Street painting
Sun-baked asphalt and hard concrete sidewalks: They are Jay Schwartz's preferred canvases.
(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Jay Schwartz, founder of IdeaWork, can usually be found creating flashy websites and ad campaigns for clients such as Harrah's and Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity show, but he often escapes the digital realm to draw 12-foot chalk pastels on the pavement.
The "paintings" can take days to complete and disappear with the rain, but he enjoys the work precisely because it is ephemeral. "I love the purity of the art form," says Schwartz, 37.
This weekend he'll make his annual appearance, with some 400 other artists, at Santa Barbara's "I Madonarri," the oldest street-painting festival in the U.S. For the event he plans to recreate a masterwork by one of his two stylistic influences, Benton or Diego Rivera. "Street painting is more energizing when people recognize the work and can comment," he says. 
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