Catch a Floating StAR

South Florida Street artists and young athletic sailors create an expressive Art show on the water

Fort Lauderdale

A talented group of young artists and sailors were recently challenged with one directive- to work together to imagine the ocean surface like a floor for human movement.

The artists, members of the Street Art Regatta also known as StAR, painted sails of massive human feet. During their pilot launch this past November, their comrades, young sailors, with Optimist Dinghy, the smallest international sailboat racing class, were tasked to physically maneuver the painted sails of feet, creating the illusion that the sailboats were dancing.

(l) Clare Vickery with Sailors and John Casey, Sailing Instructor. (r)Young sailors pose for drone shot as the first sail ends.

Organizer Clare Vickery, Founder, and Director of the Grace Arts Center in South Florida said the original eight sails will race again on April 29th, 2021, from the Lauderdale Yacht Club from 4:30 pm-6:30 pm EST.

So what inspired Vickery to pair street art with the marine industry? An original series of sails by the late Painter Purvis Young in 2006 for the Winterfest Boat Parade and an American Artist in Italy named Melissa McGill, said, Vickery.

“Purvis was not a figurative painter but his abstract images came alive on the water with the wind and lighting at night. For years I had been trying to find the right connection between artists and the marine industry to expand on the award-winning Young sails for Winterfest. In 2019, I came across the Venetian ‘Red Regatta’ orchestrated by Melissa. Sails of all sizes were painted in many shades of red celebrating the ancient city’s crimson color, the legacy of design, innovation, arts, and conservation of its history amid the increasing flooding from King Tides. StAR was also influenced by memories of festive regatta competition events from my youth where university students from art, design, and engineering schools joined with rowing athletes and the community to decorate boats and race them on the river,” said Vickery.

The inaugural StAR event is being presented by the Lauderdale Yacht Club, LYC Sailing…