For my contemporary virtual art exhibit, I chose: “Shock in Chalk!” as a theme (more about the fact that it rhymes than an actual shock factor). Many street artists who use chalk as the main tool have the ability to give the illusion of depth in their pieces, and this is frequently done through using a projection technique called anamorphosis. Two such artists are Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner.
Julian Beever is an English chalk artist based out of Belgium. Specializing in three dimensional sidewalk drawings, he has been creating breathtaking pieces as a freelance artist since the mid 90’s. His whimsical topics and use of live people (including infants and children) draws in an audience of all ages.
“Meeting Mr. Frog” is one of his most known 3-D creations. I personally love his incorporation of the child reaching out towards a giant frog. The Lillie pads surrounding them are a beautiful color in contrast to the blue-green water on the black-top.
His “Batman and Robin” piece is a particularly good example of his 3 dimensional abilities and how he (literally!) throws himself into each piece he draws and uses a modern topic to draw interest from young crowds.
In Beever’s “That Hemmed in Feeling” he uses different shades of beige to show shadows and depth in creating the illusion of a pit with people drawn crawling out in addition to a viewer crouching outside the pit.
One of my personal favorite techniques Beever uses is mirror imaging. While it is easily done on a canvas, chalk poses a different challenge: drawing and posing for your own self-portrait at the same time. Below is “Self Portrait of the Artist with Liquid Refreshment”
Street Artist Kurt Wenner has a different take on sidewalk art in chalk. While equally shocking, the subject matter is drastically different than those of Julian Beever. Mostly he draws historical pieces of the Renaissance, not copying the work of others but interpreting it in his own way through visual illusions and chalk. He learned how to do this at an early age: starting with his first commissioned mural at the age of 16 and continuing on to Rhode Island School of Design followed by Art center College of Design. He worked for NASA for several years before selling all of his belongings and moving to Italy to study art. His love of chalk in art and years of school paid off when his pieces were featured in several magazines, newspapers and TV shows.
“Perseus”, 1991 Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C.
the masterpiece “Babel” draws many excited viewers in 2007.
although the two artists have vastly different styles, their common technique of illusion in chalk without question is delightfully shocking.
