One thing rural Connecticut has is plenty of stones. William Gillette was an actor who played Sherlock Holmes for many years on Broadway. He made enough money to build this castle overlooking the Connecticut river. Kyle, Val and Terry went inside for a tour and I used the hour I had to myself to wander the grounds and do a quick sketch. I knew my time was up when the whole staff in green tee shirts walked past me towards the exit. A miniature train used to run around the property. An overweight mom and her chubby whining child stumbled past me. The little red faced boy was screaming that he was hot red faced and tired. A fit French family then marched past at a fast clip. My hosts and Terry found me and told me it was time to go.
Mystic Seaport
The amazing thing about Mystic Seaport is that artisans are handcrafting parts the same way they were made several hundred years ago. This tourist mecca is layed out like a small port town. In each of the old seaport buildings different craftspeople demonstrate their craft. Docked in port is the Amistadt which is a replica of a famous slave trading ship. This boat was built from scratch in the shipyard. Construction of the boat took two years. Any of the iron parts would have been formed and shaped in the blacksmith’s shop. Bill Scheer is the master blacksmith and Parker Cronin is his apprentice. Parker worked diligently while Bill explained the blacksmith’s art to tourists.
Bill explained that the temperature of the metal is important. He said the metal’s temperature is measured by judging its color. White is the hottest then yellow, orange, red, crimson and azure. There seem to be many subtle grades of red. A tourist pointed out that he was colorblind and thus he would make a rotten blacksmith. One child kept asking questions and Bill told her that if she wanted to get the feel of what it is like to work with hot metal, she should practice by hammering clay. Bill started to demonstrate how to hammer a perfect cylinder. He started by hammering the metal till it had four sides then he hammered it till it had eight sides then sixteen then thirty two. It turns out hammering a cylinder is quite a challenge. The mother asked Bill about lessons and he explained that private lessons were available. Parker had started taking lessons when he was just fourteen years old. The implements in the foreground of the sketch are harpoons. Several of the boats in the port were once whaling ships. I felt right at home sketching in this workshop. Bill joked with me that I should get a camera. I said, cameras were just a fad. Why would people want to make pictures with a machine, when it is much more rewarding to fully experience a place by taking the time to do a sketch?
Vanderbilt Mansion
Terry wanted to see some mansions while we were on vacation. Our first stop was the Franklin Delano Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York. When we entered the visitors center, we found out a guided tour was $14. Terry then found out that there was a much more opulent mansion just up the road built by the Vanderbilts. Terry wanted to go inside for the tour, so I decided I would use that time to do a sketch of the exterior. I searched desperately for a shady tree with a view.
The mansion is a small place that the Vanderbilts only lived in for six weeks out of the year. The mansion has a grand view of the Hudson River Valley. As Terry’s tour group approached the mansion, the park ranger who was leading the tour waved to me and asked, “Are you an artist?” I sighed and shouted back, with some annoyance, “Yes.” It turns out Terry had put him up to asking this one question, which I cannot tolerate or stand. She got me again!
Terry said that the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC has more bathrooms than this mansion has rooms. She claimed that staff were well paid, and that when Frederick Vanderbilt died, they were paid in the will. Terry and I walked the property when she came out from the tour. I was amazed that there was a constant stream of tourists crowding into the building. We walked a quarter mile or so to the gardens. Roses were in bloom along with a colorful assortment of wild flowers.
Cold Spring
Terry and I drove up the Hudson River Valley to a small town called Cold Spring. we stopped at a bed and breakfast inn which had beautiful Victorian decorated rooms. The rooms were rather pricey so we walked down Main street to the riverfront. There we found the Hudson House which is right across the street from the waterfront. A small gazebo is located at the foot of a wide cement public pier. A sign indicated that a band would be playing in the band shell so I sat on a wooden bench and started to sketch. After a loud sound check “The Steve Claire Band” started to play, They played a combination of folksy urban rock. A woman in the audience set out a bunch of Hula Hoops and she began to hula to the music. She was good, being able to move the hoop up her arms and around her neck all while moving to the beat of the music. She offered lessons to a friend but the friend moved with a staccato urgency never being able to keep the hoop going for more than a minute. 0thers tried with a bit more success.
Children were playing on the rocks at the rivers edge and families rested on blankets listening to the music. A little boy who had obviously just learned to walk, made his way over to Terry and myself and smiled at us. He then pointed at my boots and started playing with the shoelaces. His father told him not to untie the shoes but he was infatuated and determined. Terry laughed uncontrollably and soon I was laughing as well, though I’m not certain why. I’m not comfortable around children, but they always seem to gravitate to me. This is my own private curse.
The following morning we got up early and had breakfast before walking up Main street. Within a few blocks I sat down and started to sketch the buildings. It was a quiet Monday morning and nothing was open yet. Terry wandered looking in all the store front windows. When the sketch was done we went back down to the waterfront. There we saw the Clearwater which is a replica of a Dutch river sloop. Terry and I met because of the environmental mission of this boat 23 years ago. The sloop silently disappeared behind the concrete pier. As Terry walked away from the pier, she said, “I wish I could memorize this view.”
Luau
After the memorial service for my step-mom Ruth, at George Washington Memorial Cemetery in Paramus New Jersey, the families went to Napa Valley Bar and Grill in the Garden State Mall for a luncheon. Everyone had on leis and Hawaiian shirts in honor of Ruth’s many trips to Hawaii. I sat across from Loretta and Ken the children from Ken, Ruth’s last husband. My dish, salmon over a bed of rice with asparagus shoots was delicious. I can smell the dish now, just thinking about it. Desert consisted of sorbet, a small cheese cake and a chocolate cookie. Everyone was given a Mai Tai, which is a pink sweet Polynesian drink. My step-brother, Wayne, stood up and offered a toast. He explained that Mai Tai means “good” in Polynesian. He assured everyone that Ruth most likely was given a Mai Tai when she got to the gates of heaven. I never considered the possibility that heaven might be an eternal state of inebriation.
After the Luau, I had to convince Terry to rush off to Pearl Paint in order to get a watercolor kit. The store was just a few miles up the road and I found a really nice kit with 24 colors. I am sure to use it often. One color, Peach, has already made it into the last couple of sketches.
When we got back to the hotel, we found all the Thorspecken and Bradley children sitting around the downstairs bar. There was no bartender. Instead, everyone had bought down their own six packs and they used the bar’s glasses and ice. There was some joking about Ruth, who probably would have frowned upon this scene. Yet in life she regretted not being able to bring these two families together. When her strong will was taken, both families mourned and in s0 doing, her memory brought everyone closer. I overheard Terry saying Ruth made the best Christmas cookies she had ever tasted. I sat across the room in a comfy sofa and took in the scene.
Ruth’s Interment
Terry and I flew to New Jersey to go to my step-mom Ruth’s interment. My father and mother are both buried here as well. The entry gates of the George Washington Memorial Cemetery are imposingly large. We drove up to the main office since I figured we would need a map to find Ruth’s plot. On the steps of the office we ran into Walter, Juanita, Cindy, Gail and Ben. Like us they were all about an hour early. Juanita already had a cemetery map so we decided to follow them. We all relaxed in the shade and waited for more people to show up. Walter pointed out a huge regal falcon that was perched on a dead tree branch. I shaded my eyes and scrutinized the falcon as he looked at me. When enough relatives and friends were on hand, Walter got into his PT Cruiser and started driving to the burial site.
We followed in our rental car. Walter drove around for sometime and when we found ourselves back where we started, we realized he might be lost. After another lap he stopped and Juanita got out. She walked up to a small pile of dirt and shouted back, “This is it.” I walked out and took a picture of the headstone. Rather than standing upright, all the headstones in this cemetery lie flat which allows for easy mowing and gives the cemetery a very open, park like feel.
Everyone at this memorial service was dressed in Hawaiian shirts and leis , since Ruth loved to visit the Hawaiian Islands. The memorial was sweet and to the point. The priest began by reciting the lords prayer, followed with everyone singing “Amazing Grace.”
Suddenly a large flock of geese flew over the proceedings no more than ten feet above our heads.. It reminded me of jet fly bys at a stadium. A small boom box played Hawaiian tunes. Ruth’s ashes were held in a small pink plastic handkerchief box sized container. The hole dug for the container was only about a foot deep. Walter said it cost $600 to dig that hole. When the service was over, the Thorspecken children walked in search of their parent’s grave. It was about 100 yards away in the shade of an old Oak tree.
Infusion Tea Farmers Market
Every Thursday, Infusion Tea is the site of a Farmers Market from 5 to 9PM. I arrived just before 5 and parked across the street. Vendors were still setting up and I walked around looking for the perfect spot to sketch from. I wandered from tent to tent seeing the goods being offered. Bee’s Knees Sweet Treats had creamy Lemon Tartlets, Chocolate Mint Cupcakes and Orange You my Honey Cupcakes. I had sampled their goods at the last Mobile Art Show and those chocolate covered marshmallows were to die for! A truck unloaded it’s produce including watermelons. There were plants and jams and a grill was fired up. As I sketched a lone performer set up and started singing to the assembled shoppers. I waved to Maria Bolton-Joubert. She set up a caricature booth in the blue tent. I picked a vantage point from across the street so I could get an overall view of the Market while having a view of the Infusion Tea signs.
Thunder rumbled on the horizon and I started to sketch faster. One by one vendors looked at the blue gray clouds forming on the Eastern horizon. Soon enough it began to drizzle. I was under a tree so I was able to work for a while till the leaves became soaked and started allowing the rain through. Then a deluge. I threw my sketchbook in my bag and ran for the cover of my truck. I suspected the storm might pass quickly so I just sat in my truck and waited. I opened the window a crack and started to place watercolor washes over my sketch. I could see the basic colors of the market through the raindrop masked windshield.
When the rain finally stopped I was glad to get out of the truck since it had turned into a furnace and I was sweating up a storm. Outside it was nice and cool thanks to the downpour. Good things come to those who wait. Around 7Pm I went into Infusion and ordered a tea. The woman behind the counter knew of my blog and I showed her the sketch. It turns out they had just been talking about the blog when they noticed me sketching across the street. Melissa Kasper, from DRIP, came in and I showed her how to set up a blog using her laptop and Infusion’s free WIFI. The set up took only a few minutes and she had a post up and published within half an hour. This brand new blog is called Currents and Color. It is rewarding to see another artist experience the same joy I fist felt when I pressed the “Publish” button for this blog over a year and a half ago.
Sam Flax – Acrylic Demonstration
I went to Sam Flax on Saturday afternoon to sketch a free demonstration of acrylic paints. The presenter had a series of pigments which he would then paint on a board so the audience could see the paints thickness and consistency. New lines of paint were shown and the possible uses explained. Quite honestly I lost interest after a while as if felt like I was sketching an infomercial. I figured the group of artists assembled must practicing artists who I might like to meet, but as soon as my sketch was finished, I went to the back of the store to buy tubes of watercolor paint to replenish my supply of paint which must have fallen out of my bag at some event.
Julie Perreth, an amazing artist in her own right, works at Sam Flax and pointed out that the store carries the brushes I use for my sketches. I had been ordering these brushes from Tokyo and paying $5 shipping. I have shopped in that store for years and never noticed the brushes. I am ecstatic to find I can replace these brushes easily when they wear out from all the abuse I throw at them from sketching every day.
Carl Knickerbocker – Suburban Primitive
I bumped into Carl Knickerbocker at an art opening at the Peacock Room, we started talking art and I asked him if he would mind if I visited his studio and sketched him at work on one of his larger canvases. He told me he had a canvas ready and planned to paint the Annie Feiffer Chapel which is at the Florida Southern College in Lakeland. He suggested I should get there myself someday to do a sketch. Frank Loyd Wright had designed the chapel and he personally supervised its construction. Students from the college who Wright referred to as “Children of the Sun” had helped in the buildings construction.
Carl lives out on the East side of town in Oviedo. When I drove up to his home I knew I was in the right place because one of his Honda Element Art cars was parked on the front lawn. The second I walked through the front door I knew I was in the home of a serious working artist. The living room was used as a storage space for Carl’s huge canvases. Rather than having them stretched, Carl had a seamstress sew loops on the tops of the canvases so that they can easily be hung like curtains.
His studio is located right off the living room in a sun porch. Most of the painting was complete. He just had a few oranges that he wanted to add to the painting as I watched. He used a large painters palette to lay out the pure florescent orange acrylics. He quickly used a palette knife to lay in the color with bold strokes. He then used a hair dryer to dry the paint a bit. He then re-attacked the surface with the knife to get the impasto texture he was looking for. Carl decided he didn’t like the color of Frank Loyd Wrights building so he changed it to a cool blue. He was infatuated with the red steps which lead into the building and these became a very important pyramid shaped element in the final composition. He felt that the building resembled a UFO and so he had it floating above a black ground into which are scratched two Gator-Men.
I asked him how he first came up with the idea of using 3D glasses to see his work and he told me about an artist names Key Scramble Campbell who was a bit of a hippy and a psychedelic artist. Campbell had done his painting to be seen with a black light and he also experimented with the 3D glasses. Carl bought 60 3D glasses for his show at the Museum of Florida Art. This show exhibited many of Carl’s larger pieces. One painting of Mermaids of Wicki Wachi, is stunning when viewed with the glasses. The mermaids seem to float above a sea of deep blue pigment as if you were seeing down to the bottom of a pool of water.
On shelves next to me while I sketches were a bunch of objects which were used in the making of a 6 minute short film called “A Dog Goes From Here to There.” Heather Henson was pivotal in suggesting Carl make this film so she could have it shown in her Handmade Puppet Dreams Film Festival. Carl’s bold painterly style is used as the basis for this amazing short. This film was first shown in NYC on December 6th of last year. It had since made its way around the film festival circuits, including Providence, Atalanta and Prague. Carl said he will submit the film in a few more festivals this year.
Carl showed me around his home and when he opened the door to what was once a guest doom, I saw hundreds of paintings stacked against the walls. He has enough inventory to fill the Menello Museum several times over. He said that now that he is getting older he is focusing more on exhibiting his work in large museums. He recognizes that as he gets older these large paintings will become harder and harder to do. He is racing against time to make his mark. As I got ready to leave, He gave me a car magnet of one of his Crocodile-Men. I now proudly exhibit it on the back of my truck. When viewed with 3D glasses the painting floats magically.
Tempus
Sultana Ali suggested I sketch a meeting of Tempus at the SAIC building which is located on the east side of town on Ingenuity Drive. The building is a sleek all glass monolithic cube. The glass doors were locked, so I placed a call to Sultana and she let me in. The Tempus club was formed by Sultana in 2000 at Edgewater High out of its Engineering, Science and Technology program. The 12 students in the club will be participating in the finals of the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) this year which will taking place at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Tempus is one of 12 teams from around the worlds who were selected for the finals. This International Competition is supported by NASA. The assembled group high school students and mentors are going to have to work as a team as they design and pitch innovative ideas for a space station design. From photos I have seen it looks like the design process involves several sleepless nights as the teams rush their projects toward completion in just 43 hours. The students will have to face stress and find ways to remain positive. When the team gets to Texas they will be issued a request for proposal and the teams must address all the points in the proposal as well as fulfill specific requests from competition organizers. The culmination of the process is a presentation of their work in front of aerospace engineers and designers who act as judges.
Sultana began the meeting by stressing the importance of confident and inspired public speaking. She began addressing the group while behind the podium but then she stepped out and got up close to the assembled group. She used this as a way to point out how important it is to have close contact with our audience and to always project. The students had been asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation with a slide to help build their public speaking abilities. In turn each member of the team got up and made a presentation. She stressed the importance of facing the audience and avoiding placing hands in pockets or fiddling with notes.
What followed was for me a highly educational view of how different people presented the material. Some students who were training for the competition for the first time were shy and very quiet, reading the notes and never looking up at the assembles group. The mentors would offer notes on how the presentations could be improved and the supportive atmosphere guaranteed that everyone would improve if they put in the effort. Roger gave a presentation in which he had long pauses every time he had to gather his thoughts. I know that if I was presenting I would panic in such a moment, but Roger just muscled his way through the material. Sultana said he had improved his presentation 200% from the week before and he now could be relied on in any situation if a presentation had to be done. Kevin Rucks would often ask a presenter to just explain what was their favorite aspect of the presentation. When the student answered, he pointed out that they were no longer giving a rehearsed speech, but talking in a relaxed way, as if to a friend and the excitement and sincerity would carry them through.
When everyone had a turn to present, the Mentors better known as Ninjas told everyone to assemble for a team building exercise in the parking lot. When the team got out to the parking lot they were face with the task of moving a small garbage can which had dry ice smoke billowing out of it. The garbage can was surrounded by a yellow rope. Team members could not go inside the roped off area or they would be vaporized. They had to use the assembled junk to move the can 20 feet and pour the liquid into a container. Failure was not an option. The teams first effort, which was largely devised by Hailey Rohrer, used rope tied to a small rubber tire. When the ropes were pulled taught the tire would clamp in on the garbage can. The problem was that only 3 team members were at the ropes and the liquid spilled because the can was off balance. Another hour went by before a another viable solution was offered. Tempers started to flair as some team members started throwing some items away in anger. The answer waited to be found in the pile of junk. Finally mentors started offering clues and one by one removing items from the mix.
The final solution was identical to the efforts of the first try but used different materials. A bungee chord was used instead of a tire to wrap around the garbage can and many more ropes were tied to it to offer more stabilization. It was a glorious moment when all the team members helped move the can and pour its contents into the destination pan.
“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”
-Joe Paterno