Pavement art is, by its very nature, ephemeral. Fortunately we live in the age of the camera and so the works of
maddonari (as they are otherwise more formally called) can be preserved. at least digitally. Yet although we can record the images, what of the artist? Do you ever want to put a face and a story to the picture?
Tracy Lee Stum (
left) is one of the foremost 3D street artists in the world.
As you might imagine, the desire to illustrate her world followed approximately three seconds after birth. Perhaps an exaggeration but Tracy started to depict, portray and represent before she properly knew the meaning of the words, literally as soon as she could grasp chalk or crayon.
Pennsylvania born, Tracy gained her Bachelor’s degree At Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia then hopped continents to develop and advance her techniques in Italy, studying naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art. Her Italian sojourn now over, Tracy works where her art takes her, both at home in the US and all over the world.
Talent sometimes goes unrecognized in the art world until it is too late (look at poor Vincent) but fortunately Tracy has been able to combine her more personal work with commissions for any number of clients who want something special and unusual for a launch or promotion.
Tracy has also worked on a large number of public art projects which have taken her as far afield as Tajikistan, Russia and China to name but a few, where she has taught at universities and colleges about her art and the techniques used to perfect the illusion of an interactive tableau in three dimensions.
A large number of achievements are tucked in to Tracy’s belt. She currently holds the Guinness world record for the largest street painting by a single individual (which she achieved in 2006). Tracy also created the world’s first 3D chalk art mural (although could I swear I did one on my bedroom blackboard when I was a child…). The list of awards and accolades she has received is, literally, too long to catalogue here.
Typically one of Tracy’s pieces takes between one and three days. Although we are showing you the finished versions here, you can see the fascinating process involved at her
Flickr Photostream which has close on a thousand photographs of the development of many works from start to finish.
You might be thinking to yourself
I would love to have a go at that but I would have no idea where or how to start. If you are inclined to new artistic adventures then why not try 3D chalk art? Tracy is releasing an instructional video course in the near future. If you would like find out more, then visit the
Tracy Lee Stum website to express your interest and to learn more about the art and the artist.
Kuriositas would like to thank Tracy Lee Stum for her kind permission to share these pictures of her wonderful art with you. Copyright remains and is retained by the artist.
