Beach Day

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Pam, her niece and I took a trip to New Smyrna Beach. We had an industrial strength umbrella and I stayed under it as often as possible to stay out of the sun. Pan and her niece however lounged n the sun pretty much all day.

When we arrived I quickly slathered on some sun screen and joined them out in the waves. I wore a baseball cap to keep my scalp from burning but didn’t thing to bring a tee shirt for while I was in the water. Maybe I was out in the waves for 20 minutes at most.

The rest of the afternoon I rested in the umbrella’s shade with a white towel covering my legs. I sketched Pam while she read a gourmet magazine.

By the end of the day Pam’s niece was lobster red. Pam got some sun mostly on her upper legs and I figured I was fine. That evening however I looked in the bathroom mirror and found that my chest was a checkerboard of protected spots and spots that were turning beat red. I had been rather sloppy with my sunscreen slathering missing several kept spots like the tender spot at the base of my arm we tend to call my turkey cutlet. Pam had applied sun screen to my back and that was completely protected.

Pam’s niece was burnt everywhere and several days later pealed a huge sheet of flesh off of her upper thigh the side of a sheet of office paper. Regardless it was well worth it to be able to relax and listen to the waves. The salty breeze coming off the waves also opened my airways and lungs and it felt like it was the first refreshing breaths I had taken in over a year. There were two shark attacks the weekend we were at the beach but for once I let my COVID radar relax.

 

Bingo

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Pam and I have been driving past the Elks Lodge on Primrose for years and I always wanted to go in for Bingo night. Pam’s niece and aunt are in town so she decided to take them to the Elks Lodge. I was teaching a virtual class so I couldn’t go with them, but I decided to go once class was over to do a sketch.

The idea of sitting in a crowded room full of people during a pandemic wasn’t appealing but since I am fully vaccinated, I should be about 88% protected from getting the COVID-19 virus. The odds seem fine to take the chance and start sketching on location.

The front door of the lodge was locked but a woman let me in moments before I wandered off to look for other entrances. The parking lot was crammed full of cars. There was indeed a full crowd.

A smattering of people wore masks but most went mask free. I kept my mask dangling around my neck like an ascot.  Folks in the room were serious about the competition. Each chair had a garbage bag which held dis guarded bingo cards. A TV screen showed the numbered balls as they ere drawn at the front of the room. A woman seemed annoyed at me as I searched for a chair. Shortly after starting the sketch, Pam shouted out Bingo! She had just won $50. I was finished with the sketch before everyone was finished playing. I decided to leave early and get back to the studio to work. I immediately stripped and took a shower when I got home.

Jim Coffin After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Jim Coffin is from the Interfaith Council of Central Florida. Jim is an interfaith community leader. The interfaith Council began over 30 years ago as the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Jim has been the director of the Interfaith Council since 2011.

June 12 is Jim’s oldest sons birthday. Jim and his wife had planned a trip to Atlanta Georgia for about 8 days. His daughter in law worked for a hotel chain, so they had a great room deal. When they heard the the news of the Pulse shooting they had to decide if they would actually go. Perhaps he could help from Atlanta. They realized it was a time to put aside all personal things. He had to focus on where the need was which was Orlando.

Jim immediately looked to see what he could do. He realized an interfaith prayer service would be needed. Monday night there was an interfaith service at Saint James Cathedral. There was Muslim representation, Jewish representation, it was quite diverse. Tuesday the First United Methodist offered their church for a service. The minister had a close connection with the LGBTQ community. They did a reading of the names of those who were killed. They had a picture of each person. Someone would stand and read details about the person and then put the picture on display at the front of the church. About 600 people attended.

When Camping World Center opened, they had every imaginable service available. It was impressive. They had travel for bringing in relatives for funerals. Airlines were giving free passage and accommodations. Intimidate cash was available. There were 30 different services like that. There was no problem getting mental health counselors. The Catholic Church had a big part on spiritual counseling. The city called and said they need pastoral counselors who are gay sensitive. Jim put out the word. That involved lots of calls from around the country and even outside the country.

Because the gunman claimed he was Muslim, there were backlash concerns in the local Muslim community and law enforcement. Jim became involved in lots of meetings with law enforcement along with other faith leaders. When Obama cam he wanted to meet with faith leaders so Jim helped line up faith leaders who could be available at the given time. On top of that it could be that nothing happens and the meeting with Obama didn’t happen. The attorney General also came down and he was asked to find faith leaders. That meeting as well didn’t come off. It is a lot like a metaphor for life, it often doesn’t come off like it is supposed to.

7PM June 12, 2021 at Pulse

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June 12, 2016 is he day 49 people died while dancing at a Pulse Latin Night celebration. At 7PM on June 1, 2021 a Remembrance Ceremony was held at the club which is still standing and surrounded by a temporary memorial wall covered in photos.

The event was to be telecast on the jumbo trons at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts front lawn as well. Concerned about crowds I considered sketching from the front lawn but decided to sketch at the club instead. est Esther Street was shut down being blocked by a pink Lynx bus. Suburban side street were shut down for blocks, and police cars blocked traffic driving north on Orange Avenue as well, effectively securing the site from any fringe lunatics.

Folding chairs were set up in the street intersection and the stage was on the North West corner of Esther and Orange. All the seats were occupied when I got there so I walked around looking for a safe spot to sketch from somewhat removed from the crowd. I settled on sketching from behind the media cameras which were set up in a line in the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot across the street from the club.

I couldn’t hear much from my vantage point but I did hear the names of the 49 victims being read. It was brutally hot and the remembrance was over just before the sun set.

2:02AM June 12, 2021 at Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content.

2:02AM June 12, 2016 is when the gunman opened fire inside the Pulse Nightclub killing 49 and injuring many more.The effects of that horrific massacre rippled outwards.

At this vigil held at 2:02AM I cold her a woman sobbing across the street as I set up to sketch.  I began sketching an hour before the vigil began. The crowd as light at first with groups of people seated on the circular benches near the temporary memorial wall covered with photos. LED lights illuminated the wall with each color of the rainbow in succession. I chose blue. A red blood drive bus was parked across Orange Avenue.

Pastor Terri Steed Pierce from Joy Metropolitan Community Church spoke to those gathered but I couldn’t hear her from where I was seated. Candles were handed out and lit. Then a group of about 6 people read out the names of the 49 who had died that night. Since I was removed from the crowd I wore my mask loosely around my neck.

An FBI agent told Pam that a copycat extremist named Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, 23, of Tampa had come to this memorial site about a year ago and sat looking for inspiration to carry out a similar attack on beaches around Tampa. Al-Azhari “expressed admiration” for the gunman responsible for the Pulse nightclub shooting and “spoke of his desire to carry out a similar mass casualty shooting.”He wanted to kill more that 49 people. When he purchased guns to carry out the attack he was actually buying from an FBI agent and was arrested. At this year’s 5 year vigil there was concern that extremists might want to attack. Plain clothes security was scattered throughout the crowd. Pam watched every car that drove by and instructed me just run should anything happen. Thankfully it was a peaceful beautiful service with love compassion and caring.

Ida Eskamani: After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Ida Eskamani is formerly from Equality Florida, she went on to work with Representative Smith’s office as chief of staff.

Equality Florida was born at a time when no one was investing in the south when it came to LGBTQ rights. The founders felt if they build it they will come. The organization was launched 20 ears ago. There is nothing else like it. It was grass roots funded.

Ida got back from vacation on June 11, 2016, the day before the shooting at Pulse. It was the first vacation she had taken in 10 years. At 3AM she woke up from the jet lag. There were a lot of notifications on her phone. It looked like a shooting but she wasn’t aware of the severity of what was unfolding. She sent an e-mail to staff to let them know what was happening. She drifted back to sleep. When she woke up again, it was 6AM. That is when she realized this was something much more horrific. She lives about 2 miles from Pulse and she could hear helicopters overhead. The TV stayed on all day.

For the next three weeks she didn’t sleep. She was working non stop. She may never again feel the the way she did that Saturday night before Pulse happened. The first text she got from Equality Florida was to ask if all the staff were OK. All 5 staff in the Orlando area were OK. At 9AM there was a staff conference call. They agreed to draft a statement and make people aware of all the resources that were becoming available. They decided they needed to launch a fundraising page. Donors were already coming to the organization.

She wasn’t sure what roll she could play and she had to go to an event in Jacksonville Florida. Around 11AM she realized the no one had created the Go Fund Me Page yet, so she did it. She had never launched a Go Fun Me Page before. She wanted to connect it to Equality Florida’s page. But you can not connect it to a page, it has to be a person. She put a goal of $100,000. It was clear that there would be major gaps in support and anything Equality Florida could do, they wanted to do.

On the road to Jacksonville, Her boss was driving and she was checking her laptop and found her e-mail was flooding with messages. People were asking if the fundraising page was real. As they were driving she updated the description on Go Fund Me. She responded to everyone letting them know it was real and any contribution would help. By the time the Jacksonville event was over they had already hit the goal of $100,000 so they upgraded the goal to $200,000. Then it increased to $500,000 and then to 1 million. It just kept growing. It was the fasted page to reach 1 Million in Go Fund Me’s history. It was the first ever to reach 2 Million. It raised 7.8 million. Offline an additional 1.2 Million was raised. About 9.5 Million dollars were raised in total. Those donations came from 120 countries and over 120,000 people. It became known as the Pulse Victims Fund.

She suddenly had to field tons of press interviews. Press was never ending. During the dark time she would read the comments on the Go Fund Me Page where people expressed love and warmth. A little kid donated from a bakery sale to celebrities. All these gay bars had fundraisers and donated to the page. It was so powerful. Equality Florida was not in charge of dispersing the funds. The goal was for the money to go directly to victim’s families and survivors.

Head Over Heels

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Encore is presenting Head over Heels which is being performed at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL) from through June 13, 2021. This was my first sketch inside a theater since the pandemic began in March of 2020.

This was a dress rehearsal so the audience was very scarce. Performers who were vaccinated went without masks and the dancers always wore clear masks. Thankfully everyone in the audience wore masks.

This was a musical set in Arcadia which resembled a medieval utopia. I must say the costuming in this show by the late A.J. Garcia was stellar. A live band was on the upper level and and they were a bit overbearing at the start of the show. However this musical was a delight and the show started with a high energy dance number set to We Got The Beat. The songs are contemporary so if you liked the Moulin Rouge movie I bet you will have a fun time seeing this show.

The heart of the show is a love story between a sheep herder and a princess. The king denies the match and the herder only can get close to the princess dressed as a Amazon warrior. An oracle who was first a snake later appeared as an owl in fabulous drag. The kings anger and close minded view of his subjects and his family is eventually overpowered by love. This is a great show to run during Pride week since acceptance and discovering our true self are at the core of the show.

The actor playing the shepherd, Michael Angelini Jr.,did a hilarious job jumping back and forth between his male and female roles. Lillie Eliza Thomas was regal as the queen and Laurel Hatfield was heart warming as the plane princess Phiolclea. The bottom line is that this is a fun and exciting night of theater and for someone who once sketched shows every night this was a breath of fresh air. Tickets are $39.

 

Pilado After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Michael Pilado and Chimene Pinder-Hurst were interviewed in the History Center in the One Year Later exhibit space about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre community response.

Michael believes that art should be about community and healing. He works with painter Yuriy Karabasch. When Pulse happened Mikael was working on a Mural in Williamsport Pennsylvania that had over 700 inspirational people depicted. That day he painted the Florida state bird which is the Mocking Jay. The Jay holds a stick with 5 strings with 49 orange blossoms. Members of the LGBT community came out to paint the orange blossoms.

Deborah Bidel the head of the post traumatic stress disorder program of UCF called and asked him to paint Juan Ramon Guerrero and Christopher “Drew” Leinonen together and put their names in it.

He then got a call from Chimene Hurst and she asked him if he could come to Orlando to do some of his healing projects. As she was calling, a hawk flew overhead and he saw it a a sign to come to Orlando. Yuriy and Michael for the last eight years have been traveling the world creating a series of murals which will connect on the internet becoming the world mural. Each mural’s title is Inspiration with the name of the place. Here he worked on Inspiration Orlando. When he got to Orlando he and Chimene went looking for wall, talking to many business owners. They found about 30 possible walls for murals.  They wanted to find 49 locations. They spoke with the LGBT community, the Latino community and with the city. In Orlando he developed the recipe for how to do the world mural.

Chimene and Michael were at the Dr. Phillips Center where thousands of objects were left on the front lawn for the 49 who had died. Chimene asked the 49 angels if they could guide them to where they should go next to make the project a reality. Immediately when she turned around she saw a friend. She asked her if she had any walls for a mural and Chuan said yes. They went up to a property on Mills and 50 to look at a possible mural site. Michael noticed an upstairs deserted space and asked about it. It had been abandoned for years but it would eventually become the art studio where mural panels were created. As they were looking at the property a hawk flew overhead. That hawk moved into a tree next to Avalon just as Michael moved into the art studio. Synchronicity and trust are what founded the project.

Juan and Drew were panted in front of Mathew Sheppard,  Drews mom entered the studio and asked why he had chosen to paint Drew in front of Mathew. He explained it was because of the composition. She told him a story, When Drew was younger he and his mom met Mathews mother. Drew was so impressed with ho open Mathews mom was about her son being gay that he decided it was time for him to come out to his mom.

Patience Carter was placed next to authors like Billy Manes. Patience Carter read a beautiful poem from her hospital bed about survivors guilt.  A heart with Jason Josaphat was right above her. Jason is the one who jumped in front of her, not even knowing her and took the bullets that took his life, saving her.

Months had gone by where they struggled to find a place for the mural but in that time Michaael had not picked up a brush. They were so lost in the planning that the creation had been pushed aside. Chimene told Michael, ‘Just start painting.’ He brought marine grade panels and started to piece together the mural in the studio. Rather than finding the wall and fitting the mural to the wall they started creating without concern about the final destination. Funding the project was a struggle, from cockroaches. leaky ceilings to termites to rats. Michael and Chimene funded what they could. The struggle has been a joy as well.

The mural is 36 feet by 12 feet. At the time of the interview Michael said there was one more month of work to be done on it. The plan for the big mural if the wall is available is that it would be 130 feet by 40 feet. Another connecting wall would be 100 feet by 24 feet. The large mural would have augmented reality elements that could be seen with cell phones. The first mural was done as a sketch so some figure sizes and proportions aren’t perfect. The final mural would be more refined. The possibilities are endless.

Pulse Survivor: Laura Vargas

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Laura Vargas survived the Pulse Nightclub Massacre that happened on June 12, 2016. Laura was at the club that night with Luis Vielma who was one of the 49 victims of the shooting.

Laura and Luis both worked at Universal Studios. Laura began working at Halloween Horror Nights at the Walking Dead House. Luis was transferred from the Disaster ride to Halloween Horror Nights. They hit it off and began hanging out together outside of work. Eventually Laura left Universal to work for her father’s accounting company in Miami.

Laura came back to Orlando From Miami for a Universal Studios awards ceremony. Luis didn’t have a date, so he invited Laura to be his for the ceremony. She got to Orlando on Friday June 10, 2016. On Saturday they went to Kiki’s for breakfast and then Artegon to go to a comic book store opening. She had a rewards voucher for Rainforest Cafe and so they had a fabulous dinner there.

A friend called her and asked if se would be interested in going dancing at Pulse that night. She hesitated, not having prepared for a night out. She asked Luis if he was up for it and he said, “Sure why not?” They got home, changed, and left about 11:30pm so it wasn’t going to be a very long night. On the way to the club Luis called another friend and invited him as well. They all got to the club about 12:15AMish.

It was a whole new world, there were people everywhere. The music was salsa and meringue. This could be a fun night. Laura got the first round. Luis would get the second round. They usually only get 2 drinks since there was driving involved. It was a fun night.

Luis was going to drive so Laura got her last drink about 2am. As she was putting her debit card back in her wallet she heard popping. People were running. Her view was blocked by a wall. She looked around the corner and saw a man reloading his gun. She ran back to Luis. She said to him, “This is for real, this isn’t part of the show, there is a man in here with a gun, what do we do?” He said, “Just keep your voice down and get on the floor and do as he says.” That is what they did.

Luis slid against the wall and let himself slide down, and hugged his legs and hid his face. As she was getting on the ground face first, she felt the first shot which entered her lower back and exited through her thigh. She fell with her whole body weight. She heard three more shots next to her. Luis was there as well as three other girls so she assumed they each had been shot. The pain was indescribable. She kept hearing screaming in Spanish, “Please god, what is this? Please don’t let him kill me, save me.” Within two minutes the room went silent with flashing lights. She could her the  gunman’s heavy footsteps and the occasional shooting.

She was moving on the floor trying to get comfortable when she felt footsteps approaching her again.  She felt a shoe standing next to her. Her body shook from a second shot which hit her mid right side of her back and it went straight through.  Her ears began to ring. She pretended to be dead since it was clear the gunman’s goal was to kill. When he walked away she managed to get her phone out and she called her ex. Her ex called back which could have drawn the gunman’s attention to them. With no answer, the ex stopped calling and later went to Pulse.

Laura then waited for voices of police. She prayed. It felt like an hour. She began to hear footsteps and heard “Alpha team go left.” She looked over her left shoulder, and she said “Please help me. “He gave her a signal to be quiet. The police then announced, “If there are any survivors that can get up and walk out, then go now.” About 8-10 people ran out. What remained was a sea of bodies. She couldn’t see Luis. An officer then said, “start taking out survivors.” Laura managed to flip over and get in the way of an officer. The female officer and another officer pulled Laura out. The female officer grabbed Laura’s wrists and she said, this is going to hurt very much but you need to stay quiet because the shooter is still in the building.” She was pulled through glass, blood, and vomit. Things cut her back as she was dragged. She was picked up and placed in the back of a pick up truck. She was asked to roll over to make room for another shooting victim who was limp and in very bad shape and the truck took off. An officer was hanging off the truck and he told the guy next to her “Don’t die on me, hang in there.” Her ex called on the truck ride and she was told by the officer that they were going to ORMC. That was the last she had her phone and wallet. She was holding on to her possessions so they could identify her body.

Six nurses took her into the hospital. They cut off her clothes and asked each other, “How many gun shots?” She realized she had not died at the club but realized she might die in the hospital as she waited for her turn in triage. She blacked out and woke up with doctors working on her again. She was taken to a room with several other patients from Pulse.

She heard popping again. She thought,  “He is coming back to kill the rest of us.”  A doctor said something like, ‘This is a code black, this is not a drill, do what you were taught and stay with your patients.” The curtains were closed, and doors locked. She asked a nurse to hold her hand. She was terrified. The shots were actually from the club which was just a few blocks south of the hospital.

She was in the hospital for 11 days with tubes and catheters. She could not eat or drink anything since her stomach had been shot. Therapy dogs were the only thing that could calm the pain and hunger. Pulse survivors were registered at the hospital with alias names so it was a challenge for family to get in.

The gun shots affected her small intestines, her stomach, and her liver. In surgery, a nurse grabbed her head and said, “It’s all right we are going to save your life, now count back from ten for me.” She was thankful that she would not feel any more pain. She woke up with a tube down her thought and saw her ex and her mom. Her hands were bound so she would not rip out the intubation tube. She signaled to a nurse that she wanted to write a note and she wrote, “where is Luis?’”She was told he was in surgery though no one knew where he was. She didn’t find out Luis had died until two days later when she had to go in for a second surgery. She had called a friend since she suspected the staff was keeping her in the dark. She asked her friend, “Have you heard from Luis?” Her friend let out a long sigh and said, “Has no one told you?” It was bad. Luis Sergio Vielma was one of the 49 lives taken on that horrible night.

Healthcare Heroes

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Beginning Monday, June 7, 2021, the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd.
Orlando, Florida 32801) presents Healthcare Heroes: Portraits of Orlando Health’s Front line Workers, a group of thirteen large, stunning portraits by Central Florida-based artist Nelson Cárdenas that will be on display in the museum’s atrium through August 15, 2021.

Cárdenas, who is also a cook at the Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, created the portraits of Orlando Health employees using oil paints and a technique called pyrography, which uses blowtorches. His artwork honors and provides an intimate look at the community’s front line healthcare staff who have worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the opening, Nelson pulled out a scroll which he said was a list of what inspired him to do the project. He pointed out, that if inspiration were a switch, it would always be on. On the scroll was a long list of names of healthcare workers who had helped save lives for the past 12months during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he was humbles to see his work on display at the History Center. As he put it, this was every artist’s dream.