Sarasota hosts first delegation of floral carpet artists

The Sarasota Int'l Chalk Festival brought a global group of organizations together for its "Floralia Infiorata" exhibit.

By Ian Swaby
| 2:00 p.m. November 13, 2024

Sandhill Cranes and other birds took on a larger than life form during the festival's parade.

Sarasota
Neighbors

While known for its titular drawings of chalk, the Sarasota Int'l Chalk Festival welcomed this year an additional art form new to the event — and to the United States as a whole.

With its "Floralia Infiorata" section, the festival, held Nov. 8-10 along Orange Avenue in Burns Court, hosted the country's first delegation of international floral carpet artists.

In the tradition of the religious celebrations originating in Italy involving floral carpets, the festival concluded in a parade which saw participants walking over the artwork and scattering the flowers.

However, the parade gave the tradition a Florida-themed twist, incorporating oversize puppets of everything from sandhill cranes, to spoonbills, to dung beetles.

The menagerie was the work of a team led by Canadian artist Danaé Brissonnet over a period of 24 days.

Chris Leverett and Colin McCarte walk the parade route.

"I'm super, super happy," said Brissonnet. "Everybody worked so hard, maybe too hard. Next time I make sure I have another design that allow people to take vacation and breathe, but I'm happy. It feels good, and I saw people having transcending emotion and just that feels really good."

A tradition grows global

The tradition of floral carpet art has growing in prominence around the world, and Sarasota now joins the scene.

Tokyo artist Yasuhiko Fujikawa, an artist at the festival leading the group Hanae Japan, brought the art form to his country in 2001 after being impressed by what he saw in Genzano di Roma, Italy, seeing it was an activity the community could together.

Akiko Suzuki, Tomoichi Nakamura and Yasuhiko Fujikawa help recreate "Imeudorikiwoisoroi Oma Sashichi," a painting by Utagawa lovokuni, an artist during Japan's Edo period.

The village of Għarb, Malta took up the tradition from Gerano, Italy in 2002 when it signed a twinning agreement with the commune.

During a visit to Gerano in 2002 led by mayor mayor David Apap Agius, Għarb residents created an infiorata to impress the townspeople.

Since then, they've visited Mexico and Japan.

"It was our wish to come over somewhere like this and like visit, outside of Europe, other groups that make something like us," said Agius, who was a delegate at the festival.

Sarasota residents were eagerly embracing the tradition.

Alexander and Valerie Smith, 1, check out an insect puppet walked by Lorinda Fore.

Colby Heidke said ever since being introduced to the Chalk Festival workshop by artist Beck Lane, he had been returning to see what the organization needed help with.

"It was such a magical experience, having people from however many different countries speaking a million different languages, all in the studio in preparation for this, working together, learning from each other, hearing from each other and experiencing the joy of being part of this big event," he said.

The parade, themed around Florida's flora and fauna, makes its way down Orange Avenue.

"We're sad we didn't come sooner," said attendee Aaron Smith, who visited with his family, including his two one-year-old children, for the parade. "It seems amazing. We hope it keeps coming every year."

In Italy, chalk artists are known as "Madonnari," and Agius hopes that the international relationship can continue.

"Hopefully, we will get the chalk people to Malta and we'll make a festival also in Malta, of chalk," he said.

author

Ian Swaby

Ian Swaby is the Sarasota neighbors writer for the Observer. Ian is a Florida State University graduate of Editing, Writing, and Media and previously worked in the publishing industry in the Cayman Islands.