Floral Street Artists to Join the Chalk Festival

Denise at Genzano di Roma Festival

Denise Kowal is a dreamer -- and she doesn't think small. One of her dreams was to bring the tradition of ephemeral pavement art to the Sarasota area. Since 2010, the Sarasota International Chalk Festival has featured international artists inspired by madonnari, or painters of the Madonna who used chalk as their medium. While the tradition dates back to 16th century Italy, today's artists create images -- often three dimensional -- of pretty much everything you can imagine. Seeing and interacting with the art and the artists is ridiculously fun, and it's an event I look forward to each year. 

Never one to let things get stagnant, Kowal always has something new and exciting in store for visitors to the Festival. Bringing Kurt Wenner, the inventor of interactive 3D pavement art illusions, to the Festival -- multiple times? Check. Working with Wenner to (fleetingly) secure the Guiness Book of World Records for the Largest Anamorphoic (3D) pavement painting? Check (and click here to see a portion of the 22,000+ square foot megaladon shark). Moving some of the 3D art from the pavement onto panels for easier photo opps? Check (and thank you!) Each of these innovations has been a wonderful treat for visitors taking in the art. But this year's Festival is going to be particularly special with the addition of "flower carpets" created by teams of infiorata artists from around the world. 

Bill at work on a "carpet"

"Infiorata" is the Italian word for "decorated with flowers." Infiorata festivals date back to 13th century Italy and have religious roots. Many of today's festivals continue to be organized around religious celebrations, although some events have broader themes such as spring. In some communities, families continue the tradition of their ancestors by creating artwork for the relevant festival in the same spot each year. How cool is that? 

Denise and Bill Baranowski, her partner in life and all things Festival, were invited to attend some of this year's infiorata celebarations as honored guests. They had the opportunity to not only get a bird's eye view of these incredible works, but to assist in creating some of the carpets and to dig in to the behind the scenes activity. Not surprisingly, there's a LOT of work involved, and it's even more complicated than the prep for the Chalk Festival. It's much easier to buy standard art materials that only have to be taken out of their boxes than to source flowers whose petals have to be oh so carefully removed from their stems shortly before they are used. Other natural materials indigenous to each area are used as well and have to be gathered. For our Festival that means a lot of folks are going to be out and about gathering palm fronds and sea grapes and the like. And that's before the little wrinkle that adding flower carpets to the Festival requires the inclusion of additional artists with expertise in the area.  

 

Flower prep -- a painstaking part of the prep

When Denise does something, she really goes for it. So instead of dipping her toes in the water by including a single flower carpet in the Festival, multiple teams of experienced infiorata artists are coming to Sarasota to participate in the Festival. As of this writing, flower carpet masters from Japan, Italy, India, Singapore and Spain will be on the scene creating their works for our enjoyment. At least one team will use sand as its medium rather than floral components. Sand paintings are even more fragile than the floral carpets so will be created inside on some sort of panel that will be moved to the street piece by piece as each segment is completed. It will be like watching a jigsaw puzzle being put together -- albeit one you want to be extra careful not to jostle. It is going to be great fun not only to experience these unique tapestries for the first time, but to see them interspersed with the chalk art we've all come to know and love. 

If this sounds a bit like a marketing piece instead of my typical reporting on art I've seen and books I've read and the like, you've got my number. But I hope you'll mark your calendars to attend the Festival, which will take place on November 8-10. Better yet, go ahead and get your tickets. Buying tickets now will help get all those artists -- both chalk and infiorata -- here and at work on their creations.  And with the move back to Burns Court, getting your tix early will ensure you don't get caught out by capacity issues. So... click here to purchase tix for the Festival and other events like a wine tasting and digital mural experience. I am personally planning to go all three days so I can watch as the chalk paintings and floral carpets come into existence. You'll also see an option to purchase a VIP "Grow the Heart" ticket. These tickets support the Festival's inclusion of clients of local organizations like Easterseals and Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Child Protection Center in the festivities. Which brings me to a way you can actually participate in the Festival...

Sand tapestry at La Ortova, Spain Festival

The festivities will conclude on Sunday with a parade featuring masks and larger than life puppets created here in Sarasota. It is going to be a blast. The parade will be curated by Danae Brissonnet, a Canadian artist whose skill set includes not only making masks and puppets, but teaching others how to make these unique creations. Brissonnet will lead a series of workshops in which participants will make art for the parade. Several workshops will be specifically for clients of the non-profits that receive tickets through the Grow the Heart program. But there will also be opportunities to help make the masks at workshops hosted at Creative Liberties. What an opportunity! I might put on my big girl pants and sign up myself (although my palms are sweating at the mere thought of it). More likely I'll just be a fly on the wall. To register for one of the free workshops, click here. And to see some of Brissonnet's work, click here. 

This year's Chalk Festival promises to be the outstanding cultural event of the year. I cannot wait. To keep up to date on all the Chalk Fest goings on and to check out some of the artists who will be coming this year, follow them on Facebook. Be there or be square.