It was hard to see what all the hubbub was about. People were standing ten or twelve deep outside the stands (I had a hard time capturing all of them in the lens of my camera), and the soft sounds of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" wafted over their heads. I'd been at the festival all weekend, but was in the thick of it near the stage and the food stands. This was my first venture over into the area where many folks were seated, behind the score board near the ballpark's concession stand.

I walked up the grassy hill behind the crowd to see that they were all watching a lithe young man dressed in thin paint coveralls dipping his hands into buckets and flinging paint at what I assumed was a canvas. The crowd was atwitter.

Tim Decker is--what he calls--a "speed painter". He's quite good given the circumstances, and the audience ate up every moment as he dipped, swayed, leaped and stretched, twisting his body to complete what I could now see was a classic image of the great John Lennon. The audience cheered and clapped, gladly tossing bills and coins into his bucket. He then auctioned off the soon-to-dry artwork to the highest bidder. Other pieces on canvas placed near his set-up depicted iconic images such as Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Justin Beiber, Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe.

Only moments after he caught his breath I learned that Decker has only been speed painting for a year or so, after having a dream where he was doing just that on a boardwalk somewhere. He'd never seen anyone do such a thing before, but the dream was powerful enough that it provoked him to buy some paint and try his hand at a rendering of Mr. T. He took a picture of it with his phone and sent it to his sister, who was impressed and encouraged him to try his hand at it in front of a crowd.

Now, a year later, Decker can be found speed painting for audiences on the boardwalk in Clearwater, Florida for most of the summer, but he travels to festivals in the fall, landing in Arizona in the colder weather. In the dead of winter he's hired to do corporate events and even hour long stage shows with black light and glow-in-the-dark paints. So far, Decker enjoys the freedom such a life has given him. Funny, considering that he has little art experience, taking only two classes in college because they "were easy credits".

Decker's performance was a fun aspect of Wing Fest, and I'm sure that many missed it, though I doubt that a single one of his images went unsold. It was also very cool to see that music, the constant uniter, played a role in bringing such a large crowd together, in sparking the hearts of many as they hummed along to the tune and appreciated the spectacle of Decker's lively homage.

Street art, music and food are all vital to a vibrant city, and Buffalo is no exception. The life that Lloyd has brought to the otherwise dead zone of Main and Mohawk is unquestionable. Imagine the Main Street corridor peppered with street artists, performers and food vendors--peppered with life. What a different Main Street that is.