The Sarasota Chalk Festival, an annual international street art exhibit and competition in Sarasota, Fla., closed on Nov. 7, 2011 after a week of events, and this year, latecomers were in for an unwelcome surprise. For the first time ever, Sarasota officials were spraying down the sidewalks the day after the 2011 festival, erasing the hundreds of chalk traditional, mosaic and 3D artworks created by artists from around the world.
One artist blends past and future with an homage to apples and Apple products. Sarasota, Fla. officials estimate over 100,000 visitors attended the free festival.
Melanie Stimmel Van Latum, one of the Sarasota Chalk Festival’s signature street artists, is a founding member of the Street Painting Society, and the only woman to win the title of Maestra Madonnara.
Wide-pan view of the 2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival. The festival’s end on Nov. 7 saw a high-pressure street washer wipe all the art away, leaving only photos through which to remember the gallery.
Mother Earth, in pastel chalks. Many chalk artists see the event as a performance art, but many patrons were unhappy about the decision to wash away the artwork immediately
Lindsay Zeltzer works on a realistic chalk rendering of Jack Nicholson’s The Joker from the Tim Burton “Batman” movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment