jolson@firstunitedbank.com

– Joe F., Dallas, TX

Jellybean Street

WHAT? Kid art

WHERE? Jellybeanstreet.com

HOW MUCH? $95-$420

East Dallas neighbor Megan Naftis didn’t invent Jellybean Street because she didn’t have to; someone in Australia did it for her. All Naftis had to do was bring it to Dallas.

Jellybean Street is a company that helps turn kids’ finger painting pieces into canvas art actually worth displaying.

“I found the company online and just loved it,” she says.

With an art degree from University of Texas in Dallas, this was an ideal career for Naftis because it combines her two favorite things: creating art and playing with kids.

“I used to paint, but then when I had kids I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she says. “Because to really paint you need a good solid block of time, which you just don’t have when you have kids.”

To create the art, Naftis hosts a class for a group of children ranging in ages from a 3 months to 9 years old, guiding them through several art-producing activities.

The kids finger paint, blow paint out of straws, twirl canvases around on spinning contraptions and roll paint-dipped balls around in buckets. They have a blast, and the parents get something nice out of it too — for a price.

Jellybean Street retains the rights to the raw artwork. When it’s all said and done, the parents are more than welcome to have the original pieces, Naftis says, but before that happens, she photographs the pieces. Those photos are then sent to a graphic designer who takes elements of the raw art and reworks it into an abstract composition with style and structure.

“We really want the kids’ movements to come through,” she says. “We love to see fingerprints and things that allow parents to recognize their kids’ work in the finished pieces.”

The finished illustration is printed on a canvas, and parents can purchase a copy if they wish. The best work is duplicated and sold online.

The purchase will go toward a good cause. For each print sold, up to 60 percent of the profit is donated to a charity of the buyer’s choice.