3D PAVEMENT ART SETS PACE

THEY may not look like much yet, but simple chalk drawings on The Strand will be turned into intricate optical illusions as part of the city’s sculpture festival.

Pavement artists Jenny McCracken and Rudy Kistler are creating works to help launch Strand Ephemera on Friday.

The festival will see 28 artworks in the running for a $ 10,000 prize and transform The Strand into an outdoor gallery.

Ms McCracken, who comes from Melbourne and has been creating chalk masterpieces for 25 years, is working on her piece near Strand Park.

She said people always responded well to the 3D artworks and they were becoming more popular.

“I met a guy in Sydney who was drawing on the street and I’d been working with pastels quite a lot so I liked the idea of artwork with pastels. But I really liked the idea of just getting art directly to an audience with no intermediary kind of gallery,” she said.

“It really appealed to me from the first time I encountered it and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Goulburn- based Ms Kistler’s finished artwork will feature a giant octopus crawling out of a smart phone screen.

“The pavement is really good and the conditions are really good,” he said.

“The whole ephemeral art thing is very hot and I think to put a focus on it at a place like this in a natural setting, which nature itself is ephemeral, it all works really well together and I think people get it.

Residents can also vote on a second piece by Ms McCracken at the weekend. Strand Ephemera runs from July 31 to August 9.