Hopscotch
Ever thought of hopscotching across the Brooklyn Bridge? Me neither ...until yesterday morning. I decided to walk part of the way to work and thought it was kind of fun and urban when I saw a hopscotch course on the was eastern side of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was slightly disturbed by the giant smiley face with a bullet in its head in the bikers lane but figured that someone must have had some fun after the kids were done making "sidewalk art."
But as I kept walking, I saw another hopscotch course, and then another and then another... Some courses had numbers, another was shaped like the Empire State Building, another had Monopoly references. The numbers on one course were square roots, another course contained the Fibonacci Sequence. Hopscotch courses lined THE ENTIRE length of the bridge.
I was astonished! From what I could deduce, Niki, Jenna and a few of their friends (who all wrote their names in chalk on one of the signs) started in Manhattan and walked to Brooklyn because all of the numbers were readable from that direction. The bullet smiley face and a big "Have a Nice Tuesday" message in the bike lane was readable from the other direction.
Of course I did not have my camera with me (when will I learn!?). None of my fellow commuters seemed as astonished as I was but that's okay, it made for a cool start to the day. (As an added bonus of the day, Freiburg was on the front of the NYT!!)
Wikipedia says hop scotch is called "Potsy" in NYC. Can anyone confirm? New Yorkers just have to be different, don't they?! ;-)
But as I kept walking, I saw another hopscotch course, and then another and then another... Some courses had numbers, another was shaped like the Empire State Building, another had Monopoly references. The numbers on one course were square roots, another course contained the Fibonacci Sequence. Hopscotch courses lined THE ENTIRE length of the bridge.
I was astonished! From what I could deduce, Niki, Jenna and a few of their friends (who all wrote their names in chalk on one of the signs) started in Manhattan and walked to Brooklyn because all of the numbers were readable from that direction. The bullet smiley face and a big "Have a Nice Tuesday" message in the bike lane was readable from the other direction.
Of course I did not have my camera with me (when will I learn!?). None of my fellow commuters seemed as astonished as I was but that's okay, it made for a cool start to the day. (As an added bonus of the day, Freiburg was on the front of the NYT!!)
Wikipedia says hop scotch is called "Potsy" in NYC. Can anyone confirm? New Yorkers just have to be different, don't they?! ;-)
posted by Erin at 11:22 PM
21 Comments:
Niki?!?!? She spelled her name right?!?!? I love it! She must be a cool girl...
How cool! Are you going to go back and play hopscotch on them?
Its hopscotch. I never heard of potsy, and Im an OG New Yorker.
I am proud to say I had a hand in this.
It was a great night shared by many... i just hope there's a good number of people out there who got a work out from trying to hop one too many of the courses :)
This was a fun night indeed... I'm glad to see that people could tell that my empire state building was actually the empire state building.
Awesome job Hopscotchers! You put a smile on my face on my walk to work. Would you like to tell us how this idea was conceived? Did anyone see you do it?
-Erin
I started this
I did it for a class final, an art class (obviously). I wanted to do something fun and love to play at the bridge late at night, so I bought some chalk (too much, want some?) and thought it would be fun to draw hopscotch across the bridge. invited a few people, which turned out to be about 30 amazing people, that drew the whole thing out. It was easily one of the best nights of my life. thank you to everyone who came!
.....and we didn't get in trouble
Well as the daughter of an art teacher, I think this was a very cool idea!! Hope you got an A.
Wooo! I too was a part of this!
I had a hand in this too! It was a fun couple of hours, and I'd love to do something similar again. I tried to do a bunch on the way back home, but dang there were a lot. :P
Are there any photos of this evening adventure?
I have photos! Lots. As an invitee of my graduating daughter, i was out there at 3 a.m. too, doing a little chalking (smiley faces!), a bit of hopping, and a lot of documenting the event with my little camera. I was in total photojournalistic mode and more than happy to share. Can we post here?
I don't think it's possible to post pictures in the comments.
But if you want to send a few pictures to newyorkadventures@gmail.com, I'll post them.
-Erin
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE "ARTSTERS" OF THE WORLD- WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS ART SWEET ART......
How should we evaluate this art? Is it considered art because it is mimemic,pragmatic, expressionistic, or has formalistic merits?
I vote for the expressionistic art!
We now need photos of NYers in their business attire, carrying briefcases, hopscotching across the Brooklyn Bridge on their way to work! Hey... somebody needs to contact NY artist, Robert Longo and give him a heads up- new inspiration for his NY workers series!!! THREE CHEERS FOR ART STUDENTS!!! What school are they from? Pratt, Parsons, SVA?
Love, Mom oxoxoxox
i have some photos as well. We'll get them up as soon as I can!
-Ruth
Ruth, send them to
newyorkadventures@gmail.com
so Erin can put them on her blog!!
Very cool, Erin! What a discovery you made! Hope they send in pics!
I'm making a book of all the images, was there the entire night making a panoramic from up on the scaffolding. Glad everyone enjoyed the piece!
I'll definitely be back for more....
Be sure to let me know if/where/when one can see the book and I'll post it on the blog.
Great job!
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