With a freshly paved parking lot as their canvas and chalk as their medium of choice, artists from around the world converge on The Marketplace in Bakersfield for the four day Via Arte Italian Street Painting festival every year.
"Michael Kirby is the featured artist at this year's Via Arte. He is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and travels around doing both street painting and public art installments such as murals and statues. His chalk drawing is a fantastical depiction of two lovers kissing, enveloped by a dragon and framed by a castle that seems to be rising up from he ground."
Read more and see the chalky creations
here.