Our Dear Dead Drug Lord: Set Build

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Bonnie Sprung designed and built this set for Imagine Performing Arts Center (1700 Oviedo Mall Boulevard, Oviedo FL). Bonnie created these fun time lapse videos as she works on the set. I saw one of her videos and decided I needed to sketch her at work. She was working on a large tree house set.

The set was for a play titled Our Dear Dead Drug Lord written by Allexis Scheer and directed by Matthew Macdermid. Four high school aged girls formed a pact in Miami where they all worshiped Pablo Ecsobar a drug lord who was gunned down in Colombia. The four girls cast were Sarah Barthelemy, Louise Ortiz-Hernandez, Ana Gomez-Lugo and Maddy Paston.

The four girls, Pipe, Zoom, Squeeze and a new recruit used a Ouija board to summon the drug lord in a seance that morphed from teenage play into a possible supernatural occurrence. The girl’s raw performances explored each girl’s hidden trauma and suppressed rage while they all searched for some form of control in their lives. The performances were mesmerizing and powerful. The play started playfully but ended with a guttural scream.

Bonnie Sprung’s set build was part plan and part instinct. She worked on one side of the set and then the other, using wood for the broad strokes of her constructed composition. The camera she used to shoot a time lapse of the process was right beside me. The main thing was that the set had to be solidly built and safe for the actresses. Once construction was complete it would influence every aspect of the performances.

I felt privileged to see the bare bones skeleton of what would become an amazing set. Bonnie Sprung has worked on set design, scenic painting, make-up and stage management for over 200 productions in Orlando and New York. In this small theater space at Imagine Performing Arts Center, she created theater magic on a tight budget. She showed me what the set would look like when complete. She had taken her concept sketch and fed it into AI and from there a very detailed an colorful rendering was done. I couldn’t wait to sketch the play live.

The Boxer Returns

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15 years ago, I sketched performance artist Brian Feldman at the Beacham Theater. He set himself up inside an Orlando Weekly Newspaper box and distributed papers to people going into the Best of Orlando Party. It was a tough sketching situation and ultimately, I was asked to move along by police. I had already finished the sketch line work thankfully and when the officer left I finished the sketch while standing up. He didn’t return to once again cut off the creative process.

Brian let me know that he was having a return performance at this year’s Best of Party being held in the Plaza Live Theater. The fact that I could sketch indoors with air conditioning was already a plus. I arrived early and Brian had left my name at the door so I could get into the venue. I was given an arm band and let right in.

Brian was set up in the lobby right next to the table that the Orlando Weekly was using to welcome people to the event. I sat in my artist’s stool right across from Brian which offered a good vantage point. This time Brian became a perfect photo opportunity to folks heading into the theater. Before getting into the Orlando Weekly box, Brian met with Production Manager Lee Soule.

Brian hired actress Suzanne Faison who I had just seen at the Orlando Story Club as she told her story for the first time. I had also sketched her at Fringe this year because she performed with the Orlando Gay Chorus, and she had a solo and dance near the end of the show. I sketched her as she got prepared a little off stage. She brought plenty of energy to the performance by offering to take a photo of anyone who grabbed a paper from the boxer. She danced when the music started inside the venue and she crouched like Spider-man always finding a way to grab the attention of folks passing by.

I always like to watch Brian’s facial expressions as people pose. More important are the unexpected moments like a woman struggling to adjust her dress next to the newspaper box before she went inside. Brian’s look of surprise and dismay made me laugh out loud. I kind of wish I had left more room to the right of the box to add some of these moments but my art is a slow burn. Once I commit to a composition, I push through and hope that everything works out.

When my sketch was done, I asked Brian’s Suzanne if she needed anything. I know that Brian never takes a food or bathroom break during a performance. She asked if I could get a couple of slices of pizza from outside. After I grabbed a bit for myself from the table that Maxine’s on Shine had set up inside the theater, I went outside and found the pizza offerings. It was late in the event so there was no line. I grabbed two slices and made my way back inside. I had to go through security, which I didn’t have to do when I arrived much earlier. My art bag had to be searched, and every brush and pencil was a potential weapon. The pizza ultimately did find its way into the Plaza Live, and Brian’s energetic assistant Suzanne was so grateful. I think she had just been running in caffeine up to that point.

The Plaza Theater was the site of the murder of singer Christina Grimmie by a rabid fan the night before the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Grimmie was participating in a meet-and-greet event after her performance, signing auto graphs and selling merchandise, when she was shot multiple times by the suspect, a 27-year-old male. I could not be upset by the heightened security. Orlando lost its innocence in June of 2016.

Brooklyn’s Pizza

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When I lived up in Lake County Florida I used to frequent Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 US-27 Leesburg, Florida). When I went on a sketch outing with Stella Arbeláez Tascón to Brooklyn’s, we got to meet our server who was also an artist. She had just finished painting the restaurant front window with holiday themed art and it was darn good.

I went to Brooklyn’s Pizza sometimes for their delicious pizza but also for the occasional Alfredo and spaghetti meal. Besides the large plate of rich pasta there were also garlic knots which I could never finish. Brooklyn’s got my business on days where I didn’t have much available in the pantry and I didn’t feel like cooking. I felt comfortable eating on my own because the staff remembered me as that quirky artist who is always sketching. They were always curious to see what I would sketch next.

I can’t offer a biased review of the food at Brooklyn’s because I have just recently switched my diet to only plant-based foods. On my refrigerator is a note that says, “No Dairy, No Eggs, No Meat, No Oils, No Processed Foods”. I have started to read food labels to be sure I am not buying tons of hidden chemicals, salt and sugar. I now spent plenty of time searching for healthy foods which are a challenge to find in a Publix, with rows and rows of brightly colored junk food.

I am following an online course where I get to try out different recipes that are for delicious plant-based meals. Since I just moved onto my new Eola Heights Studio in a gorgeous old historic home, the timing is good, since I can stock my kitchen pantry with only whole plant-based food supplies.

The Alfredo spaghetti at Brooklyn’s Pizza was delicious but it has so much heavy cream which is no longer in my diet. The pizza which was also delicious is no longer something I would seek out when going out to eat. The cheese and white flour are both items that I am avoiding moving forward.

If you want a great pizza, Brooklyn’s is a great place to go. I think I will need to experiment to find a recipe for a great plant-based pizza. The cheese is the thing that will be most challenging to mimic. A healthy and savory tomato paste should be easy to make. I made my own spaghetti sauce for the first time last week. I know Cashew nuts and nutritional yeast have good cheese flavor. Most commercial baked goods have too much sugar and processed flour. As I learn more, I will find out which flours are nutritional and worth using. I have only dipped my toes in the water and taken my first baby steps towards a healthy plant-based diet. I will likely make mistakes along the way. But if I fall off the bike, I just need to get back on.

I didn’t purge my refrigerator and I had a large frozen pork loin left over. I made the pork loin several weeks ago and discovered that it is absolutely exhausting to digest meat once you have started a plant based diet. I actually had to stay in the studio that night and rest although I had plans to do a sketch at an event. I have shopped several times since that experience and no meat has made it back into the freezer.

From My Hometown: An R&B Classic about Friendship

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In the musical, From My Hometown, three young R&B singers met up in NYC in 1980, having arrived there from Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia. They each had superb voices and definite talent and were heading for a competitive audition to nurture their dream of performing at the famed Apollo Theater.

The show was created by playwright Lee Summers, based on a book written by Summers, Ty Stephens, and Herbert Rawlings, Jr., built around their personal autobiographical stories of desiring careers in the music and theater industry. The musical was full of classic soul and R&B songs performed by three enormously talented actors, Adourin Jamelle Owens, Quentin Avery Brown and James White III.

This talented artist had one thing in common, they were all broke and desperately needed to win the Apollo Theater audition. This rags to riches tale and quite a few unexpected twists and turns.

The Winter Park Playhouse production was performed in the Mandell Theater at the Orlando Shakes Theater Complex (812 East Rollins Street Orlando FL 32803) while The Playhouse’s Winter Park location was under renovation.

Listening

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The Winter Garden Theater was shuttered in 2024, reportedly after insurmountable financial challenges. The problem was far deeper than finances, however.

The Winter Garden City Commission unanimously approved a partnership with DNA Event Creative to manage the Garden Theater on Plant. DNA Event Creative is a for profit organization that has had to hit the ground running to bring together a 2026-2027 season in just 3 months. It has not been an easy journey.

This listening session was held at the Foundation for a Healthier West Orange to get feedback from members of the Central Florida Theater Community. From what I had read on a Central Florida Theater Forum online, I went into this meeting thinking that Winter Garden fostered a theater that was not welcoming to performers and technicians who were not white. What happened in the past at the theater has caused a firestorm online that has fostered a lack of trust. Only one woman in the room was black. One person said that other creatives refused to come because they had been burned so many times in the past.

Discussions in this Listening Session hinted at what had happened in the past, but those responsible were never named and the specifics were not discussed. The topic was treated like walking on eggshells. One person described the situation like buying a home and the past homeowner was a horrible person who kicked his dog and annoyed the neighbors. As nice as the new homeowner might be, the home would always be known as a horrible place by all in the neighborhood.

The hope of DNA Event Creative was to focus on moving forward and not making the same mistakes of the past. History tends to repeat itself when history is ignored.The analogy was made that the events of the past were being swept under the rug. Those events were so horrible that it made the rug so bumpy that you would be sure to trip if you walked across it.

One speaker said that he knew what white privilege felt like because he had lived in a city where he was the minority. When the car with him and his high school buddies was pulled over by police, he felt safe but his friends were afraid for their life’s. This room suddenly felt like a circle of white privilege. The moderator who kept the listening session on track was in silhouette. I could never see his face because he was back lit.

The owners of DNA Event Creative were accused of not wanting to hear from the community because they turned off comments on their social media site. They explained that they needed to protect their actors who were getting angry comments for participating in the first theater production. The comments were so angry and vitriolic that they could destroy an actor. The owners felt like parents who needed to protect their kids. Online algorithms are designed to foster conflict and anger. Those emotions generate more clicks.

Live theater is a rare community experience where people gather in a dark room together for a shared experience. What happens on stage can influence how people think of the world. When the world is on fire any production that promotes empathy or compassion is important.

I don’t know the details of what transpired in the past at the Garden Theater. What I have heard is all second hand information. It is clear from things said at this meeting that the pain caused lingers, has spread, and had not been resolved. It was established that the guilty parties were fired and will have nothing to do with any production moving forward. There was discussion that the city itself which owns the theater might not approve of racially diverse productions in the future. The owners at DNA expressed that the city does not take a creative roll in productions.

I feel lucky to have worked with the Orlando Shakes on their posters because their productions always have open auditions and the best actor is picked regardless of race or ethnicity. When a black actress was cast as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, there was online racist comments but the theater protected the cast and refused to allow any further racist commentary.

We are living in a time where racists are emboldened by the actions of the present administration. In such a divisive time live theater is needed more than ever to encourage open thought and dialogue. Criticism is easy but creative thought and action is hard. The enthusiasm of the owners at DNA Event Creative was contagious. He leaned forward in his chair constantly on tip toe. She sat beside him confident and calm. DNA is a woman owned business and these two were pumping their own money into the theater in the hope that it might rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.

The Bug in Mount Dora Florida

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My bike needed a major tune up when I lived up in Lake County Florida. I took it to Adrenaline Bike Works (206 N Highland Street, Mount Dora, FL). They did a great job of fixing a flat and getting the brake pads balanced. It felt like a new ride when I left. A few months prior I had just purchased an inner tube and I replaced it myself. However, I had to drill the hole in the aluminum rim a bit larger to get the valve to fit. I think I must have left a few aluminum shards behind because the next time I went to use the bike the tire was flat.

The time I wanted to use the bike I was going to Stella Arbelaéz’s Graduation. It was a several mile bike ride from the artist studios to the UCF stadium where the graduation was taking place. I was more than disappointing when I got on the bike and found that the tire was flat. It was a moment to shout out and curse the gods. I decided to walk the distance to the graduation ceremony. I was a sweaty mess in my dress shirt and fashionable slacks when I arrived, but I made it in time.

Next to Adrenaline Bike Works was this shell of a VW Beatle which was turned into a menacing metal spider. The sculpture was unveiled in January of 2020. It was built by John Henns who owns the commercial property at Highland Street and 3rd Avenue. The bug is painted an ominous black. Any arachnophobics who happen to drive by might get a fright. The Volkswagen or, translated, the People’s Car was car developed from an idea of Adolf Hitler himself.  To me the VW Beatle symbolized the Nazi ideals which included concentration camps and ethnic cleansing, which makes it all the more frightening.

School must have just let out when I started the sketch, because large groups of school children kept walking past as I worked. One student shouted out, looks great! And I gave him a thumbs up.

First Travel Sketch Class at Crealdé

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I teach a Travel Sketch Class on Sunday mornings at Crealdé School of Art (600 St. Andrews Blvd.
Winter Park, FL). I had eight students for this first class with a wonderful variety of backgrounds and drawing styles. The first class is always fun because I get to introduce myself and introduce the pleasure and minor frustrations of drawing on location.

Instead of taking quick and sterile cell phone photos, it is a real blessing when travel sketching because locals become curious about the tourist who is being still. In Germany a local artist introduced herself and invited me to visit her art studio which was right next to the historic church off of the town square. My German is spotty at best but we both understood each other’s drawings and the challenges of being an artist.

For the first half of the Crealdé class we stayed in the art studio which had air conditioning. I introduced thumbnail drawings as a low stakes way for us all to start putting lines and washes on the page. I introduced my concept of setting the stage and then adding the actors. The actors in this case were arrangements of flowers on the art table.

I tried to stress the idea of having one BIG object and the several progressively smaller objects going back into space. I limited their pallet to just black ink grey washes or Prisma color scribbles and the white of the page. I always stress the idea that each object in the sketch needs those 3 values to feel 3D. I also stress that any object should have 3 sides to appear 3D.

Once most everyone had filled a page with thumbnail sketched, we then went outside to continue doing thumbnail studies of sculptures and objects on the Crealdé property. Many artists crowded under the tent, but some artists branched out on their own to sketch. I always admire these lone wolves.

Outside I did a thumbnail sketch and walked the sketch around to show the student each step in my process. I also used that opportunity to give personal feedback and offer suggestions on how I might approach the composition differently.

Three hours was over in the blink of an eye. I love joking around with the students to let them know that sketching is play rather than hard work. We will be missing next week’s class because of Labor Day. I asked each student to bring in a book or some samples of an artist that they admire in the next class. My hope is to learn what art they love and help it inspire them when they sketch on their travels.

I already feel this is a fun group that embraces the task of sketching on location. There is some uncertainty, but I keep stressing that we are only doing sketches not some important museum painting. On this low stakes first day each student created at least 5 or 6 thumbnails. One student had 11 thumbnails that were bold and easy to read. This is going to be a fun group to work with.

Mellow Mushroom

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Crealdé School of Art is updating their gift shop and so I dropped off 5 of my books, Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques. I signed each of the books and they are on sale in the Crealdé Gift Shop  for $20. I realize now that I should offer the books on my website as well. They can be found in any bookstore around the world in many languages, but some might want to get it from the source. I need to get used to distributing books to bookstores and gift shops and get used to keeping track of the inventory. After signing the agreement the Crealdé agreement form, I decided to get lunch at Mellow Mushroom which is just a block away from the school.

Kathy Blackmore who hired me to work at Full Sale University years ago, used to take her animation teaching staff to Mellow Mushroom once a year as a treat. I used to always order a Cosmic Karma pizza which had a delicious spread of pesto.

Kathy passed away suddenly this year and so I felt the need to go to Mellow Mushroom in her honor. Kathy was an incredible children’s book illustrator and art instructor. I am still shocked and devastated that she is gone. We worked together at Disney on Brother Bear and then I helped her at Full Sail.

In Mellow Mushroom there was a new section of mural depicting the Beatles. I think it was done by local muralist Andrew Spear. I recognize his bold line work and crosshatching style.

In college I studied painting with Gill Stone who was known for his 1960s themes illustrated album covers. When I was a student, Gill was working on a 7-foot-tall painting of Rachel Welch for Playboy owner Hugh Hefner. All the flowers, rainbows and sunbeam patters reminded me of Gills work. In Gills freshman year painting class, easels were circled up around the perimeter of the room. he simply told all the young art school students to sit at an easel and start painting. There was no technical instruction, we just did the best we could and made marks on canvas. I learned as much from my fellow students as I did from the teacher.

An artist friend has been doing a good job of convincing me that it would be nice to study at something like the Florence Atelier. Even at my late stage of life, I have much I need to learn.

My Cosmic Karma Pizza was delicious. I tend to eat too fast while I sketch. I wolf down bites so that I can lean back over the sketchbook and make more marks. I got a large chunk of cheese stuck in my throat. It wasn’t a complete blockage. I could still breathe but I felt the lump in my esophagus.  I couldn’t eat or drink any more. This had happened before. It sometimes helps to raise my hands over my head. I knew that I just needed to relax and the lump should slip down my throat. I sketched to distract myself and relax. The waitress came over and asked if everything was OK. That was a loaded question. What she meant to ask was if I wanted a box for the remaining slices of pizza I wasn’t eating. Dear God I didn’t want to choke to death on a Cosmic Karma. I considered going to the bathroom to jump up and down and try and dislodge the cheese. Just as I was about to exit my booth, I felt the mass slip its way down my throat. Thank God.

I had another slice of Cosmic Karma but took much smaller dainty bites. I also kept sketching, but not as furiously. People kept entering the restaurant and I debated about who I could get in my sketch. I did get a box for the last slice which would have stuffed me like a tick.

Come From Away

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I had a chance to sketch Come from Away at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (812 E. Rollins St., Orlando , FL) and I have to say it was an absolutely thrilling production. The music will have you bobbing your head and darn near stomping your feet.

Come from Away is a 2017 musical, with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is based on the events in the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 39 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport. The characters in the musical are based on actual Gander residents and the stranded travelers they housed and fed.

Working on the poster was a challenge. I started by showing a plane with the title lying on the runway in perspective. That was fine, but it didn’t say much visually. I then switched to having an islander in a plaid long sleeve shirt welcoming the same plane. I liked the spreading of the wing’s analogy, but it could be interpreted as someone trying to stop or warn the plane. I hadn’t seen that interpretation coming.

I switched my focus to showing a long line of planes on a runway. I saw a sample of dashed lines that indicated the flight paths of planes and tried that on for size. It seemed like the solution was too graphic. The kissing of the fish scene was really fun, so I tried that as well, but that is just an isolated scene in the much larger story. I am a sucker for romance, so when the couple were drawn together by the tragedy, my heart soared.

I thought I hit gold when I showed the title overtaking a large airport timetable board. The problem however is that the play does not take place in an airport. It takes place in the community rooms and homes of the Gander residents. I started researching what Gander looks like but any attempt to show the island town started to look like a travel brochure.

Finally, Jim Helsinger said something like “less is more, try simplifying to just clouds in an open sky”. It was with this simplified mindset that I pulled away from crowds of people and lines of planes to focus instead of hands making the symbol I had seen so often in Orlando after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Two cupped hands could create a human heart. I then started looking at sunsets and felt the heart created by a welcoming community should glow as if cupping the setting sun. I then put a small line of people at the bottom of the poster waving. This was the first time I showed the people facing front. They could be the Gander residents, or they could be the passengers.

The painting of the poster was rough and spontaneous since it had been done so fast. I like the human touch that is evident in how fast it was painted. If the art was created with AI it would be polished and mechanically smooth. I prefer to see the roughness of the sketch.  This final version of the art sings. The struggle to find a solution sometimes pays off in spades.

You really need to see this show. It is so timely. It shows what can happen when a community comes together rather than being divisive. There will be a performance on September 11th and that show is a fundraiser. I was considering getting tickets for that night myself. It is bound to be an emotional evening. There are only a few tickets left.

Come from Away

In the Orlando Shakes, Margeson Theater (812 E Rollins Street Orlando, FL)

Tickets

Hand Art Center of Stetson University Deland Florida

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Stella Arbeláez Tascón had been invited to exhibit at the Homer and Dolly Hand Art Center at Stetson University (139 E. Michigan Avenue DeLand, FL) for Looks Good On Paper: Second Edition in the Foyer and Gary R. Libby Gallery.

The public was invited to the exhibit featuring Fine Art Prints from the Central Florida Printmakers and Handmade Books from the Book Arts Guild of Central Florida.

Central Florida Printmakers included Stella Arbeláez, Marina Burgner, Meg Carroll, Katy Farmer, Jennifer Harper, David Hunter, Mindy Lighthipe, Bronwyn Merritt, Trent Mouton, Rhonda Peyton, Fontaine Rodgers, Mary Wentzel and Mori Olowu.

Book Arts Guild of Central Florida artists included Holly Jefferies, Meghan Medina, Rachel Simmons, Catherine Cross Tsintzos, Marie Patrick, Rachel Jerusha Kinbar, and Stephanie Rodriguez.

Stella attended the exhibit opening and I tagged along. Before exploring the whole show, I sat in the second gallery where there was a bench to get a quick sketch done. The artist who created the 2 by 4 installation piece was on hand along with his family. His wife was taking photos, and I managed to get his teenage daughter and son in my sketch. I think the kids knew I was sketching so they lingered as they looked at the art. The installation had a deflated mylar weather balloon, a tiny snail shell and some boxes with blinking diodes. Bricks were stacked inside the 2 by 4 supports. What it all meant I can not be sure but it felt extra-terrestrial. The artist was explaining to someone about how he hoards things in his studio certain that someday they will make it into an installation. He talked about obsessively poking holes in a fuel can, which must have been empty and sure enough the hole filled can was in the piece.

On the wall across from the installation was a series of small black and white prints by artist Oscar Bluemner who lived from 1867 to 1938. Oscar worked as an architect, initially in Germany and later in the United States, before turning to painting full time in 1911. One of the prints was of the little red lighthouse that was in Washington Heights below the George Washington Bridge. I have sketched the same lighthouse from my old neighborhood. I identified with his work because these small sketched felt like they were right out of his daily sketchbook. Oscars work is in the Whitney Museum of Art along as at Stetson University. I love discovering an artists work that I identify with.

There were some gorgeous prints in the next rooms. Stella shared her favorites as I explored the rooms for the first time. Also exciting were the handmade books by artists. The exhibit was so inspiring and was sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Looks Good On Paper Exhibit ran from January 20, 2026 to March 21, 2026.