintings to auction if they want to work on canvas? I can see the logic behind painting du jour canvases to raise money, which they did last year in the tent.............but IMO it sort of misses the idea of a street painting festival if you're not, um, painting a street ;-).

Either way, always cool to see!

The Walton Funn October 10, 2007

:funn:

The Walton Funn October 10, 2007



The Year Via Colori Went Terribly Wrong

Visitors and residents of south Walton know and love the annual Via Colori, or Italian street painting festival that occurs in Seaside every fall.

None could have guessed at the controversy and drama that unfolded at this year’s event.

“Well I’ve been watching those great Simon Schama’s Power of Art shows on PBS, and have been inspired by the way all the great artists thumbed their noses at the establishment.” said artist Rob McNeil.

“So I recreated a version of Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam in fusili and penne pasta.”

“Some have asked if I was Divinely inspired,………..I believe it was more Al Dente inspired” “But the difference is really just an exercise in splitting Angel Hair Pasta……….”, McNeil explained.

Critics were not impressed.

Other artists went off the rails in other ways. Brian Minch chose to paint his square using bits of doggy-doo picked up from the Beaches of South Walton. “I’m trying to make a statement”, Minch went on to explain, “either people clean up after their dogs or I will rub their haughty art loving noses in it…”

Artist Catherine Baker was less controversial, choosing to represent a Seaside streetscape with the use of a Lite-Brite board.

Tacky art mediums aside; the final slap in the face to Via Colori came when artist Bill Foster painted a work he entitled, The Triumph of Suburbanism -a scene showing bulldozers plowing Seaside under and replacing it with modular tract housing and strip malls.

Seaside representatives expressed a concern with the ‘lawlessness of the art’ at this year’s Via Colori and indicated that next year’s event will be more tightly controlled with the establishment of a New Urbanism Art Code which will set clear guidelines for subjects and colors to be used.

I'll bet they do just that!!!!

Kinda getting what they deserve IMHO!