The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Street painting close to her heart

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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Street painting close to her heart

Tracy Lee Stum holds a Guinness record for the largest street painting by an individual

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

Tracy Lee Stum.

She loves the idea of making a plain wall appear more appealing.

And that’s what American street artist Tracy Lee Stum has been doing, touring the metros, conducting workshops for high school students, college-goers or collaborating with local artists to paint walls of vantage locations with life-size 3D graffiti.

Once she is home Ms. Stum has another challenging assignment on her palate. She is being assigned to do art work at the 2010 Winter Olympics to be held in Vancouver. Tracy Lee Stum, who was on an invitation to the city by the U.S. Consulate, talks to Liffy Thomas about the pleasures she draws through her works.

“At the Winter Olympics coming February I am going to commemorate an Olympic winner every day for three weeks through a living art,” says Tracy Lee Stum, who recently held a workshop for Fine Arts students of Stella Maris College and the Government College of Fine Arts.

She is versatile in paintings, drawing and decorative design, but street painting is what she holds dear.

Large (4m x 4m) interactive 3D street paintings with themes — Biblical to exotic to mundane — are characteristic of her work. Her street art paintings, also called anamorphic or pavement chalk art, have created a lasting impression in every festival she has participated in the U.S., China and Japan.

Ms. Stum created a Guinness record for the largest street painting by an individual in 2006.

Economic slowdown

She says that the slowdown has only helped her. “I have a good number of clients from the corporate world where I work on brand promotion in sectors such as telecommunication, automobile, advertisement and education,” she says.

Ms. Stum also loves to hold workshops and in the process believes she is educating herself. “I still take classes from artists and I will continue taking. It opens all kinds of experience about art,” she says.

On display

For those who want to catch a glimpse of the artist’s work must negotiate the busy Cathedral Road, and check the art installations put up on the external fence of Stella Maris College.

These 3D graffiti works glow at night with the LED fixed on them.

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