Grand Avenue Community Center Meeting

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The Grand Avenue School was built in 1926 and designated a historic landmark by the City of Orlando in 1995. It features Mediterranean Revival architecture. The historic Grand Avenue School closed its doors in 2017, after 90 years. The school served 227 students from pre-K to grade 2 each year and upon its closure, when staff were asked to leave the building, one woman took it upon herself to make efforts to preserve some of the history packed away in boxes. When the school closed there was fear that the building would be demolished. A committee was formed to try and stop that from happening.

Segregation was struck down by a Supreme Court Order in 1954 but Orange County was slow to comply. Orange County figured making black students file paperwork to
attend white schools, while stalling on rezoning and busing, would
suffice. One dad wanted his adopted daughter, who was black, to attend an all white school. He pressured the school board to allow her to attend but the school board responded that she was too smart to attend their all white school as well, so they graduated her at the age of 12. This resulted in another court case demanding desegregation in Orange County Schools.

In 1971, a judge threatened to hold the entire school board in
contempt after missing a court-imposed deadline for filing an outline of their plans to desegregate. The school board dragged its feet since there was no real repercussions for non-compliance. State and federal funding might be cut, but it never was. In 2007, Grand Avenue Primary Learning Center was 80 percent black. At this meeting where some members had attended Grand Avenue, the memory of the school board ignoring desegregation was visceral. Tempers still flare about the injustice. Integration was extremely divisive in the South, and there was a reluctance to tear the community apart over it. Silence and inaction became a way of ignoring the problem.

The now empty Grand Avenue Elementary School will be preserved and repurposed as a youth and family recreation center. The Borrelli + Partners’ design team has been selected for the
design-build contract to renovate and construct the City of Orlando’s
Grand Avenue Community Center. As a historical
landmark, any exterior work or demolition is subject to a Historic Preservation process. The $17 million budget includes renovations of the existing 29,844 SF school building and 66,000 SF of new construction. The Community Center will house multiple programs including the
Parramore Kidz Zone, After-School All-Stars, Orlando Pottery Studio, as
well as a MAC gym and yoga studio. This committee has been meeting to help guide an infusion of the school and community’s history into the public art that will adorn its walls.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for July 13 and 14, 2019

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Saturday July 13, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. The east side of the Orlando City Stadium, across from City View. Purchase
quality, fresh and healthy food grown in your own neighborhood by local
farmers, including Fleet Farming, Growing Orlando, and other community
growers.

4pm to 6pm Free. Young Voices. JB Callaman Center 102 North Parramore Ave Orlando FL. Teen Open Mic Every second Saturday of the Month. 

 8pm to 10pm $5 Second Saturdays in Sanford. 202 S Sanford Ave, Sanford, FL. Live music event featuring 2 stages, drink specials and more.

Sunday July 14, 2019

10am 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 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Beautiful Music with Shannon Caine. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. Members
of the public are invited to visit our historic home museum on a Sunday
afternoon from 12 to 3 pm, listen to live music and take a tour of our
historic home museum and the James Gamble Rogers II Studio by trained
docents.

2pm to 4pm $5 Film Slam. Enzian Theater, South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL. Originally
a project of University of Central Florida’s Downtown Media Arts
Center, Enzian became the home of FilmSlam when DMAC closed in 2006.
FilmSlam continues to be a popular outlet for indie and student
filmmakers throughout the State of Florida. Q and A with the filmmakers to follow screening.

Daytona Beach Sand Dredging Project

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Pam Schwartz and I decided to get away to Daytona Beach for a day. Parking at the end of a street was surprisingly easy. A quick walk over some dunes left us on the beach where we set up the umbrella since I am a vampire needing eternal shade. Once set up we walked down the beach towards what looked like a huge fountain.

The beach ended with a sign and workmen warning “Danger and Keep Out!” The fountain was part of a  $20-million-plus effort to restore protective berms along Flagler
County’s coastline, one of the longest and most multifaceted projects in
the county’s history. Work crews dumped more than 750,000 tons of sand to patch up Flagler’s
battered dune line, which was devastated by hurricanes Matthew and Irma
in 2016 and 2017.

Sand was being pumped through huge pipes being moved from one area and mixed with sea water to make a slurry and then pumped out like a geyser onto the new beaches being built and expanded.  As the sand filled slurry poured out, tractors quickly moved up and down the beach moving the new sand into place. A few months later the same beach had a huge thick boa constrictor of a pipe running down the beach as the sand was being pumped further south. Sand was built up in certain areas so beach goers had bridges to walk over the thick pipe which was at least 5 feet in diameter.

Latitudes

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I need to find a downtown spot which will work for an Orlando Urban Sketching Workshop about sketching the Orlando Downtown skyline. Pam and I decided to go to Latitudes (33 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801) which has a rooftop bar. After getting drinks we walked upstairs to another platform above the bar to see if the view might work for a workshop. The New Year’s Eve ball or orange was still on a pole having ushered in 2019 in January.

Unfortunately this rooftop bar is surrounded by much taller skyscrapers which cut off the views. I rather liked the intimate view of the couple sitting on the bar stools chatting with the bartender. During the week this spot if rather quiet until the crowds arrive much later at night. We discussed the idea of renting an upper balcony apartment just for the workshop. Another building was nearing completion across the street.

If anyone has suggestions of building which might offer good views of a 360 degree view of the downtown skyline please let me know. My next thought is the courthouse but of course there is tight security to get into the building and art supplies tend to confound most security guards. Another thought is to just sketch the skyline from Lake Eola Park. There is however a definite added drama of sketching a city skyline from an elevated vantage point.

Rollins College

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While walking back from an event I sketched in Winter Park, I heard activity over at Rollins College and I decided to cross over Fairbanks Avenue to see what was going on. The large football field was illuminated with stadium lighting. A soccer practice was under way and I had to stop to sketch. The chapel was illuminated a bright blue with spot lights and the upper bell tower windows glowed a golden yellow. A full moon helped lighten the scene as well.

I was sketching trough the chain link fencing for the sake of convenience. One of the players saw me sitting and taking in the scene and he asked me if I was a talent scout for a professional team. Another player had a better guess of what I was up to and I showed him the sketch in progress when he asked to see.

There were a few drills and shots at the net but the huddle in the middle of the field dominated the time I spent sketching. The practice was over and the players dissipated before my sketch was complete. I didn’t linger long since this was a simple landscape scene but the lighting of the field at night would make a good plein air study should I decide to return. The Knowles Memorial Chapel at night is an amazing sight.

Fireworks Lake Eola

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The Lake Eola Swans were being paddled around the lake right up until sunset. They then returned to the dock for the duration of the fireworks. Mayor Buddy Dyer got the crowd rallied and ready for the spectacle. I had been working right up until sunset on the drawing of the far skyline looking across the lake. Disney music from the animated films warmed the wet the crowd for much of the afternoon.

When the first fireworks bursts went off flocks of swans and nesting birds took flight panicking as they tried to escape the noise and bright flashing lights. I made sure to capture the red white and blue lighting of the fountain. The fireworks were launched from a spot just to the left of the fountain, probably near the peninsula which had recently been denuded of palm trees near the red gazebo.

As I painted the fireworks burst I realized I had a disadvantage to the video and photo shooting phones. All the giant bursts went off in exactly the same place. So I focused on making the one fireworks burst I painted as visually interesting as possible. I discovered a whole series of luminous brushed in Procreate, my digital sketching program and I played with the toys as the fireworks burst. I might have missed some of the show as I hunted for new brushes to play around with. All the smoke from the fireworks drifted off silently to the south.

Waiting for the Lake Eola July 4th Fireworks

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I experienced the Lake Eola Fireworks with Pam Schwartz and her family visiting from Iowa. July 4th also happens to be Pam’s niece, Destiny’s birthday so she gets to celebrate her birth on the same day as our nation. We all got a strong lesson in Central Florida History before heading down to the lake along with artifacts like a KKK robe and a lynching photo. On the same floor of the Orange Country Regional History Center there is Love Speaks which features art created in answer to the Pulse massacre three years ago. The history Center is just one block from the lake and we hiked to the lake with a picnic blanket, some lawn chairs and a cooler. We got to the lake about four hours before the fireworks were scheduled to go off.

The crowd grew thick as we approached the Disney Bandshell which had live music. Food trucks. TV trucks and various vendors were around the bandshell. A bus was parked at the end of Washington Street adjacent to the park so that no madman could drive into the park to kill pedestrians. As we spread out our blanket I scanned the high rises looking for spots where a gunman might decided to fire on the crown below. Our blanked fit nicely between two other families. Kids played cards and grew squirrely as they lost patience.

I decided to sketch a woman seated next to us who had a piece of luggage which had a convenient shelf that opened up as a portal to a TV screen. She had on head phones and around her neck was another digital device probably for audio. I had been tracking storm clouds using my iPhone radar and predicted about a 50 chance of rain. As I sketched it started to rain. Pam went back to the museum to get some red white and blue umbrellas and also some Geico blue ponchos for the kids.The rain never got heavy enough to keep me from sketching. The opposite was true. The rain settled the crowd down making the scene easier to draw.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for July 6 and 7, 2019

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Saturday July 6, 2019

5pm to 9pm Free. Faith Arts Village (FAVO) First Friday Art Show. Faith Arts Village Orlando 221 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida. 36 Studios of original art in a former motel.

 9pm to 11:30pm No Cover but get a drink or food. Live Jazz. White Wolf Cafe 1829 N Orange Ave Orlando, FL 32804.

11pm to 1am No cover. Fresh produce with mango beats presented by Family Gang. Debbie’s Bar 1436 State Road 436, Casselberry, Florida 32707.  Howell Branch and Semoran Blvd.


its going to be the best Friday of your life. the best drink specials
ever and mango beats on the ones and twos. free entry come get your
drink on
Drink Specials:
$2 Mango Jello Shots
$3 Fireball
$3 Blue Raspberry (UV Vodka Shots)
$3 Grape (UV Vodka Shots)
$4 Lemon Drops
$5 Chocolate Cake Shots
$5 Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shot
$12. Domestic Buckets
Mango Beats Spinning the best Hiphop, EDM, Classic Rock, Local Ozone and Familygang Tunes all night.

Sunday July 7, 2019

10am to 4pm Free. Lake Eola Farmers Market. Lake Eola Park, Orlando, FL 32801. 

Noon to 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Bryan Hayes (NEW to Casa Feliz!) Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. Members
of the public are invited to visit the historic home museum to listen to live music and take a tour of our
historic home museum and the James Gamble Rogers II Studio by trained
docents. 

10opm to midnight. Free but get a coffee. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out and laugh, or give it a try yourself.

July 4th Washington DC

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When Donald Trump launched his candidacy for president in 2020 he decided to have his Trump Rally in Orlando Florida. Local counter demonstrators got a hold of the Baby Trump Balloon which was first flown in London when Trump visited the queen over there. Unfortunately the balloon never took flight in Orlando due to an ordinance that kept it grounded.

With Trump hijacking the Washington DC July 4th celebration I was pleased to find out that the Baby Trump balloon was granted a permit to appear in the Washington mall which is where the celebration is to be hosted. However the balloon was once a gain grounded. It can not be filled with helium and it can not take flight.

Trump is turning the annual July 4th celebration into a military display of might by having tanks transported to the Mall. There is of course concern that the Washington DC roads are not constructed for the heavy weight of huge tanks. Military aircraft from around the country are also being flown to DC for fly overs. There is much concern about how many millions of dollars are being used of tax payer dollars for this one show of force as children are shoved into overcrowded camps on the border and in Honesdale Miami in very inhuman conditions. Photos surfaces today showing standing room only in overcrowded facilities.

I started wondering what the Trump balloon could look like now that it is grounded and that is where this sketch came from. It would be nice if the tanks were as light as helium.

Fabby Awards at Fringe

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On the final evening at Orlando Fringe the outdoor stage is set up for the Fabby awards which honor the best shows of the year. A live band opened the festivities but the volume was so loud that no one sat inside the tent. Most people kept their distance scattered across the fringe lawn. The top selling show at the fringe was Animatronicans: Under New Management. I had an opportunity to sketch that show but was pulled away on another assignment. I bumped into one member of the cast, Janine Klein, that I had sketched before and she said that any Disney themed show always tends to sell hard. Every show in  the run was sold out.

The critics choice awards are highly anticipated. With 75 awards being presented it seemed like there was an award for just about any show. Actually I take that back, there are over 200 shows which makes it impossible for any one critic to see every show over the 14 days of Fringe. Word of mouth and the Fringe Buzz however clearly swing towards favorites. The award for the best show went to Dandy Darkly’s All Aboard! He was beside himself going up to accept the award and some Fringe artists on the lawn like Paul Strickland were just as excited for him. It is that kind of enthusiasm of artists supporting each other that I find heart warming.