Art for After Hours: Street Painting Artist Rod Tryon

STREET PAINTING ARTIST: ROD TRYON

'Peacock' street painting by Rod Tryon, 12' x 12', Bella Via Street Painting Festival, Valencia, CA - 2003. Original design.

Street painting by Rod Tryon. 'Libyan Sibyl', detail from The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 12' x 16', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, San Luis Obispo, CA - 1997. Chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Koi Pond', 12' diameter, I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 1999 Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Snakes', 12' diameter, Italian Street Painting Festival, State College, PA - 2004. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Butterflies', 12' diameter, Bella Via Street Painting Festival, Valencia, CA - 2002. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Caillebotte' or 'Floor Scrapers', 6' x 8', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 1997. Chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Frogs', 6' x 8', Youth in Arts Street Painting Festival, San Rafael, CA - 1998. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Hot Lunch', 10' x 10', Street Painting Festival, San Francisco, CA - 2000. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

Artist Statement

Rod Tryon has been street painting for more than 20 years. He visited the inagural “I Madonnari Street Painting Festival” in Santa Barbara, CA in 1987 (the first street painting festival ever held in the U.S.) and knew it was something he had to do. He has participated in the Santa Barbara festival 17 times including appearing as the featured artist in 1993. Rod has been a featured artist in numerous other street painting events worldwide including: California (Santa Barbara, San Rafael, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Valencia, Los Angeles, Napa, Monterey). Oregon (Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass), Utah (Salt Lake City, Provo), Florida (Orlando, Lake Worth), Minnesota (St. Paul), New York (New York City, Binghamton), Ohio (Cincinnati), Pennsylvania (State College), Mexico, Hong Kong and Anquilla in the British West Indies.

Selected Highlights include:

In October 2007, Rod was invited to join a team of street painters from the US, Japan, and Mexico to recreate the entire Sistine Chapel ceiling as a street painting for Festival Bella Via in Monterrey, Mexico.

Rod assisted in developing a street painting festival and seminar in conjuction with the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, at Penn State, PA., one of the largest art and music festivals in the eastern U.S.

In Nov., 2005, he was invited to create a piece for a street painting festival in Monterrey, Mexico

In Dec., 2005 he joined a team of artists in creating a featured street painting for the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival in Hong Kong.

In June, 2003 Rod was invited to join 11 other featured artists to recreate the entire Sistine Chapel ceiling in half size. The street painting measured about 30 feet by 70 feet and took the twelve artists along with a team of about 8 architectural border renderers 7 days to complete. The painting was the featured piece of the “Youth in Arts Italian Street Painting Festival” in San Rafael, CA.

In July, 1999 Rod created a street painting at the second annual “Anguilla International Arts Festival”, held on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, British West Indies.

3-D Street Paintings

Rod's favorite street paintings are creating three-dimensional images. Rod started doing 3-D (trompe l'oeil) street paintings in 1996. He adapted a black and white M.C. Escher piece titled "Reptiles" into a color image entitled "Lizards". "Entertaining the audience by creating an image that looks like it is coming up out of the street, or the impression of a hole opening up in the asphalt in front of you, is a special treat for the artist. Seeing crowds react to his 3-D pastel images, bring great joy to both the artist and onlookers."

Rod also does street paintings for special events. He’s created paintings for the Lynx Toyota Atlantic Auto Racing Team, the Kinko’s Kawasaki Motorcycle Racing Team, the opening of the UCSB Arts & Lectures season of performing arts, Kinko’s corporate conventions, and a documentary film “Life Beyond Earth” created for PBS television, filmed at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

When he’s not at a street painting festival, Rod works as a freelance artist focusing on pastels on paper and canvas, acrylic paintings, graphic design, pastel illustration and computer illustration. Rod grew up in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania (a small rural town in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.) In 1977 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts/Advertising degree from Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA. In 1979 he moved to Santa Cruz, CA where he became the graphic artist for the Northwest Division of Kinko’s Copies. In 1986 he moved to Santa Barbara, CA after being promoted to national art director for Kinko’s corporate offices in Ventura, CA. He now lives in Cutchogue, Long Island, NY.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Lizards' adaptation by M.C. Escher's 'Lizards', 12' x 16', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 1996. Chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Mandrill', 12' x 12', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 2001. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Mouse Hole', 12' x 12', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 2002. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Drawing Hands' by M.C. Escher. 12' x 12', Italian Street Painting Festival, State College, PA. Chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Ruby Slippers', detail from the Wizard of Oz, 12' x 12', I Madonnari Street Painting Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - 2003. Chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Salmon', 10' x 15', Art Along the Rogue Street Painting Festival, Medford, OR - 2003. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Girl in Green with Gloves', St. Paul, MN. 12' x 15', chalk pastel on pavers. Original painting by Tamara de Lempicka.1929.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Shark', 6' x 6', Community Mosaic Street Painting Festival, Riverhead, NY - 2005. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'T Rex', 10' diameter, Lake Worth Street Painting Festival, Lake Worth, FL - 2006. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Pieta' by Bouguereau, 9' x 12', Bella Via, Monterrey, Mexico - 2005. Straight Reproduction. Chalk Pastel on Pavement

3-D Street Painting by Rod Tryon. 'Fishing Bears', 12' diameter, Grants Pass, OR - 2006. Original design, chalk pastel on pavement.

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ART for AFTER HOURS: Professional Street Painting Services

3D Street painting 'When Pigs Fly' by Rod Tryon for street painting festival in Grant's Pass, OR - 2007. 8' x 12', original design.