sidewalk art | Outside The Lines

2D street art, such as graffiti and stencil art, is nothing new. For decades street artists have been transforming cold concrete streets and allies into feasts for the eyes. But a brand new army of artists is bringing streets to life with 3D art that dazzles the eye and stirs the imagination.

To a child, 3D street art can easily be misconstrued as having been created magically. While there is a supernatural feel to such art, it is mere human artists, not magicians, who create the magnificent displays.

If you have not seen 3D street art, you are missing out on something special. Allow this article to take you from the roads of Tehran, Iran’s capital, to the buildings of Miami, Florida, and experience the magic of 3D art for yourself.

Street Art Makes the Common, Extraordinary

When an artist fashions 3D art, he or she expands on a 2D art display, extending the creation beyond the perimeters of the 2 dimensional world. 3D art literally reaches out to touch you, and begs to be touched and experienced in return.

Here are some locations where the streets have been graced with 3D art:

Tehran, Iran – Artist Medhi Ghadyanloo has transformed Tehran with his brilliant artwork. In the CNN index, “What’s the secret behind these eye-popping street art illusions,” it says, “Ghadyanloo has painted over 100 murals across the Iranian capital, giving unsuspecting drivers good reason to do a double take, as the fantasy blends in with the real.”

Paris, France – A once-plain underpass in Paris has been rendered exquisite by a hovering anamorphic image created by TSF, a French art crew. The crewmembers used paint and a chopped-down tree to create the artistic effects they wanted.

Miami, Florida – One of the most moving displays of 3D street art is titled No Art for Poor Kids, and can be found near the Jose De Diego Middle School in Miami. Artist MTO created a statue of a child standing with his face toward a building, wearing what appears to be a dunce cap. This is both ironic and significant because, as explained on the CNN website, it “highlights the plight of [the] middle school, on the edge of Miami’s Wynwood gallery district, where this year’s Art Basel parties kicked off. There, on the doorstep of the glitziest art-buying festival, a tight budget means there’s no money to hire an art teacher and the 600 students are denied access to art.”

3D Street Art Fosters Change

The 3D art display near the Jose De Diego Middle School proves that 3D street art can be both controversial and transformational. It is in-your-face and refuses to be ignored. It’s safe to say that this genre of art has the potential to change culture as we know it.

Check out more astounding displays of 3D street art here.

Is there a 3D street art display in your locale? If so, how have people responded to it? Do you think such a display would enrich your community?

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Street Art Affects Major Cities Across the World

The Graffiti Artist and Street Vendor

Can Trash Become Artistic Treasure?

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For many, chalk brings back childhood memories of scribbling figures out on the sidewalk, playing hop scotch in self-made disproportionate boxes, and being saddened each time the rain washes everything away. Today, many professional and amateur artists never leave the driveway. There are many different mediums to work within, but one of the fastest expanding niches of chalk artists transforms the sidewalk into a canvas. Concrete is still king.

So what exactly is chalk and where does this stuff come from?

Chalk is a form of limestone, a soft, typically white, sedimentary rock. It forms from the accumulation of mineral calcites -which also makes it a porous rock, similar to pumice. This quality can make chalk a challenge to work with, leaving holes and unfilled patches on the canvas or pavement from a seemingly solid and even stroke. Still, chalk has a variety of uses: teachers use it on blackboards, gymnasts use it for grip, pavers use it for painting evenly lined parking spaces, and artists use it in a variety of forms from varying degrees of hard and soft chalks, to chalk pastels and even liquid chalk.

Using Chalk for Art

Working with the challenge of this porous mineral, artists have envisioned and developed increasingly complex and abstract ideas that have been executed by such famous sidewalk artists as Kurt Wenner. In fact, the work of Wenner and other artists like Ellis Gallagher and Julian Beever have created an overnight cult following in some major cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Their work has been the center of many email chains, sparking interest all across the globe in their incredibly intricate, three-dimensional works of art.

Techniques for Chalk Artists

Some noteworthy techniques employed by many artists include various approaches to blending and the use of the “Wet Effect”. Dipping or soaking your chalk in a container of water for up to 6 minutes achieves this effect. This softens the chalk, making it malleable enough to work like paint. From here, the possibilities for blending and shading become endless.

So get inspired, grab a bucket, and give it a shot! If you don’t like what you come up with, there’s always the hose…

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