Arts Fest- Christina Markey

As I walked down the streets of Penn State I struggled with picking my favorite piece of art. I found many of the street chalk art pieces interesting but one I found very interesting in particular. I was intrigued how one person could create this drawing all from chalk on the street but I wanted to know more about it. This one I could tell shared a very important message that I wanted to learn more about. In this piece there is the famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. with bright colors surrounding the upper portion of the piece. The artist of this creation told me the purpose of this piece is to express how much he admired and looked up to Martin Luther King Jr. The amount of influence he had on American society between the 1950s-1960s made him want to create a masterpiece that captured the influence he had. He did many things to ensure civil rights for all people regardless of race. He helped in bringing publicity to major civil right activities, emphasized non-violent protests, and was a leader for the whole movement. Martin Luther King Junior advocated the equality for all races no matter what the color so the different colors in the artwork represents his ability to do this. It represents that if all colors come together and work for peace and justice it can create something beautiful. His belief in non-violent protest no matter how much emotional and mental abuse he would receive from others made him strong. Although he was assassinated in 1968, Martin Luther King's life was filled with many accomplishments. His life was filled with colors of the world as shown in this street art. I learned that he used the style of Italian street art that started in Italy in the 16th century to send this message. I thought the idea of being able to pay 5 dollars to create your own street piece and your own message was very neat. I would like to have done this because I think sending a message through art is a great way to use your creativity and share your passion in doing something you love. I found the art pieces during Arts Fest to be very fascinating and I am excited to see more next year.