Milk Carton Superstars at FAVO

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Faith Arts Village (221 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida) hosts an  art studio open house every first Friday of the month.  They describe the art motel’s mission s follows: “In life and in extreme death we love. We at FAVO love all and celebrate life and community. Every
month we offer this art show to bring people together. We don’t care
who you are or what you believe in (or don’t believe in). Celebrate an evening of just being creative with local creative people.”

The event allows patrons to browse through 36 artist studios, vendors, , live musical talent, food trucks and more. Bethany Taylor Myers has a studio in which she showcases work from a different artist each month. Her husband is the drummer and lead vocalist for a band called the Milk Carton Superstars.  They performed in the former motel room now being used as a gallery. They were lit from below and small fans blew their hair upwards giving the illusion that they were falling.

FAVO and Park Lake Presbyterian Church work hand in hand supporting all the Orlando communities. The next FAVO evening is August 3rd. The evening gets started after 5pm as the sun sets.

National Dance Day

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I went to Emotions Dance Studio (111 N Longwood Street #201, Longwood, FL 32750) on National Dance Day. Emotions Dance was founded in 2007 by Artistic Director and Choreographer Larissa Humiston.
Emotions Dance consists of a professional contemporary dance company
that focuses on social and environmental awareness through the art of
dance, dance education training at the organization’s state of the art
dance studio, and programs that enrich the local community. The
organization emphasizes strong technical training and education combined
with passionate artistry.  Through inspiring performances,
arts-education programs, and active community outreach the company
touches thousands of people of all ages, races, and economic
backgrounds.

For National Dance Day there was a series of performances followed by classes which were free for anyone who wanted to try. When I was done sketching, I joined in and tied some Salsa Dancing.

The next chance to  see Emotions Dance in action will be at The Shift on September 14 and 15, 2018. The
Shift is an annual production that showcases work from professional
companies and up and coming choreographers in the Central Florida area.
The goal of The Shift is to showcase new works to the Central Florida
Community in the spirit of collaboration and exploration of dance as an
art form.

Showcasing work from the following professional companies/individuals:

  • Aretuza’s Ballerina Project
  • Florida Dance Theatre
  • Emotions Dance Inc
  • Ellie Vie Co
  • Crawford Jazz Project
  • Marshall Ellis Dance
  • Still Moving Dance
  • Vincent Sanrocco Dance
  • Inez Patricia School of Dance
  • Tori Sarau
  • CG and Dancers
  • Thomas Wilkins

Tickets go on sale August 10, 2018.

Presale (Until Sept 5)- $18 GA   $14 Students/Seniors (65+)

The Imperial at Washburn Imports

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Shortly after getting separated back in 2016, I went to The Imperial at Washburn Imports (1800 N Orange Ave
Orlando, FL 32804) to meet a friend and discuss the lengthy and endless process  of trying to start over.  Washburn is an antiques shop in Ivanhoe Village that also sports a vintage bar. I have been to a few literary event here and I always order a different wine whenever I go here.  On this  night I ordered a Hercula Monastrell 2010, which I noted on the sketch. The wine producer is Bodegas Castano, from the Yecla County Heirarchy in Murcai Spain. It was a red rich intense wine which I would certainly drink again. 

 

The person I was meeting was late, so I started to dash off this sketch. I am so used to going to venues on my own, that I don’t know how to be a truly social creature. Hopefully in time I will find the right balance between work and play.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for August 11 and 12, 2018

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Saturday August 11, 2018

5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. McRae Art Studios 8 x 10 C-Note Fundraiser Art Sale. McRae Art Studios 1000 Arlington St, Orlando, Florida 32805. Purchase 8 x 10 art work by McRae present and past members for only $100
each. All proceeds benefit and support McRae Art Studios.

7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Free. Black Cow Jumps – Orlando’s Experimental Theater Project. Winter Park Public Library 460 East New England Avenue, Winter Park, Florida 32789. Black Cow Jumps in association with the Winter Park Library bring an
intimate evening of theater; parlor dramaturgy of the mind, immersive
and immediate, relational, philosophical and often absurd.

Created by Banks Helfrich, this connective experience is unlike any other.

Come enjoy theater of the heart– along with complimentary wine, cheese and crackers.

10:30 p.m. to Midnight Free but get a drink and bite. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL. Hot blooded Flamenco dancing set to acoustic guitar.



Sunday August 12, 2018

10 a.m. to Noon Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources.

Noon to 1 p.m. Free. Yoga. Lake Eola Park, near the red gazebo.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Free. Script Reading Workshop. Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show, 8267 International Drive, Orlando, FL. Read and workshop plays.

Buyer and Cellar at Mad Cow Theater

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Written by Jonathan Tolins, Buyer and Cellar is based on a very real but ludicrous idea. Barbara Streisand has set up a shopping mall in the basement of her luxurious farm house and she needs someone to watch over the merchandise. Actor Alex More, career hit a rod block when he cursed out a child harassing him in a Disney Land costume. He gets a break when told to go to a mysterious location. He is hired to man the private basement mall in Barbra Streisand’s house.

There was an annoying hum that I thought was an issue with the sound system, but turned  out to be the sound of the yogurt machine in the basement. Louie Gravance plays the lead role as the actor turned dapper curator in Barbara’s basement. He plays all the rolls  inn this one man show that is a tour de force of high energy acting.  I have such a deep respect for any actor who can retain so much material and perform it with such abandon. The roll called for some very flamboyant diva worshiping. Though he sees Barbara as very controlling, he connects with her on a personal level as they play a game of buyer and seller.

Philip Nolan who directs the play is a familiar face from many of the funniest productions I have sketched over the years. He worshiped the projector which had been painted black with such theatrical reverence, that I laughed out loud before the run through. Set designer Cliff Price recreated the opulent basement set.

I am so used to  seeing one man shows at Fringe, but those shows are only an hour long. Though I didn’t time the run through it was certainly much longer than an hour. For those who love Barbara or divas in general this will be a fun show. If you know little about Barbara, then at least listen to The Way We Were before you head to the theater. Now I wish I had painted a misty water color of the show, but a digital sketch made sense in the low light.

Buyer and Cellar has 16 shows running from August 10, 2018 to September  2, 2018 at Mad Cow Theater (54 W Church St, Orlando, Florida 32801). Tickets are $15 with a $2.50 fee.

Flight back to Orlando from Nantucket

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After a relaxing week in Nantucket it was time to head back to Orlando to continue sketching vigils, memorials and fundraisers for the victims of the mass shooting at Pulse that took 49 lives. Airports are always a place to get a sketch done while waiting for a plane to board. My battery was recharged, but a vacation always seems lie it is over just as you are beginning to relax.



Glen Weimer, a college buddy was a consummate host, letting me sleep in his own bedroom as he slept downstairs. We watched several movies in the evenings. One was about Lincoln getting the votes needed to stop slavery. I fell asleep. Another however was about Woodstock, a small town in upstate New York that got more than it planned on when it hosted a concert in the 60s. A young man had decided to host the concert because he felt the sleepy little town needed a boost. Called Taking Woodstock, the movie did an awesome job of following the families story as they adjusted to the sudden changes that a single concert bought to the town. That is a concert I wish I could have sketched.

View from the Nantucket Hostel

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I was waiting for someone at the Star of the Sea Youth Hostel, so I took the time to sketch the view across the street towards the ocean. There is a home between the hostel and the beach and a couple of dunes as well. One of the hostel guests had his sippy drink and a cell phone and was chatting before he drove off on his Vespa. Since I got this much done on the sketch, I must have been waiting for an hour or so. I am attracted to the wind blown shapes of the tree trunks next to the beach. They reminded me of the wispy trees found at Big Sur in California.

Grey is a color that isn’t usually used by me in watercolors, but in Nantucket every building is grey, so I actually had to find an art store to get a tube of black and white paint so I  could mix grey each day. Luckily the art store was just a block away from Glen Weimer‘s home. Sometimes things do line up perfectly. This was my last day on the island. I  miss it.

Bathing Suit Optional Beach on Nantucket.

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This beach with strong surf and high dunes is a perfect place to relax and soak up  the sun on Nantucket. I sketched someone sun worshiping and his towel was lying in the center of a track from a jeep that had driven down the beach. Visually this looked to me like someone lying in the middle of the road.

At the time it was possible to drive right up to the beach but now apparently access for cars has been blocked meaning it is a much longer hike to get to this slice of paradise.

This was my first time on a bathing suit optional  beach and I definitely liked the sketching opportunity it provided. I got in trouble once with a friend for doing a similar painting of a nude foreshortened figure. I was shocked by the response since this person was an artist. To calm the friendship, I put bathing trunks on the figure and that still was too risque. If you are upset by seeing the human form, just don’t bother me with your concerns. I am busy celebrating life rather than being shocked by it.

After this sketch was done, I created a rare abstract painting on the beach which surprisingly sold. I am not chasing that market however. I love getting out and sketching from life too much.

Music of the Night: Masquerade

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Orlando Light Opera, Opera De Sol, and the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra presented Music of the Night: Masquerade at the Orlando Repertory Theater ((1001 E Princeton St, Orlando, FL 32803) from August 2 to 4, 2018. I went on the opening night to sketch.

The show starred Michelle Knight, of Broadway’s Disenchanted, and local stars, Stephanie McCranie, mezzo soprano Sarah Purser Bojorquez,
Stephanie Newman, Bryan Hayes, tenor Kit Cleto, baritone Michael John Foster and
Andrew LeJeune.

This evening
will embody the glamour, magic and mystery of beloved musical theater
and opera repertory. Space Coast Symphony performed on stage under conductor, Aaron Collins. Opera del Sol offered an interactive performances upon
arrival and throughout the evening.The visual artistry of Ashley Willsey, designer of
CFC Arts Hunchback of Notre Dame, had her original projected
sets inspired by the larger works from which the music was
excerpted.

I was offered a seat up front and center but decided I wanted to sketch from further up, so I could take in more of the audience and so no one would be around me to see the faint glow from my tablet screen as I sketched in the dark.  The evening included many selections from musical Theater of Lloyd Webber, Sondheim, Rogers and Weill. I was excited to see Michelle Knight perform again. I had seen her perform Disenchanted in NYC and her sassy bravado had me laughing out loud that night. Sarah Purser Bojorquez performed as Evita, her voice echoing through the hall from behind the audience. Unfortunately there were more than a few mic issues that evening and it seemed like Michelle’s mic cut out more that any other. Pam Schwartz really liked the timber of Bryan Hayes, voice.

Pam Schwartz and I sat behind a millennial couple in masks and I decided to include them in the sketch. Half way through the evening the guy started ripping up his program. They were slow deliberate rips that lasted an excruciatingly long time to execute. How can someone be so dense, clueless and inconsiderate about the people trying to enjoy the music around them? He was trying to make some feeble origami with his program but it was no better engineered that a primitive paper airplane. Such a person should not be allowed out for an evening on the town. They might be fine in a crowed bar where they can be lost in the crowd on their digital devices but keep them out of theaters.

I wanted to take my cell phone flashlight and shine it in this mindless beasts face. Even his date and the people to his right kept looking over at him with annoyance. I heard of an audience member that was following a soccer game from the front row seat while she was supposed to be watching a play. She even shouted out whenever there was a goal. Will live theater have to die because of such mindless dolts? Perhaps an app can be developed that sweeps a theater and uses face recognition to find these strange mindless zombies. Their credit cards should be charged 10 times the ticket price as reparations for the disturbance or they should be escorted from the theater. Though angry, I resisted confrontation because I was busy finishing my sketch. I had work to do. I just laughed to myself about how clueless some folks in Orlando can be.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It will be performed  on August 11, 2018 at the Scott center for the Performing Arts at 7PM, and then The Community Church of Vero Beach on August 12, 2018 at 3PM.

Nantucket Bathing Suit Optional Beach

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A short walk west from Surfside Beach towards Miacomet Beach on Nantucket is a bathing suit optional beach. I couldn’t resist walking there to sketch. I have done figure drawings for decades, so this was a treat. If you know me at all, you know I am a vampire. I got skin caner on my nose removed years ago which was a barbaric operation in which I watched a staple remove a large chunk of flesh inches from my eyes. Just the idea of the C word keeps me from worshiping the sun anymore. While I sketched others soaking up the sun with every inch of their being on this Nantucket beach, I was under a beach umbrella, wrapped in several beach towels with not an inch of skin exposed to the sun.

I liked that there were rainbow colored beach umbrellas scattered along the beach. I made me feel like the Nantucket natives were in solidarity with Orlando after the Pulse Nightclub massacre the previous month. The surf at this beach was particularly strong. I was on the top of a small cliff of sand that the surf had eroded. As the tide came in, it got closer to the bottom of the sand cliff I was resting on to of. As I sketched, the base of the sand was eroded and without warning, the cliff gave way and I tumbled down into the water below. Other than falling in, I didn’t swim very far out. I heard that the rip tides are rather strong and the waves were honestly intimidating. I preferred the pleasure of watching and sketching sun bathers to the surf.