‘Step right up into my painting!’
Meet the 3D chalk-art illusionists who let you be part of the art at the 2026 Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival
WATCH OUT FOR the giant manatee this weekend! Floating through seagrass across Lucerne Avenue by the post office, it’ll be hard to miss.
Make way for the Olympic skier racing down Lake Avenue in shorts and a tank top.
And watch your step near Lake and J Street — you might stumble into a pond.
Those are just a few of the mind-bending optical illusions that will take shape this weekend at the 32nd annual Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival.
The free event, expected to attract 100,000 visitors downtown Feb. 21-22, will feature 850 artists creating colorful chalk murals on the asphalt of Lake and Lucerne avenues between Dixie and Federal highways.
While there will be plenty of impressive traditional 2D street art, the interactive anamorphic 3D chalk creations often draw (pun intended) the most gawkers.
Because of that popular demand, there will be a festival-record eight chalk painters creating viral mind-bending illusions downtown this weekend.
“That’s what people really enjoy these days,’’ said 3D artist Rod Tryon of Santa Barbara, Calif., who will participate in his 14th Lake Worth chalk art festival this weekend.
“They like all the other art, too,’’ said Tryon, who will be chalking that giant manatee, “but they really love the 3D.’’
They’ve been loving forms of 3D art for thousands of years, ever since cave dwellers used the slanted sides of cave walls to create visual illusions, according to the London Art Exchange.
Leonardo da Vinci sketched one of the earliest documented examples of anamorphic art in 1485 — an image of what looks like a landscape that when viewed from an angle transforms into an eye.
While traditional street painting dates back to 16th-century Italy, artist Kurt Wenner is credited with introducing 3D art to the United States in 1985 at what is believed to be the first U.S. street art festival in Santa Barbara.
Tryon said he attended one of those early festivals and was blown away watching Wenner create his famous “Dies Irae” street mural. “That’s what inspired me to start street painting,’’ he said.
Lake Worth hosted its first street painting festival in 1995, with 3D art emerging on Lake and Lucerne by the early 2000s, said Maryanne Webber, the festival’s co-founder.
Tracy Lee Stum was the first 3D artist to participate at the Lake Worth Beach festival, Webber said. In 2013, Stum wowed crowds with a mind-bending illusion of Machu Picchu in a valley below street level.
“Traditional 2D chalk art will always have a place in our festival’s culture. But over the past decade in particular, 3D chalk art has really grown in popularity,’’ said Suzanne Neve, the festival’s event coordinator.
“It’s art that lets you be part of the scene and creates moments that live beyond the festival weekend,’’ she said. “The growth of social media and sharing of these interactive pieces expands engagement and has helped draw bigger crowds and broader attention to chalk art festivals.’’
Creating anamorphic images requires artists to stretch and skew their creations, which might not be recognizable unless viewed from a certain spot.
Underground illusions are easiest to recognize. Illusions that rise up off the pavement, like Tryon’s manatee, are often best seen through a lens mounted on a tripod set in a certain spot for the public.
“The 3D really pops when you look through a camera lens,’’ he said.
Not far from Tryon’s manatee will be a mermaid trapped in a bottle surrounded by shells on a beach, created by Lake Worth street painting regular Jennifer Chaparro. It too will be best viewed through a tripod-mounted lens.
“The funniest thing is people don’t quite see it with their eyes,’’ said Chaparro, who taught herself 3D art after being laid off from her graphic designer job in 2009.
“They will walk around it from the opposite direction and I’ll hear stuff like, ‘What is she doing? Is that a watermelon?’’’ she said.
“Then they come around and I tell them, ‘This is the spot you need to stand. This is where the magic works.’ They look at me like I’m crazy and then they look into the lens and you see their a-ha moment. And they get it. That’s the fun part of it.’’
Artists Cheryl and Wayne Renshaw of Santa Clara, Calif., plan to have fun with their Lake Avenue mural just east of M Street, a whimsical ode to the Winter Olympics.
Called “Ski Lake Worth Beach,’’ it will depict a downhill skier “swooshing down the beach in shorts and a tank top, as one does on warmer slopes,’’ Wayne said.
In the background, the Lake Worth Pier and Atlantic Ocean will have a sloping effect. “We will bring a couple of ski poles so people can ski along with the racer,’’ he said.
Artist Ken Mullen of West Palm Beach plans to have fun, too, with an anamorphic image of the iconic Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker playing video games in front of Mr. Shoe Repair on Lucerne Avenue.
When it’s done, he said, “people will be able to pose for photos sitting on the couch between them.’’
One 3D artist will travel roughly 8,700 miles to make his Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival debut on Feb. 20.
Singarapu ShivaRama Krishna, an artist from Manthani, India, said he plans to create a water pond inspired by the “Palace of Illusions” in the ancient Indian poem, the Mahabharata.
“In the story, the architecture was so deceptive that King Duryodhana became confused, stepping into a real water pond because he thought it was a floor,’’ Krishna, professionally known as SSRK, said via email.
“I want to recreate that legendary ‘Crystal Pond’ on the streets of Lake Worth Beach to test the perception of the audience!’’
West Palm Beach artist Hector Diaz, a Lake Worth chalk art regular since 1995, the city’s second festival, said he hasn’t decided what he will chalk this weekend.
But if Diaz’s anamorphic magic repeats itself, it will be as eye-popping as his previous festival favorites such as the 3D toy Tonka truck and last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crawling out of a manhole with pizza boxes.
“I love the interactivity with the crowd, especially kids,’’ he said. “They light up, they have a great time.’’
While chalk art illusions are popular, some 3D artists say their passions are rooted in traditional two-dimensional art.
“At the end of the day, the 3D pieces are art and I do enjoy doing them and I do enjoy the interactivity, but there is a certain gimmick to them, if you will,’’ Diaz said.
“You feel a little bit like a carnival barker, a ‘step right up, step into my painting’ kind of thing. But it’s how I’ve kind of made a name for myself and so it’s kind of what is expected.’’
And for an artist, nothing beats positive feedback from viewers.
“I enjoy it because it bridges the gap between mathematics and imagination,’’ said Krishna, who has been practicing 3D art for more than 15 years.
“Audiences love it because it is interactive. It creates a ‘wow’ moment where a flat surface suddenly has depth. It turns the viewer into a participant—they can ‘stand’ on the edge of my 3D pond for a photo.’’
2026 Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival
Saturday, Feb. 21: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 22: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Getting there
Parking close to downtown will be extremely limited. These downtown roads will be closed starting at 6 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, through 10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22:
• Lake Ave. from South Dixie Hwy to south Federal Hwy.
• Lucerne Ave from North Dixie Hwy to North Federal Hwy
•J,K, L,M, Streets from 2nd Ave. North to 1st Ave. South.
Use the free park-and-ride service at Palm Beach State College. Park in the college’s “blue” and “copper” lots, accessible from Lake Worth Road and Congress Avenue, and catch a shuttle.
Tri-Rail is offering a special $5 roundtrip for the festival with free shuttles looping from the passenger train’s Lake Worth Beach station on Lake Worth Road under Interstate 95 just west of the high school.