Jingletown is this interesting warehousey neighborhood in East Oakland between the Interstate 880 freeway and Alameda that is chock full of skilled and fun artists. Plus it has a cool name.

According to the business association, Jingletown got its name from Portugese cannery workers who would walk home from canning fruits from Fruitvale when they got paid and they’d “jingle” their pockets to express their pride in their earnings.

Regardless, if you go to this second-annual event, you’re sure to be impressed by the work of Simone Adair, the mosaics of Kim Larsen and the super mind-bending paintings of Darwin Price.

OH AND LOOKY HERE! I found the woman whose work I bought at the Pro Arts Art Walk. Jill Gibson is participating in the Jingletown Holiday Art Walk and this is the piece I bought from her a couple of years ago that hangs on my mantle!

The Heavens by Jill Gibson

You know that some of this work is affordable if I purchased some!

The Jingletown Holiday Art Walk is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2. There’s a map on the link to show you how to get there.

See you there!

Since you all know how much I love open studios, I thought I’d alert you to another open studio opportunity coming up. Reader Karen Pliskin says the space she works in, ActivSpace in Berkeley, is holding open studios for the first time ever Dec. 8 and 9!

Pliskin says, “ActivSpace is a three-story building on 7th Street in which artists and (very) small business people rent studios. The rents are reasonable for the bare-boned studios, and the artists, craftspeople, and business-owners who work there have created a sense of community, even though they are nestled in their individual spaces.”

There are jewelers and photographers, painters and artists of all sorts. And they will have work for sale!

Um, a chance to see a spot that’s never before been open to the public? I’m there!