City Beautiful Church

I went downtown to the Lake Eola band shell to meet Sarah Lockhard and a Voci dancer named Brie to discuss possibly doing a live projected sketch during a dance performance. Cory Violence would be reading a Tom Waits poem called Watch Her Disappear. Apparently every day in October there will be public performances like this all around town. When I got close, I noticed musicians playing in the parking lot behind the Polish Catholic Church. Meals were being distributed to the homeless and the music suggested that they surrender to Jesus.

When I got to the band shell, I sat in the back row and waited for Sarah. A band was setting up on stage with a large screen behind them. The screen and projector system would be perfect for the performance piece Sarah was considering.  One of the tech guys walked up to me and introduced himself. He was a former student of mine who was volunteering to help out with the City Beautiful Church concert. Since Sarah was a no show, I decided to sketch the band as they did their sound check.

Cole Nesmith explained that this church would be moving into a new bricks and mortar establishment just south of Lake Eola in a couple of weeks. In the mean time they were worshiping in the park. The band was quite good, playing lively and uplifting Christian rock. I’d never heard the songs before. Some of the lyrics were, “There is an army rising up. Break every chain. I may be down but I will rise. It may be dark but God is light.” Cole gave a sermon about the Prodigal Son, who took his fathers inheritance, squandered it and then returned home begging for food and forgiveness. The point of course was that god is all forgiving and full of love. Clouds of gnats swarmed around my head. I swatted they away as I drew. I finally had to leave in the middle of a song to get away from the bugs. A couple ran after me as I walked around the lake. They wanted to see the finished sketch. Their son was at the key boards.