The Chalk of the Town!
The 2012 Sarasota Chalk Festival theme will bring us back to the 1920′s when the serene seaside shores of Sarasota became Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey’s Circus winter home and became known as “Circus City, USA”.
A time when residents would glow with anticipation as the trains rolled into town carrying circus families from around the world along with their elaborate costumes, massive tents and exotic animals to practice their fearless acts.
The Sarasota Chalk Festival hosted the most important contemporary street painting venue in the world last year (2011 Pavement Art Through the Ages) with over 250 of the most renowned artists participating for the first time in one location and 200,000 visitors attending. Local artists were joined by artists from all over America as well as international artists from Australia, Italy, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Peru, France, Brazil and Germany.
Letter & Video from a proud Dad who brought his son, Austin, to the Sarasota Chalk Festival in 2011:
“I brought my son to the chalk festival hoping to inspire him to draw and paint more as he is always drawing cartoon characters in his room. We spent about an hour watching the fantastic artists at work but what my son was really excited about was hearing that there was a children’s area. I want to tell you that my son learned from watching the artists work, he learned by seeing …
VIDEO: Ego Leonard inspired 3D Lego Army by Artist Leon Keer from the Netherlands.
Bill Wagy’s clips from 2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival and the story of one very speicla piece of chalk art dedicated to the late Brandi Meshad, a high school senior at Out of Door Academy who died of a drug overdose.
Film portrait of the Sarasota Chalk Festival 2010, featuring pavement artists like Edgar Mueller, Tracy Lee Stum and many more.
A film by Alessio Cuomo & Sander de Nooij. ColdSun Productions.
Sarasota Chalk Festival 2010 from ColdSun Productions on Vimeo.
Terracotta army discovered in Sarasota
Planet Streetpaining is a collaboration of street artists based in the Netherlands. As Planet Streetpainting’s art director Leon Keer is always fascinated about what history reveals. He tries to connects the historical events with current issues in this society. For the upcoming Sarasota Chalk Festival he has been inspired by the discovery of the Terracotta Army of China and Ego Leonard who washed ashore in Sarasota yesterday morning.
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor …
