Jingle Eve offers gift options in Ivanhoe Village.

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Jingle Eve happen every December in Ivanhoe Village. All the shops on Virginia Avenue are open late and Mark Baratelli‘s Food Truck Bazaar supplies the food. I had to pick up a painting from Bare Foot Spa which is on Virginia so I got a sketch and an errand done with one trip. Artist John Glassman Gardner discussed a project he started in which he pays artists to fill a page in a sketchbook. I offered to fill a page, but the sketchbook is still making the rounds in some artists studio.You might notice that even in December, Orlandoens dress in T Shirts, shorts and sandals. You gotta love that.

I didn’t buy anything on this sketch outing but I discovered a glass shop that had all the tools and supplies needed to create stained glass windows. Bare Foot Spa (801 Virginia Dr, Orlando, Florida) always has exhibits of local artists in the front room. An exhibit curated by Parker Sketch will be opening this Saturday September 9th from 6pm to 9pm. The show is titled Television and it features art of television personalities, art of televisions, art of anything related to televisions. Here you will see classic television shows, cartoon characters, Atari, the evening news, and more. This show features 30 pieces of art by 17 different artists. I submitted one sketch done of Brian Feldman on the evening that all the analog signals were switched off. He had one analog TV for each station and one by one the sets switched to static. On that day if you had an analog TV, it became a relic and you had to go out and buy a digital TV. I wonder how much TV sales spiked around the country on that day. Anyway, stop on out to the opening if you are in Ivanhoe Village that day and say hi.

Reading Between the Wines was a hugely sucessful fundraiser for the Adult Literacy League.

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Reading Between the Wines was held at the Orlando Science Center on March 22nd. The evening began with wine samples so patrons could wet their palette. Joyce, the executive Director of the Adult Literary League gathered patrons to their seats to introduce the evening. The League teaches adults how to read. One of the students became curious about my sketch and he introduced himself. His name was Eugine Curtis and he grew up looking at comics that he couldn’t read. Heidi Cullen was another student who kept an eye on the future. Thanks to the Literary League she was able to pass her drivers test. Another 80 year old student is now able to stay fully connected being able to read in the digital age.

An auction was held in which people didn’t bid on items, but instead raised their hand to bit what they could afford. The bidding went up to $3500 and then someone offered a matching bid that would match what had been raised so far.  The author who was brought in to talk to the audience was Tim Dorsey. He writes quirky books that delve into the twisted mind of a serial killer.As he put it, “The difference between a genius and a a lunatic is that genius has its limits. He told a story about how it is easy to get distracted when public speaking. He was facing an audience and noticed one guy in the back of the room who was looking at porn on his computer. This of course distracted Tim’s train of thought. Luckily no one at Reading Between the Wines had a laptop open. The former Tampa Tribune reporter, originally
from Riviera Beach, writes humorous crime novels featuring recurring
character Serge A. Storms. Every story Tim told on stage Was hilarious, so I suspect his books must be a fun read.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for September 12th and 13th.

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Saturday September 12, 2015

 9am to 3pm Free. Sanford Farmers Market. Sanford on First & Magnolia. Weekly on Saturday.

6:30pm to 10:30pm $20 VIP/ $15 General Admission/$10 Students Play-In-A-Day 2015. Lake Howell High School, 4200 Dike Road, Winter Park, FL. Kick-Off the 2015-16 Beth Marshal Presents season with our annual community favorite theatrical event, Play-In-A-Day. Over 100 artists work together to create short plays that are fully presented within the course of a 24-hours.

9:30pm to 11:30pm Free but get some food and drink.  Son Flamenco. Hot blooded Spanish Flamenco dancing. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL. Weekly on Saturday.

Sunday September 13, 2015

Noon to 4:30pm Free Family Day. The Mennello Museum of American Art, 900 East Princeton Street, Orlando, FL. The make-and-take craft table is open from noon-2:30 p.m., and docents are available to give mini-tours of the museum. Then it’s open house in the galleries until 4:30 p.m.

Noon to 4pm Free. Educator Open House & Book Fair. Bookmark It 3201 Corrine Drive, Suite 109, Orlando, Florida. At Bookmark It we believe that creating a personal connection to books is one of the best ways to instill a love of reading in a child. So to kick off the school year, and provide educators an opportunity create programming that brings local, accomplished writers into the school or classroom, we have invited over 20 Central Florida authors/illustrators to join us for a special Central Florida Educators Open House/Book Fair on Sunday, September 13th from noon-4pm in East End Market’s beautiful APEX meeting space.

The casual open house setting will allow teachers to meet authors in person, preview (and purchase) their titles, collect school visit information, and review any specially designed curriculum or teaching tools that accompany their books. Rounding out the event will be a special pop-up ‘bookstore’ for school purchases offering a 20% educators discount and free school delivery for special orders.

Additionally, representatives from local, award-winning non-profit Page15.org will be available for questions regarding their free after school programming for at-risk kids and annual creative writing teen anthology contest.

1pm to 3pm $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. Now in its fifth year at Enzian, FilmSlam continues to be a popular outlet for indie and student filmmakers throughout the State of Florida.

FilmSlam will usually be held on the second Sunday of each month at 1PM at Enzian.

Come Celebrate Independents Day!

Artists explore Mummies of the World.

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Mummies of the World is now at the Orlando Science Center (777 E Princeton St, Orlando, FL).

Weeks before I had met a little girl who had been on a field trip to the Mummies exhibit. I asked her if any of the mummies were wrapped in bandages with their arms raised like in the movies. She explained that only one mummy was wrapped. Having seen the real thing, she thought it silly to think that mummies should roam the earth. From the gift shop she had purchased little pills that would turn into dinosaurs when moistened. I warned her that she should make sure she was outside when she dropped the pills into water since dinosaurs can be huge.

A mummy is the dead body of an animal or a human that been
preserved after death so that it does not decompose. To be
considered a mummy and not just a skeleton, the body must keep
some of its soft tissue, such as its hair, skin or muscles. The exhibit had shrunken heads, Egyptian mummies, Peruvian mummies, medical specimens and many mummies that were preserved naturally.

I walked the exhibit quickly in search of my sketch opportunities. Science Center staff who were also artists had been invited to sketch mummies on this day. They were in strategic locations throughout the
exhibit and each of them was sketching a different specimen. Their creations will ultimately become an original work of art that will be displayed in
the exhibit once it’s completed. In the Burns Collection room, I was fascinated by David Matteson who was hunched over his book doing erasure poetry inspired by the screaming mummy. He said that Edmund Munch created Der Schrei der Natur (“The Scream of Nature“) after observing a mummy similar to this one. I don’t know if this is fact or fiction, but this mummy with its bony fingers raised up to its face does indeed look like it is screaming. He was working in a book about mortality rather than a sketchbook. He darkened lines of copy or individual words to find hidden poems within the books copy. His piece will address our morbid fascination with death and how we all fear and then must ultimately accept this inescapable truth.

Adam Wade Lavigne, the Science Center’s facility assistant, introduced himself. I’m always surprised and pleased when another artist knows about my sketching obsession. He was doing an amazing sketch of a mummies upper torso that was very accurate and expressive. I admired how large he was working.

A third artist, Jake White, the development director for the Science Center, was sketching the prone mummy behind David, but he lost interest and decided to sketch a Peruvian child that had been found in a basket naturally preserved by the dry heat. The child’s skull had been elongated by being pressed between two boards. These elongated skulls were considered beautiful at the time. Royalty would employ a third board which would create a pointed skull. The brain ultimately adapts expanding into the heightened skull with no ill effects to reasoning or intelligence. The mummy had been CT scanned and a computer created the skeleton and the skull as 3D computer prints. The bones had markings that hinted that the child had experienced malnutrition and stress.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to stare death in the face and learn about ancient cultures. Mummies will be at the Science Center with a limited time engagement through the fall.

DRIP Local Art Nights are a hidden gem on International Dive.

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Drip Local Art Nights are always fun. On this evening I sketched Allure A. Abelo as she danced in the Drip paint can shower. Allure isn’t a Drip Dancer but she was fine with dancing in the green paint. I always admire anyone who shares their art with abandon. Anytime I sketch at drip, I find myself using colors with pure intensity and brightness.

Dancers from BalaChandra Belly Dance also performed, using the main bar area as their stage. I admire the way they catch the audiences attention, not just with the amazing fluid hip movements, but with sly knowing smiles.

If there is a cutting edge performer in Orlando you will likely find them at Drip Art Nights. They usually occur on the 4th Thursday of every month. Since there are so many visual artists and performers, my sketching opportunities are limitless. The increasing popularity of the event is however, making it hard for me to find a spot to sketch without seeing a wall of peoples backs and butts. To date I’ve always found an angle that works.

My drink of choice for the evening was angry orchards and there was a fabulous $5 taco bar with all the fixings.

I bumped into Allure at my exhibition opening at Winter Park’s City Hall. She is active in the urban dance scene and plans to sponsor future events. B-Boy dance competitions are incredible to sketch so I’m hoping she plans to bring more of that energy to Orlando.

Terry likes to go out to see the Playoffs.

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Craig Miller’s Field House (7958 Via Dellagio Way, Orlando FL) is where Terry likes to go to watch football playoff games. We sat at the bar to watch her San Diego Chargers play the Raiders. I used the outing as a sketch opportunity. Miller’s has so many large screen TVs, it is hard to know where to look. Each TV was showing a different game and they had small team banners under each set identifying the teams. Since every one’s eyes were glued to the games, it made for some easy clandestine sketching.

The Raiders were eliminated from the playoffs with their 13 to 6 loss to the Chargers. Terry was rooting for the Chargers since San Diego California is where she was raised.  The fun in seeing a game in a bar is all the cheering and jeering that goes with every play. The Chargers later lost the final game of the season when a win would have secured a playoff berth. They missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons. Terry likes to say that her hometown team always breaks your heart right at the final moment.

Snap offered an Artist Panel Discussion.

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On March 28th I went to an Artist Panel Discussion at Snap! Orlando (1013 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL). The exhibit at the time was called Structure and Perspective.  Structure and Perspective examined the intersection of organic and
man made forms such as those found in the distinction of body forms and
building forms.The artists were Christoph Morlinghaus in the black shirt, Ryan Buyssens in the green stripes, Dan L. Hess in a military shirt and Juan Travieso in the white tee shirt.

Amazingly Dan went to the School of Visual Arts in NYC around the same time I did. He pointed out that the school stressed the importance and rich history of drawing. Children today aren’t taught to draw. If they want to make something, they assume there is an application that can do it for them. When Dan starts a drawing, he has no idea where it will go. He has no set final destination. For a long time he has been avoiding painting, so all his works are on paper. Dan and I have much in common.

The large format photos behind the artists were by Christoph. All of his photos are analog taken with a large format camera. He joked, “I wouldn’t be a good German if I didn’t look for order and structure.” The photos were of computer circuitry and the resembled cityscapes. He has been using x-ray film the last 2 years which results in bleak intimate images. He mentioned that social media is resulting in the death of photography. Art has become disposable. He feels that there is an existential crisis due to the overload of images. There is so much to assimilate at the large art fairs like Art Basel in Miami. Art Basel is all about consumption.

Ryan creates animated organic flapping birds wings, crafted from 3D printed, machined and laser-cut parts; “Resistance”
is time-based, interactive, mechatronic sculpture that emulates the
articulated flapping of bird’s wings. Several sets of these mechanical
birds are mounted to a wall and, through various intensities of
flapping, respond to the viewer’s movements within the space.

Juan related his childhood memory of fleeing Cuba. Seventy or more people were killed at sea. He watched a man cut in half when he got caught between boats. Because of these memories, Juan paints endangered species. He feels that art is a language and we as artists have a responsibility to carry on the conversation. Art is about how you relate to another human being. The person viewing the art has to want that relationship. Juan taught teachers how to teach art. Line work is the framework for everything. Many students lack an ability to be present in the moment. They don’t have the ability to trust the beauty in front of them. To compensate they might take a picture with their phone and work from that. Juan likes to create a body of work over the course of a year without showing anyone. Creating art is like raising dysfunctional children, you want to get them strong enough to kick them out of the house. A piece isn’t finished until it goes out into the world.

Smaller cities are where artists can flourish today. NYC isn’t the mecca it used to be except for the blue chip artists. You can produce art anywhere and find alternate venues to show it in like Art in Empty Spaces and Pop Up Shops. This artist panel discussion was one of the most enlightening experiences I’ve had. Snap continues to give the city beautiful a much needed pulse.

Everest packs an emotional punch.

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I went to an advance screening of Everest at the Regal Cinemas Pointe Orlando 20 and IMAX
at Pointe Orlando, 9101 International Dr, Orlando, FL. When I got in line and started sketching, there were about 30 people ahead of me. I went into the screening with no expectations thinking that it might be like other IMAX films I had scene at the Science Center with lots of scenery and little plot. The line started to move, but Terry still hadn’t arrived. If I went in she would not be able to get in the theater. I stepped out of line to wait for her.  Gladys West who had given me my ticket had another to spare, so I got two seats in the third row and then went back out to wait for Terry. When she arrived, we were the last to enter the theater. Thankfully the theater was huge and there were some seats left.

We had both read “Into Thin Air” by John Krakauer so we knew what would happen on this dangerous expedition in May of 1996. The immense five story high movie screen showed a climber dangling from a series of interconnected ladders above a deep crevasse. The film was shot in IMAX 3D and we all had glasses. The films emotional center revolved around Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) who was leading a group of climber up Everest each of whom had paid 50 to 90 thousand dollars for the experience.  His company was called Adventure Consultants. Rob’s wife Jan (Keira Knightley) was at home pregnant and he planned to be back in time for the birth of their first child. Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) confided that in his everyday life, a dark cloud of depression followed him, but when he climbs mountains that cloud is gone.

The film was a gripping cliff hanger. At times the camera moved with ease looking down at the dangerous drops. The climbers had to acclimatize to the altitude over a month’s period doing a series of smaller hikes up to the ice field. I actually braced myself several times, feeling vertigo from the heights. Climbing Everest has become a big business with hundreds of people at the base camp. Although some guides tried cooperating, there was also contentious competition among the climbers to get to the top.

There was a small window of opportunity to get to the top of the mountain on May 10, 1996. At midnight the stars sparked in a clear sky and Rob decided to bring his group to the top with a 2pm turn around time. John Krakaur asked each of the climbers why the took the risk to climb Everest. Kasuko Namba (Naoko Mori) from Japan explained that she had climbed 6 of the 7 summits. If she reached the summit of Everest she would be the oldest woman to reach the top. Doug Hansen (John Hawkes) had tried to reach the summit the previous year and had been tuned back by Rob. Every climber had their own reason to reach the top and Rob was tasked with getting them there safely. There were unexpected delays. The climbing Sherpas and guides had not set the fixed ropes by the time
the team reached the Balcony (27,395 ft), and this cost the team
almost an hour.

Doug once again got close to the summit, but since it was past the turn around time, Rob told him to turn back. Doug could see the top and insisted that Rob let him make the final ascent. When Rob agreed, I knew it was a fatal mistake. A blizzard blew in taking all the climbers by surprise. Snow blindness, hypothermia and lack of oxygen left them vulnerable to the elements.Some made it to camp while others collapsed from the cold. 34 climbers tried for the summit that day but 8 bodies remain on the unforgiving mountain. One in four climbers die trying to reach the summit and yet guided tours continue to bring people up to the death zone in record numbers. This is an incredible film that has to be experienced in IMAX 3D.

Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tuti appeared at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

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Florida Opera Theater hired me to create a poster image for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s Cosi Fan Tutti. The title roughly translated means, thus do they all or more commonly, all women are like that. Two sisters are engaged to two soldiers. The soldiers meet an old philosopher in a pub and when the soldiers brag of their fiance’s faithfulness, the philosopher wagers a bet that the women aren’t as faithful as the soldiers claim.

The philosopher proclaims that the soldiers have been called away to battle. The sisters are devastated and proclaim their steadfast love.  The soldiers however return dressed as exotic Albanian bachelors and each woos the others fiance. One sister succumbs rather quickly while the other slowly falls in love. This thematic device of fiance swapping was commonly used in Mozart’s day.

This stage inside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts was surprisingly small. The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra had supplied a hand full of musicians who performed in the wings at stage left. Having seen several productions as I researched the poster, I was quite familiar with the story which allowed me the freedom to ignore the subtitle translations projected above the stage. Being in a crowded audience made sketching a challenge since it would be distracting to illuminate the sketch. When I squeezed one of my water brushes, it broke and became a water cannon. It shot at Terry by mistake.

Cosi was a lighthearted comic opera that is easy to digest even for a novice opera fan.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for August 29th and 30th.

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Saturday August 29, 2015

11am to 4pm Free. Print Day Sale! Snap! Space, 1013 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL. Limited editions, and or open edition prints from local and international artists selected by Snap! Tables will be set up throughout the space for artists to set up.  Analog Artist Digital World prints will be available.

8pm to 11pm $30 early, $40 at the door. 9th Annual Prom. Orchid Garden at Church Street Station, 126 West Church Street, Orlando, FL.  Mel’s
Bad Girls Club Charity Organization has celebrated Prom for the last 8
years benefiting B.A.S.E Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation. It is a
chance for adults to experience PROM just like in high school but with
no curfew and spiked cocktails! PROM is an excuse for adults to get
dressed up, dance, and have a great time and all for a good cause! With
each PROM ticket attendees will get to experience handmade decorations,
over 1000 balloons, an amazing venue, free desserts, photographs,  The
MBGC Band, Live DJ, Entertainment, Chance Drawings and a Silent
Auction.

9:30pm to 11:30pm Free with an order of food and or drinks. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL.

Sunday August 30, 2015

10am to 12:30pm $10 Crealde Sketch Class. Crealdé School of Art, 600 St Andrews Blvd, Winter Park, FL. Life drawing from  a nude model.

1pm to 3pm Free. Yoga. BYOM (Bring your own mat). Lake Eola Park, 195 N Rosalind Ave, Orlando, FL. East end of the park between the red Pagoda and the playground. Every week.

9pm to 11pm Free, but get a coffee. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.