Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I’m sitting in my living room in a little post-vacation depression after spending 4 days in one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen – Savannah, Georgia. I could talk about the trees alone for days. If you’re ever in Savannah and don’t stop to check out Wormsloe Plantation, you’re missing out on one of the most incredible sites I’ve ever seen (and yes, it is just a bunch of trees.)

One of the most interesting parts of our trip was meeting a local artist located right in City Market Square named Alix Baptiste. Now, Zack LOVES art so we stopped in just about every gallery in Savannah, but something about Alix’s art really caught my eye. I won’t compromise the integrity of his work by sharing a picture of our different pieces online, but just taking a look at his website can give you a good idea of his style.

What really caught our attention about Alix wasn’t just his work, but also his personality. From the moment we walked into his little gallery, he was chatting our ear off about his story – he was loud, charming and had a contagious smile that only made his work that much more engaging. After a while of talking, Alix began telling us about how he had originally come to the United States back in the 1980’s from Haiti on a small boat. In search of work, he began street painting as a way to make a living and boy, did he ever.

He went from a poor man painting on the streets of Savannah to commissioning work in Disney, London and for famous celebrities like Robert De Niro. Even with all of his success, he still has the most genuine and positive outlook on life and went above and beyond to cut us a ridiculously good deal on his work because he could tell we young, just starting out, and madly in love with is work. His exact words were, “God blessed me with a gift, and who am I to stop you from enjoying it if you love it so much?”

How many people do you find in this world who reach that level of success and would willingly give up a fat paycheck just to know that two young people from Harrisburg, PA would spend every day enjoying his talent? I don’t think the list is very long. Either way, I hope Alix knows he made Zack the happiest man in Savannah by selling us that painting (and two small prints on top of it).

Now, back to his work. What’s truly unique about it is that he creates these paintings completely from his imagination pulling from his memories from home. One common theme we heard in our art gallery tours is that almost 90% of artists these days who paint scenery images pull from photographs that they’ve taken of a memorable scene, however, Alix just sits in front of his canvas in his small shop and paints whatever his head feels that day.

His work is incredibly unique, the colors are absolutely brilliant and I’m excited to hang our first official piece of artwork in the apartment that was not purchased at Home Goods.

As for the recipe, I’m dedicating this Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar to Alix – it might just be the complete opposite of Alix’s American Dream, but I like to think he would enjoy the simplicity of them either way. Either way, you can still whip them up on your own and share them with your friends on the weekend.