Sarasota Chalk Art Festival begins

After a great evening out in Deep Ellum checking out the street murals and live music scene in Dallas I made my way back to Dallas Airport (is there a bigger airport in the world?) and caught a flight to Sarasota.First day on site was a reunion!  I caught up with Denise Kowal, the Organiser of Sarasota Chalk Festival and artists I met in Italy including Tommo Saito (Japan/Italy), Marion Ruthardt (Germany), Ruben Martinez (Mexico), Cesar Paredes Pacora (Peru) and many others.  They and others are here to work with Master Artist Kurt Wenner on his 3D illusion designed for Sarasota Chalk Festival.  Kurt Wenner and Bernardo von Hessberg were the inspiration for Chalk Urban Art Festival in Australia. Kurt will also feature in our documentary It's been great catching up with him here in Sarasota and I'm really looking forward to spending more quality time with him over the next few days and seeing this new artwork come to life.         On day two of the festival the 3D street paintings and graff works on the vertical spaces are slowly coming to life on Pineapple Avenue (got to love all the tooty fruity street names in Sarasota!).  Over the next few days the artworks and crowds will build.  Australia's Champion Pavement Artist and first Madonnara Jenny McCracken joins 'Team Kurt' tomorrow, I'll be catching up with her and reporting back in on further progress here in Sarasota, Florida.