January 2020 the Chalk Festival nonprofit organization embarked on creating a 3D Illusion Museum unlike anything every created before. Dozens of international and local artists were traveling to the site over the course of several months to create jaw dropping illusions for the museum. The plan was to always have a work of art in process for the public to view.

Slated to open March 2020 it opened and then quickly shut down as COVID 19 became our new reality. Several artists were unable to travel, tickets were cancelled, doors where shut and work had to stop. A few artists were quarantined together for the next few months, keeping safe for the pod of museum creators.

Yet the quarantine could not stop the creative process and artists must create one way or another. With the streets bare of pedestrians and businesses closed, Chalk Festival artist Santiago Hernandez from Mexico started creating 3D illusions on the sidewalk to create smiles for the occasional passerby. The subject, an orange peel, comes from the daily ritual he starting eating oranges. How appropriate to be on the sidewalk of South Orange Avenue.

For the Avenue of Art, we have partially restored the Orange Peel and included it in the history of Sarasota as public art created during the pandemic.

HOW TO TAKE A PHOTO: This pavement painting is a 3D illusion so please use your camera to stand a few feet back and hold the camera right in front of you to see the illusion through the camera lens. The Orange will pop up as if it is three dimensional.