Update: We’ve updated this post with details about our event and contest prizes.
There it was, blocks from the Pacific Ocean in Ocean Beach. I had found a crack in a sidewalk on Bacon Street shaped like a heart. It even had been shaded pink. I snapped a photo and posted it on The Stumblr, our blog depicting San Diego’s shoddy sidewalks.
The sidewalk heart got me thinking about art. Photographers and other artists have staged scenes made out of potholes in New York, Los Angeles and Canada, wrapped colors around sidewalks and drain pipes and turned spooky sewers into spooky pictures.
When I look at the jagged lines and contrasting colors on many of our Stumblr photos, I see the same possibilities for an art project.
And I’m hoping you do, too.
We’re unveiling a contest for artwork inspired by The Stumblr.
Our minds are open. Use photos from the Stumblr, the sidewalks identified on the blog or some combination to create something — an interactive collage, a 3-D model of broken sidewalk, a video of someone tripping or anything else that fits your creativity. Re-envision The Stumblr however you’d like, but please do not make permanent changes to sidewalks.
There’s a lot of material to work with. Right now, we have more than 120 posts of shoddy sidewalks from Carmel Valley to San Ysidro on the blog.
And we have prizes for the winner: a $200 gift card to Blick Art Materials in Little Italy and a Voice of San Diego “Inside Voice” membership for themselves so they can attend all our events for free. We’re compiling a panel from members of the local art community to be judges.
We’ll be displaying the projects at an event at the Jacobs Center in southeastern San Diego on July 10 at 6 p.m. We’ll also have a conversation with City Councilman Mark Kersey, who heads in the council’s infrastructure committee, on the state of streets, sidewalks, buildings and other infrastructure. We’ve invited Councilwoman Myrtle Cole, the committee’s vice chairwoman, to join the conversation as well.
Everyone who took photos for The Stumblr will be invited to the event.
Submit your projects to me directly at liam@vosd.org. You could also call me at 619-550-5663 with any questions.
Our contest deadline is Monday, July 8. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
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