Art around the park

This past weekend was the Howl! Festival, an East Village arts festival named after the famous Allen Ginsberg poem. One of the great traditions of this festival is Art Around The Park: the gates surrounding Tompkins Square Park are covered with canvas and artists can sign up to get their own square on which to draw/paint. Some of the resulting murals are political; some are sexual; some are portraits; some are abstract. People walking by this spectacle get to see and enjoy the art (and sometimes participate in its creation), and the artists "get their art out." I took the photos below around 2pm Saturday, when things were getting going. I walked by again around 8 pm, and the murals had evolved to become much more elaborate. It's cool that the park turned into an art gallery for the weekend.

Local graffiti legend Chico sprays it up.


Sometimes creativity happens when you're wearing fewer clothes.


Painting away on the north end of the park.