Every Thursday and Friday, Blank Space is open to artists who would like some studio space downtown. The hours were from 10AM to 11PM. This offers the public a chance to experience and view the artists at work. This move should bring more artists downtown and help enliven the downtown district. When I arrived one Thursday, Tracy Brurke and Maisy May Mars were hard at work.
Tracy does boldly painted portraits which are usually large in size. This day however she was working small and applying the paint more thickly and experimenting more. The painting she was working on was of a fashionable young girl with beautiful lips. She managed to finish up two of these quick studies while I was producing this sketch. I learned quite a bit from watching her work. Maisy was working on a picture of a wide eyed young girl. The eyes were bright green. Her whimsical work is on display now at Blank Space on a central column.
What is odd about the scene is that the women had to set up and paint on the ping pong table. The space isn’t quite set up yet with easels or drafting tables. The space is available on a first come first served basis. I sat up on a high stool and started to sketch. In the far corner of the next room a woman was threading thousands of optical threads through a white plastic board to create a light art piece.
Having this space open and available for artists on Thursday and Friday is a great idea. I hope in time more artists recognize the potential and take advantage of the opportunity.
DRIP Musician Auditions
DRIP held Auditions for a new show which will be at a permanent performance space on International Drive. Auditions took place in the DRIP warehouse (4502 Old Winter Garden Road). It was a boiling hot Saturday when I pulled into the warehouse parking lot. The huge garage warehouse door was partly open and the pounding of drums and bass guitar was pouring out. The new show in development is called RIFF and it is a wild and vibrant show featuring black lights plenty of splashing water and day glow paint. I did a sketch several months ago of one of the early unveiling’s and my sketch and shirt got covered with paint.
When I entered, Jessica Mariko, DRIP’s Creative Director and CEO, was sitting with Jennifer Wagner, the Production Manager. Jessica gave me a warm hug and told me to set up anywhere.
I sat in a beat up couch right behind the drum set. The first auditioner had left and they were setting up to have someone else perform on bass. The drummer turned to me and said, things might get loud! I told him I would be fine.
David Traver, DRIP’s music director, performed on his own bass to explain to the auditioners how he wanted the music performed. After he had demonstrated the piece several times the drummer Jeff Wright and the new bass performer began. James Woodrich was the bass performer I sketched auditioning. The music was super loud and I was right on top of it. Between pieces Jessica asked the performer to really act it out, to perform like he was on stage at a rock concert. He stared performing with some real flourish. There was no air conditioning in the warehouse and the performers sweat and strained.
The sketch took me about 3 auditions to finished after the third auditioner, there was a long break for lunch so I took that as the sign that the sketch was done and I should head back home.
Lake Cane Morning Swim
Sultana Fatima Ali told me about an early morning swim that is held at Lake Cane. When I arrived there were many cars parked on the street in front of a gorgeous lake front home. As I walked toward the metal gate that blocked the driveway, I bumped into Melissa Swedburg who plays the Viola in the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. She had been to this morning swim before and she said the gate was magic. She walked up to is and it opened all by itself. As we walked back, I noticed a huge perhaps 10 foot high yo-you which was stored in a carport. A sign announced that it was the largest yo-yo in the world according to the Guinness world book of records. Melissa and I talked for a while as we walked towards the backyard of the home, then I let her stretch and get ready and I started to sketch.
A plume of smoke rose up over the lake from a Cape Canaveral rocket launch earlier that morning. As the plums dissipated, the sun rose above the horizon and caused a bright glow behind a tree and gazebo. Runners kept arriving and by the time it was time to swim, there must have been at least 75 people wading out into the water. The owner of the home had on a large cowboy hat. He told me that Adam the family dog always started the morning swim by jumping in the water first. Soon the water was boiling with the frantic strokes of all the swimmers as they started off to the far shore.
Sultana arrived late and asked me to watch her bag. She walked up to the water’s edge and made sure her hair was neatly tucked in her skull cap. By the time she got back my sketch was finished. I was surprised when she told me she had swam across the lake twice. When someone goes to this swim for the first time, they get a bumper sticker and they are allowed to sign their name on the back of the home. I went to see this signed wall and the number of names is astonishing. I searched for Sultana’s name trying to focus on a grid like search pattern and just looking for the letter S. We had just about given up when she spotted the signature on a spot near a bay window.
As I strive to improve my physical health by running I hope to someday return to this lake, confident in my swimming abilities. I once competed in a Tin Man competition in Seattle. I lost much time in the swim since I swam on my back with my eyes closed. It turns out I was swimming in circles. Several men in a row boat had to beat the waters surface to get my attention and point out to me that I was swimming back to the shore where I had started from! I need to swim with my face in the water doing the crawl like a pro.
Biker Bar
Karen Cali (KC) has a knack for finding Orlando’s true dive bars. She invited me to come out on a mini SketchCrawl at a biker bar located in a Howard Johnson’s , Crossroads Bar and Grill (2801 East New York Avenue, Deland). The music was blazing as we walked in. We walked from table to table trying to find a good vantage point from which to sketch. Tables at the back of the place were so dark that it was impossible to see the sketchbook. We tried sitting at about 4 different spots before finally deciding to sit at the bar itself to sketch the band and patrons. The bar had bras hanging from the ceiling along with an American flag and then a confederate flag proudly displayed behind the stage. We both ordered a beer and got to work.
There were free wings that night and the guy next to me was enjoying a drum stick. His frayed denim jacket announced that he had been at Bike Week in Daytona. The band was all high energy singing rock and roll cover songs and I later found out the lead singer was exactly my age. Between sets the bass guitarist with the long black hair came over to KC to see what she was working on. They talked for a while and she put in a song request which was the first song they performed when they started playing again.
A competition was announced and a call for volunteers went out. I was surprised when KC got up and walked to the stage to participate. The competition involved holding two buckets filled with beers and ice above your head. The one who held them up the longest would win. KC competed against two other women in the women’s round. As they struggled everyone in the bar started shouting out encouragement. KC won. When she sat back down, she said her arms were shaking, which might make it difficult to draw. The men’s round which I refused to volunteer for went on for a long time. They guy who won had huge biceps. KC had to compete against him in the final round. She put up a good fight but he won.
Several friends of KC greeted us and started admiring our work. Other bar patrons asked to see the sketchbooks and there was much appreciation. When the first sketch was done, I wanted to with another sketch of the huge bikers hidden in the shadows with long gray beards and gorgeous tattoos. That sketch will have to wait for another night since we both agreed we had sketched enough. The place was a gritty down to earth blast. When I got home I realized my sketchbook smelled like cigarette smoke.
Available
For the entire month of August, performance artist Brian Feldman has decided to make himself “Available” to do anything you need help with. Do you need your car washed? Laundry folded? Lawn mowed? Dog walked? Dinner prepared? Someone to go shopping with? Someone to see a movie with? Kids watched? Help crossing the road? Services of the self-proclaimed greatest designated driver of all time? Just fill out the form and he is available for you. It is like hiring a friend to help out for FREE!
One request caught my eye from the start. Karen Cali (KC), a figurative artist, wanted Brian to post nude for her. As KC wrote, “I do charcoal work from the figure and there’s a shortage of male models in general and my money to pay models in particular.” There was a mad flurry of e-mails as this private sketch session was arranged. Several sketch locations were considered and then discarded, including the Mobile Art Show and Blank Space. Since I was having a sketchbook display at Frames Forever & Art Gallery, we finally decided this would be the perfect spot for a quiet Sunday morning sketch session. Katie Windish, who owns the shop, is still offering huge clearance discounts on everything in stock. She even bought in a whole pile of art books, DVDs and other items from home. She had a tiny digital camera that she wanted to sell and before Brian got to the shop we duck taped it to the far wall opposite from where he was going to pose. We made no effort to disguise the camera, we just wanted to see if he would ever notice it. It took him about half an hour, but when he did notice it we all had a good laugh.
KC had bought her own artist sketch bench and a flood lamp. Brian hung a black drape over the windows of the shop door. KC and I dropped our cell phones off in the back room of the shop with Katie. She was busy working on a framing job and wasn’t prepared to see Brian nude, so she stayed hidden. She did stop out when Brian had a break and was in his bathrobe. I showed her my drawing but kept my thumb over the private parts. KC did a great job of posing Brian and reassuring him as he found his pose. He is actually a really good model since many of his performances involve stamina and patience. KC did two drawings and I worked on this blog sketch. The second pose was a standing pose, and offered the full monty. I decided to stick with this sketch where his clenched hands hide his privates. I have a newfound respect for the lengths Brian will go to for the sake of his art.
Maisy May Marrs
I fist sketched Maisy May Marrs at an event called Blend. I then saw her at Blank Space where artists are permitted to come in each Thursday to work in an open studio environment downtown. Through Facebook I asked if I could sketch her studio and she agreed. Her husband Ron was home for vacation for a week so we agreed to set up a time around lunch for me to stop by. Maisy had prepared a delicious bean soup and I chowed down before getting to work. The small studio room is known as the Pink Room because the curtains are pink and when the morning sun comes through it makes everything in that room and some of the living room a pink hue. . It is a tiny and intimate space being perhaps a 10 by 10 foot cube. At first I considered sitting in the doorway but I only got a view of Maisy’s back from there, so I shoved myself into a corner of the room where she kept her witch’s broomstick. She has drawn me several times and I always laugh out loud at the results.
Maisey began to sketch out one of her wide eyed little girls as I began to sketch the studio space. I asked about a funeral urn which was on a top shelf and it turned out to be her mother’s ashes. There were dried roses and a high school art piece which was a coffin shaped box with a nude woman struggling against her bonds and a red robed priest inside. Maisy’s art on a whole is fun and lighthearted. Some of the pieces look like children’s drawings. It was refreshing to see such childlike innocence in her work.
Outside her studio window she can see ducks as they swim around the apartment complex retention pond. it started to rain outside and then the rain slowed. Ron called out from the living room that he was going to get the mail. As soon as he left and got half way to the community’s mailboxes, it started to pour. Maisey looked out the window anxiously. When he got back she shouted out, “Did we get anything good?” Ron shouted back, “Some junk mail and pneumonia.” I started to run out of time and all the infinite detail in the room was overwhelming. Maisey would peek over once in a while to see what I was up to. She kept the afternoons work fun and light. It was great to sketch and laugh the afternoon away with a fellow artist.
Waiting for Godot
This was my first time seeing “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Becket. The play was staged at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street). I thought this would be an easy production to sketch since I figured the two men would have little to do as they waited. I was mistaken. Action occurred at every point in the production. I found myself erasing again and again. I finally settled on the moment when Vladimir and Estagon consider hanging themselves from a tree. They lack the ambition and tools to pull off this act. I have read that Godot might represent hope or god. but in the end it is the actions of these two men trying to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless existence that gives the play its legs.
The play is decidedly long, which gave me plenty of time to sketch. The two tramps are entertaining with distinct personalities. Estagon hasn’t got a great memory and relies of Vladmir to recreate his history. Vladmir has a positive attitude at most times, spreading his arms wide for an embrace or smiling quizzically as he thinks. It is this faint positive attitude in the face of meaninglessness that offers hope for these men who seem to be living the same exact day over and over.
I have no desire to plumb the depths of the inner meaning of the play. I experienced it superficially enjoying the Laurel and Hardyesque routines and staging. Such antics as swapping hats, exercising to look tree like, playing games, arguing, talking and even contemplating suicide are all diversions to “Hold the terrible silence at bay.”
Hard to say if I liked or disliked the play, like the main characters I am indifferent.
-
- ESTRAGON:
- (Struggling to remove his boot, giving up again). Nothing to be done.
- VLADIMIR:
- I’m beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I’ve tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven’t yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.
- ESTRAGON:
- Am I?
- VLADIMIR:
- I’m glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever.
- ESTRAGON:
- Me too.
Free Beer!
At the Audubon Park Community Market, Shipyard Brewing Company had a small SUV set up with beer taps sticking out of its side. Allison Stevens and master brewer Ron Raike were at the taps busily filling small plastic cups full of FREE beer samples. I walked around the truck several times trying to find a comfortable vantage point from which to do a sketch. Terry had come down to the market to meet me but I didn’t see her anywhere. Distracted, I gave her a call. She was across the street at an Italian restaurant having a salad. A bit of a power struggle ensued. She wanting me to sit and have dinner with her, while I wanted to get started on the sketch with the few hours of daylight remaining.
When I got back outside, the sun had just set. As I sketched, the scene grew progressively darker. Terry joined me for a bit and then Craig Marris walked up to talk. The two of them talked as I rushed to get some watercolor washes down. Across the street, Kevian Acosta began singing to the crowd. When my sketch was finished I decided it was time to get a beer sample. I went up to the Shipyard booth and asked Allison for a sample. She poured me two and thanked me for a blog post I had written about the Shipyard Brewery and a fun conversation we had when we first met. Terry walked up beside me and announced, “I am Mrs. Thor!” She and Allison had a quick exchange and bumped fists.
The beer was smooth and light. I sipped it with my pinky in the air and sat down to watch Flammable Babylon Percussion perform. The pounding and rhythmic drum beats helped calm my nerves. I simply sat and watched the first piece. Then the urge to sketch took over again and I rushed to get something down. I knew they wouldn’t be performing much longer but I had to get something. I liked the way the belly dancers would relax, off stage with their belly fat proudly overlapping the waste line of the dress. When they danced, others in the crowd would join in; some worked their hips with the hula hoops.
Wendy with a Chance of Rain
This month’s concert held at the Timucua White House (2001 Hamilton Lane, Orlando) featured singer-songwriter Wendy Feaver. This was to be Wendy’s last performance in Orlando before leaving to get her masters degree up in New Jersey. The artist who painted the entire length of the concert is Maggie Sharar. She was pregnant with her first child and while most of the paintings on the walls were for sale, one was not because she is saving it for her doula. Benoit Glazer introduced the concert and his two children each performed a piece at the piano.
When Wendy took to the stage she explained that she would be playing some cover songs and plenty of original material. She felt that it was fortuitous that it had just been raining and as she stood outside prior to the concert she saw a huge rainbow that went from horizon to horizon. She began the concert with “Everyone knows it’s Wendy.” I enjoyed the original songs, some of which had to do with insecurity and of course, love. Wendy has a lighthearted way of delivering the songs, sometimes tapping on the piano lid for some percussion.
Sheila Marie Ernst sang and played guitar for the second set. Her gentle voice had a way of reaching in and pulling just the right heartstrings. All told it was an uplifting concert.
Guests to the Glazer home bought bottles of wine and there was a fine spread of deserts in the entry room. After the concert, people greeted one another and it became an informal party.
If you haven’t been to the Timucua White House yet, you are missing out on one of the best venues in town. Grab a bottle of wine and come out on August 29th when there will be a trombone recital.
9000 Backpacks
When I arrived at the Amway Arena at 10AM on Saturday, I was immediately greeted with a line of people that stretched as far as the eye could see. Inside the Arena, 9000 backpacks were being given away packed with pencils, rulers and hand sanitizer. Hope Now International organized this event, which featured free immunizations, hair cuts, Community resources, prizes, entertainment and music.
It was insanely hot outside with temperatures well above 95 degrees and the humidity making the air thick and wet. Green hand fans were given to people waiting in line and large pallets of bottled water were on hand, but parents and children still had to wait in line for hours on end just to finally get into the arena. I had wanted to sketch inside the arena but in the parking lot I read a sign that read: “No backpacks are allowed in the Arena.” I thought that was rather ironic, but I decided my task was to document the mass of humanity who were made to wait in the sun.
I sat under the only large tree and leaned back to do this first sketch. Occasionally children would wander over to see what I was up to. One small boy stood right in front of me watching each line as it was put down. His mother yelled at him when the line inched forward and he ran back. Another boy stirred up an ants nest at the trees roots behind me. He and several other children played in the grass in front of me. The line of people waiting for backpacks stretched from the Arena all the way past the Bob Carr theater, probably a quarter of a mile, and more people kept arriving so the line never got shorter.
Three police horses clomped out on the parking lot pavement. One of the volunteers was Karen Cali, a fellow artist. Her horse walked up to a small tree in the parking lot and started to eat the Spanish moss that was hanging from it. Later these three horses walked up to the shady spot on the grass right in front of me. Rather than worrying about the obstructed view, I took the opportunity to sketch the horses and the crowd of children who gathered to pet them. The volunteers had to keep shouting, “Don’t walk behind, get in front.” They were concerned that if a horse got spooked he might kick back.
It wasn’t until 1PM that the line finally got shorter. At this point I had finished both sketches. I was hot and sweaty and smelled like mold. Watching this huge agonizing line reminded me of news reel footage I had seen of bread lines during the Great Depression. More and more people are finding themselves without a job and struggling to scrape by. An estimated 25,000 people waited to get into the arena that day. The evidence of hard times is obvious. Do the math.