My wife works for Merrill Lynch. To kick off the start of the Winter Park Art Festival, Merrill Lynch opened the Winter Park office for a kick off party. The office branch has a wide open rooftop patio that overlooks Park Avenue. More important, food and drink were on the house all night. When Terry and I arrived there were lines of people waiting for food. I started sketching immediately. Irving Radar McLean was playing steel drum music all night. He quite honestly never took a break. I caught him briefly between songs to grab his business card. He said, “You’ll be makin plenty of money from that sketch you did of me”. He actually hadn’t seen the sketch but he had noticed me working.
Clients and prospective clients of Terry’s came to the rooftop event. While she was being a social butterfly, I sketched. Looking over the rooftop ledge unfortunately didn’t offer a view of the art festival itself. The show tents began one block further north. With my sketch finished, I then loaded up a plate and grabbed a beer. Terry introduced me to a local magazine art director and I was surprised to find out she knew of my work. After another beer, I relaxed enjoying the sunset as the steel drum lifted me away to a Caribbean retreat.