On Wednesday morning, the British sidewalk artist was placing sandbags at the edge of a tent to protect against rain and runoff, as he began a four-day project to transform a stretch of sidewalk into a 3-D optical illusion. Over the next few days, a flat, 20-foot by 10-foot section of concrete in front of the Kentucky Center on Main Street will become a chalk painting of a bridge over two stone tunnels with balloons rising and morphing into a real-life planter with shockingly convincing depth when seen from the right angle. Talking on Wednesday as he unpacked a battered backpack full of pastel chalk, rope and his camera, he said that he first got into chalk drawing after he graduated from art school in London and was working as a street performer, doing magic and puppet shows. Beever submitted a handful of suggested drawings to the Idea Festival, including an icy crevasse in Antarctica, a shallow seascape and the Statue of Liberty breaking out of the pavement. On Wednesday, he first laid out rope to help him adjust the tunnels to the right perspective, checking them from a camera on a tripod. But the rain in Louisville complicated his task, first causing him to scout new locations and then settling on the original one with the aid of a tent and sandbags.

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