‘Life of Pi’ Splashes into 3D Chalk Art

What’s a giant blue whale and 3d chalk art have in common?

Initially not much, but in this case the two collided this past week in downtown Los Angeles to announce the Blue Ray 3D & DVD launch of the fantastic film, Life of Pi. Coming off of the Academy Awards with 11 nominations and 4 wins, including Best Director for Mr. Ang Lee, this film is a visual stunner and certainly one that I felt would be a lot of fun to tackle in a street art format. That notion became reality when 20th Century Fox commissioned me to take a scene from the film and recreate it as an interactive 3d street painting at LA Live.

Life of Pi follows Pi Patel, a young man on a fateful voyage who, after a spectacular disaster, is marooned on a lifeboat with the only other survivor, a fearsome 450 lb. Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery, Pi and his majestic companion make an amazing and unexpected connection.

The streetpainting was completed in 2.5 days and was sized at @ 15′ x 35′. Team 3D consisted of myself,  streetpainter pal Julio Jimenez and LA artist Karl Strömberg. Team 3D associate Jon Nelson was on hand for social media assist on launch day, which proved to be great fun, inviting LA Live visitors over to get a free photo of themselves interacting with the painting. It certainly was a hit – everyone exclaimed on how cool the whale scene was in the film!