In America, they say the streets are paved with gold. In Oz, it's yellow bricks. And in State College, we seem to favor paint. Or more accurately, chalk.

From tomorrow through Saturday,
the Italian Street Painting Festival is
turning one of Happy Valley's just-another-boring boulevards into a transitory piece de resistance. Catch it now before it rains.

The festival, which is presented by the 38th Annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, is celebrating its fifth year of chalking up Hiester Street, between College and Beaver Avenues. More than 25 artists are expected to participate, turning the area into an arena for the artistically-minded and creating a sense of community between artists and onlookers.

Who they are: Amateurs and experts alike

Of this year's volunteers, more than half are students from State College Area High School, 650 Westerly Parkway, said James Ritchey, an art teacher at the school who co-coordinates the event with fellow art instructor Holly Foy.

Students from the school's drawing and painting classes are invited to show off their abilities, but participants also include community members and even regional artists.

"In eighth grade ... I showed up at
the festival and they allowed me to do a painting," Katie Haberer, an incom-
ing senior at State College High School, said. "Four years later, I'm still doing them."

Back when Haberer began chalking, the festival stretched barely one block - from the Student Bookstore, 330 E. College Ave., to The Deli Restaurant, 113 Heister St. -- but within the past few years, it's snaked up past Cinema 5, 116 Heister St.

Part of what makes the festival so popular with artists is having the opportunity to perform for an audience, said Haberer, who dreams of illustrating children's books after graduation.

The chance to take one's craft "out of the studio and into the streets" is a huge draw for artists, said Abby Gleixner (senior-art education), who is entering her fifth year of participation and has even devised a lesson plan to teach Italian street painting in one of her art education courses.

All volunteers "paint" 4-by-6 feet plots of asphalt, but the 12-by-12 feet zones, which take two to three days to complete, are reserved for this year's two invited professional artists: Graham Curtis, a graphic designer and sign-maker from nearby Petersburg, who is participating for his third year, and fourth time contributor Rod Tryon, a famed street painter originally from central Pennsylvania who now resides in Long Island.

"Street painting is almost addicting," Tryon said. "People ask me how I do with it being so ephemeral, but I tell them, it's just the joy of creating the piece and talking to people while doing it and getting that immediate feedback."

What you'll see: From anime to art nouveau

Most street painters, both at this festival and nationwide, stick with the traditional concept of replicating famous works of art, which originated in 16th century Italy.

"A local painter would go off on his donkey to the Vatican and come back to the village and tell people about it," Curtis explained. "He didn't have a camera, so he'd recreate the images from memory and show his fellow villagers. Materials like chalks and pigments were easy to come by, but the more expensive things back then were canvas or linen or paper, so why not draw on the ground? And that is what they did."

That custom was revived in Italy in the 1970s, then made its way across the Atlantic, specifically to California, where street painting festivals remain abundant. Artists at previous Italian Street Painting Festivals in State College have showcased their renditions of masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh, illustrator Maxfield Parrish and art nouveau disciple Alphonse Mucha, in addition to exhibiting the occasional original piece, such as Gleixner's portrait of her younger sister and Haberer's friend's Japanese anime compositions.

What you won't see: Behind the chalk-painted curtain

So what happens if, or when, it rains? Chalk isn't known to hold up against damp conditions, but Ritchey said that's part of the appeal. During the festival, each painting will be protected by a plastic cover, but afterward, it's anyone's guess how long, or shortly, they'll be around.

"The point of them is to be transitory," Ritchey said. "Part of the enjoyment of seeing them being created is that they are a temporary thing and a casual creation of art. It's work being done together and not something that is meant to be owned. It's something meant to be shared."

But those temporary creations don't come cheap. Each painting is sponsored by a local business, which, for a fee, gets its name scrawled over the work and the satisfaction of being an art benefactor.

"This is not a cheap date," Phil Walz, executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, said.

This year, estimated costs to organize the Italian Street Painting Festival run between $15,000 and $20,000, Walz said. That may seem like a lot of cash, but Walz pointed out that this money buys pastels and meals for artists, in addition to protective covers for the paintings and diesel-powered lights for night viewing and working. Additionally, the professional artists command paychecks in the several thousand-dollar range, Walz said.

But all the cold cash, hard work and sweat that go into making the Italian Street Painting Festival a yearly success are definitely worth it, the participants and organizers agreed.

"A few years ago, we were interested in creating an island of activity separate from the traditional Arts Festival route," Walz said. "This being the fifth year, I can say that the draw is more than meeting our expectations."