Local artist awarded best of show

VISTA — North County resident and artist Lori Escalera, of Vista, recently won “best of show” at the annual Little Italy Festa “Gesso Italiano” Street Painting Festival. The San Diego Festa is known to be one of the largest single-day Italian American festivals West of the Mississippi. This year’s Festa moved to a one-day event and saw more than 120,000 attendees enjoying food, performances, and Chalk Art Street Painting this past Sunday.
Escalera reproduced a William Bouguereau piece called “Young Mother Gazing at her Child.”
“The venue theme is anything Italian,” Escalera said. “I picked this piece because it is so representational of the quintessential Italian mothers’ love for her child. I knew people would enjoy the adoration.”
Escalera is one of the world’s top Madonnari street painters and has been chalking since 1994. You can see more of her street painting at www.thestreetpainter.com.