Admiring the Art of Illusion

Where can you poke a bear, stand in a shark’s mouth or ride on a Velociraptor without a call to 911 emergency services? The 2022 Venice Chalk Festival!! Amazing to watch chalk artists, using chalk and paint, to create a variety of 3-D illusions and 2-D art on unused runways at the Venice Municipal Airport. This year’s theme was ‘resilience” in a pandemic-weary world.

I was especially fascinated by the 3-D works. On one side, an image is stretched and skewed beyond recognition while the other side pops with a wonderful 3-D illusion. I watched these chalk artists carefully shaping and perfecting their paintings with fingertips, brushes, and sponges. The artists worked under the constant threat of rain, damaging their temporary art works. Yet they labored on their hands and knees to create these magical pieces of fleeting art. These unique kinds of paintings create the illusion of a new scene for visitors to step right into—just like a good book of fiction creates the illusion of the world and journey of its characters.

As I write, I strive to create and shape a world with words, rather than chalk, paint and brushes. It’s a never-ending process or writing and rewriting as I further hone my writing craft and sharpen my storyline. I’m over 105,000 words on the first draft of my latest work of women’s fiction. I know that when I’m done with this first draft, I’ll be revising the story for many more months reshaping and revising the story. It can be tedious at time, but that’s the only way to improve the work. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

My kudos to all of those who seek to perfect the art of illusion in art and literature!