Chalk Walk Danbury

"A Time Traveling Giraffe and a Surprised Brontosaurus"

Jessie Katz & Scott Greenberg, 5/30/2009

Winner of Most Original Concept!

Chalk Walk Danbury, hosted by Plaid, was yesterday at the CityCenter green in Danbury. It was a pretty fantastic time! Got to see a couple friends from college that I hadn't seen in a while, make some art with Scott, and watch other artists as well! Not to mention the weather was amazing, perfect for hanging outside and drawing with chalk all afternoon.

My goal was to make someone I didn't know laugh at our art, which we accomplished (numerous times), so all-in-all it was a big success! Plus I love to make kids happy, so this little girl that kept wanting to touch the giraffe was great! A couple other kids walked by and pointed or made comments, so that made me pretty excited too. :)

Plaid sponsored two artists to participate as well. They were both amazing. First there was Ellis Gallagher from Brooklyn. He works fast to trace the shadow of an object, before the sun moves drastically and changes the shadow. It was fun to keep going back to his drawings throughout the day to see how different they looked when the shadows moved positions. He was my favorite—his work was so different from what you expect from a typical chalk artist, which made it really fun to watch and look at. Below are a few images of his work:

The other sponsored artist was  Curtis Goldstein, all the way from Ohio, who drew an amazing 3D looking portrait of Elvis crawling up from a manhole in Danbury. (Notice that its fat old Elvis). Below is his work from yesterday:

Below are a some more photos from the event, enjoy!

Lincoln Sketch

This is a sketch I did a while ago, late 2007/early 2008 I think (now that I think about it, I guess that wasn't so long ago...). Sometimes art or design, in my eyes, becomes "good" if it can make someone laugh. The drawing of Lincoln— clearly not a magnificent work of art— but its silly, so if nothing else its at least worthy of a blog posting...and possibly a t-shirt. haha

Chalk Walk

Saturday, May 30th

10am-2pm

My boyfriend and I will be participating in the Chalk Walk at CityCenter Green in Danbury, CT. Come watch us and other participants turn the sidewalks into an artistic walkway! Its the town's first Chalk Walk and is sure to be a day of art, music & fun! The event is being hosted by Plaid, a design studio out of CT. Learn more about the event (and how to participate) at the Chalk Walk website!!

Social Designer: Goods for the Greater Good

Not sure how I went so long without knowing about Social Designer. But now I know and I'm excited about it. Social Designer hosts design competitions where the sales of the winning design support organizations working to make our world a better place. 

Two current competitions... 

Local Flavor: a 'local flavor' themed tote bag competition where 20% of the profits benefit Chez Panisse Foundation. The Chez Panisse Foundation works to give students the knowledge to build a sustainable future through their school curriculum and lunch program. 

Create Your Own Hero: a t-shirt competition to create a modern day hero relevant to current times. 20% of profits benefit 826 National, a creative writing non-profit.

A site like this is great. Designers get a chance to work on a project separate from the demands of their full time job, and each winning design supports an organization trying to change, even a small part of our world, for the better. 

New Earrings made from an Old Gift Card!

I was so excited when I created my first pair of these (3 or 4 days ago, the pair pictured above is my second pair). The first ones were a total mash up of colors: the card used was a red Macy's credit card; part of the Visa logo was showing on one earring and the other had part of the Macy's logo. There was a wide variety of beads including freshwater pearls (red, white and dark gray), clear plastic beads, gold ball heads from guitar strings, blue seed beads, and one bead that alone consisted of purple, green, clear and red.

I think that first pair was too complicated...I was excited about the idea of using 'leftover' beads, and just went wild. The design has been refined for my second pair (above), keeping the colors to shades of orange, blue and clear to match the Dave and Busters card used as the main part of the chandelier earring. I'm really excited about these; the shape is classic but the materials make them modern and fun. I hope someone will love wearing them as much as I loved making them! You can find them at jessiekatz.etsy.com.

I plan on continuing to work with this concept of using old gift or credit cards. If anyone out there has some old gift cards and would like to donate them, let me know, I'll pay postage! :)

Sea Glass Necklace

Every time I go to the beach I search for interesting shells and smooth stones, but if I'm lucky enough to find a piece or two of really smooth sea glass, then you know its been a good day. Well, a few days ago while waiting for the ferry, I found the jackpot of sea glass.

Near the ferry there is a little space where you can walk down and you are on the sand next to the water...its not really a beach...its pretty dirty and only stretches about 20-30 ft. Nobody ever goes down there because they come off the train and rush to catch the ferry—that 20-30 ft span of "beach" is nearly uncharted territory. This means, nobody picks up the abundance of sea glass waiting to be turned into amazing accessories! 

I collected a couple pockets full, some of which will soon be turned into jewelry available at my Etsy store. The first necklace of the group (above) was a Mother's Day gift for my mom. The clear sea glass is wrapped in sterling silver wire. Hanging in front of the glass are three tear drop shaped pieces of a plastic A&W bottle and a wooden bead. The pendant hangs from a brown cotton chord with a sterling silver lobster clasp.

Leftover Panera Art

The combined leftovers from my Orchard Harvest Salad (mmmm...) and my boyfriend's salad (not actually sure what he ordered that day) created this work of food art. I have to give most of the credit to him however, he is the brains behind this design. 

I'm pretty sure this photo is Jones Soda bottle material. I'll have to check into sending it in...

Rebranding America from Paper Magazine

I came across an interesting article on papermag.com, through Quipsologies this morning.

Paper Magazine asked 15 creatives what they would do to Rebrand America in the form of a magazine ad. Some responses are really fantastic, others I don't completely agree with, but all are thought provoking in some way or another and definitely worth taking a look at. 

Sitting in a Coffee Shop

A doodle I made while killing time at a Starbucks in NYC. 

I find it creatively stimulating to draw and write in new settings with unfamiliar surroundings, so I really do love sitting in crowded coffee shops. I get to relax (...kinda), draw and explore my thoughts while people watching and collecting inspiration. Aaaaamazing.

EcoFont

I wish I had a reason to use this font:

http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

Its definitely a cool idea...printing less of the letter so you waste less ink, just not sure how it would fit aesthetically into anything I am currently working on for print. But when it does...

Finally on Etsy

So I finally uploaded some of my things on Etsy. Still working on how to photograph the clear plastic bottle stuff, but right now you can check out a few necklaces made with scrap wood, pieces of old jewelry, old buttons and more. 

I'm really finding it interesting to let the materials I have (and find used at yard sales) inspire my projects, rather than planning something then searching for the materials later. I like transforming the recycled items with paint, an x-acto knife and more. This definitely makes for a unique one-of-a-kind piece every time, so check out jessiekatz.etsy.com often for new items!

I participated in a jewelry/used book sale fundraiser at a church in NJ yesterday, and unfortunately it was not as successful as I had hoped. But it was fun doing my first show, even if it was small and I only sold a couple items. I don't think it was the right audience for my jewelry either. They were more interested in simple single strand beaded necklaces and things like that. Hopefully I will have better luck at street fairs this season and on sites like Etsy! 

If anyone has recommendations for street or craft fairs near Rockland County NY, or other sites online that would be appropriate for my stuff, let me know!

Below are a few photos of my things on Etsy, and items that will be up there soon...