Local artist, Jeff Sonksen, started painting pop art murals when he found himself unemployed as a carpenter during the recession of the early 2000’s. In 2012, he began painting picket fence posts with these murals and surreptitiously placing them on the Seminole-Wekiva Trail in Longwood, Florida. Soon, his identity was revealed and he continued to add to the evolving exhibit, known as Paint the Trail, ever since. Some of his art installations are breathtaking in size and scope; some are 3D illusions. In this episode, you’ll get to know a little about Jeff Sonksen the artist and see a small portion of the Paint the Trail exhibit along the way.
To find the Paint the Trail art exhibit, begin where the trail crosses E.E. Williamson Road just East of Markham Woods Road; then follow the trail North toward Heathrow/Lake Mary.
A few miles NE of Orlando lies the small town of Longwood. Cutting through the town is the Seminole-Wekiva Trail – a 14 mile stretch that offers opportunity for hikers, cyclists, runners, and inline skaters.
The trail is also where you’ll find a curious art project called “Paint The Trail” by Jeff Sonksen. Jeff began the project back in 2012 when as an unemployed carpenter and cabinet maker he needed something to occupy his time.
[Jeff] “I never intended to do this – for attention or anything like that. I thought people would take it as like a graffiti type of thing that I’m doing on the fence. But, people are taking it like, as it is as art I guess.”
Jeff’s vibrantly colored picket fence murals evoke Andy Warhol’s pop art sensibilities with the aim to Paint the Trail with the famous, infamous and fallen among us. To date, this expanding exhibit has over 1000 paintings along the trail. As you walk or bike your way through, you are faced with both beauty and mortality.
I’ll give you look at it, coming up next.
Take time out to visit this incredible exhibit when you are in Orlando.
