Dog Powered Fundraiser 2.0

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D-D-DOG POWERED ROBOT: UPLOAD DPR FUNDRAISER 2.0, tonight, Saturday, February 25th 2012 from 7:00pm-11:00pm. You have only minutes before the awesomeness begins at Stardust Video & Coffee (1842 East Winter Park Road.)

Dog Powered Robot is returning…and he is bringing the whole robot crew with him! To ensure mega-awesomeness, he has activated the ultimate upgrade of ANDY MATCHETT & THE MINKS! Prepare to have your mind circuits blown!

Join TEAM DPR as we celebrate and raise money for our 2012 full length Fringe show: DOG POWERED ROBOT AND THE SUBSEQUENT ADVENTURE.

Post script: Three prints of my sketches of Dog Powered Rehearsals and performances are still on display in Stardust Video and Coffee through March 15th. Prints sold help raise funds for DPR.

Full Sail Construction

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Construction at Full Sail is an on going process as the school takes over store after store in the strip mall where I work. Once the tenants leave, the whole facade is usually stripped of all its brick work and then a new facade is put in place with strips of aluminum and paneling. Birds nest in the stripped facade and they get angry, chirping loudly when their nests are confiscated by construction workers. Glass paneling is decorating the building that used to be an Albertson’s Supermarket. All the temporary fencing just means I have to walk further to get to the few remaining restaurants when I want to get some lunch. A new coat of stucco usually polishes off the job before students start filing in.

Drunken Monkey

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That clock on the wall must have stopped. I agreed to meet Terry for a Beau Soleil concert at the Plaza Theater. Beau Soleil is a Cajun band and Terry just loves them as do I. I decided not to sketch the concert, so instead I went over to the Drunken Monkey right across the street to eat and sketch. I ordered a hot Portobello mushroom sandwich that was absolutely amazing. To drink, I ordered a mango slushy. A guy seated on a couch in the corner of the room was reading his iPad. Hear no evil and speak no evil wooden monkeys were squatting on a bookcase full of board games. The woman seated at the table in front of me had the intriguing habit of holding her index fingers over her lips when she wasn’t speaking.

A heart made of broken mirror shards was mounted on four colorful panels next to the door. As I sketched, someone approached and said, “You’re that artist!” I didn’t quite know how to respond. It was Banjo Bob. He showed me a painting of an owl on a wood panel he was working on. He had been painting outside, but it had started to drizzle. Banjo works at the Drunken Monkey and he said I could exhibit my sketches there any time. I just might take him up on that offer sometime. Hot soup, hot coffee, warm heart. I always enjoy returning to the Drunken Monkey.

The Beau Soleil concert was amazing. The crowd was older than I expected with plenty of gray hair. When I glance in the mirror however, I realize, I fit right in. Terry and I danced quite a bit. Since I wasn’t sketching, I soaked in the music and drank. After two beers I was dancing like Fred Astaire. Terry suggested we show off our best Cajun dance moves. Another couple had some really smooth moves as well. Between sets, I talked to the woman, Joanne Conero. She and her husband Al teach dancing up in the Villages. She was also a member of the Clearwater environmental group. It was at a Clearwater festival more than 20 years ago. Incredibly small world. When Terry returned with another beer, we were shown a new move which we now have to try out sometime. I miss the Clearwater, a community with a heart and a cause.

I no longer go to Drunken Monkey since they used one of my
sketches without consulting me on their Internet welcome page. I usually
support local businesses but I can’t support theft. This was the sketch stolen.

American Shoe Repair

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American Shoe Repair (616 North Bumby Ave) is one of the few if not the only place to get your shoes repaired. I went based on a reader’s tip. The room where repairs are made is segregated from the rest of the store. When I told the store manager that I wanted to sketch, he seemed very leery. His wife was intrigued however so I was allowed to sketch from behind a glass partition. The large red machine was a burnisher. A large cylinder spun to polish the leather. High heeled women’s shoes were piled up everywhere. People must be repairing their shoes in this economy rather than buying new pairs. I do have some shoes at home that are a bit worn in the heel. Now I know where to bring them.

Traditional Irish Music Session

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Every other Wednesday, Vicki Gish and Scott Vocca host a Traditional Irish Music Session at Claddagh Cottage Irish Pub (4308 Curry Ford Rd) starting at 7:30pm till whenever. Vicki and Scott are from the band “Crooked Road” and I had recently seen them perform at the Mennello Museum Folk Festival. The bar is a real hole in the wall with dark oak booths, tables and chairs. There is a sign near one table that says, “Reserved for Musicians.” The electric piano was set up and there was an accordion a fiddle and some bows on the tables. A few patrons were eating dinner but everywhere there were tall glasses of dark Guinness.

Natalie Doyle the groups pianist offered me a pint to sip as I sketched. I couldn’t refuse. She explained that the accordion player was Gerry Hanley from Galway, Ireland. She explained that he had given up playing for a while but now he was back into the swing of things. Kathleen Cavanagh on pipes entered a little late and she let everyone know that she had Girl Scout cookies back in her car if anyone was interested. Soon the magical traditional Irish music filled the bar. The musicians closed their eyes as in a reverie and swayed to the beat. The two women having dinner beside me were ecstatic. They had wandered into this hidden gem by chance.

An Irish Session is a gathering of musicians playing traditional Irish music (occasionally including other Celtic genres such as Scottish, Brittany, Cape Breton, and French Canadian) on traditional Irish instruments. Traditional Irish music is made up of dance tunes such as reels, jigs, hornpipes, slides, and a few other miscellaneous forms including polkas, set dances, airs and songs. It is not so much a performance but a sharing of traditional tunes among the musicians and those who care to listen. The instruments might include fiddle, flute, accordion, uilleann pipe, concertina, tenor banjo, whistle (a.k.a. penny whistle, tin whistle), mandolin, bodhrán, guitar, and sometimes piano. An Irish Session is not a “jam session”.

An Irish elder gentleman named Shawn wanted to meet Gerry from Galway. They shook hands and told tales of the homeland for a bit. Then Shawn sat down and began to sing a traditional Irish ballad solo. Scott shushed the room trying to silence the loud talkers at the end of the bar. Then everyone joined in on the chorus singing, “I met her in the garden where the praties grow.” With his second song, I sang along, “Come down from the mountain Katie Daly.” I’m Irish on my mothers side and warmed by the beer and music, I glowed. A woman dropped off a small Teddy bear holding a heart beside the old gentleman singing. When he was finished singing, someone explained, “You have a secret admirer.” The sketch ebbed and flowed with the music taking form almost on it’s own without any second guessing from me. After I drained my Guinness and finished the sketch, I had to go. I needed to start fresh on a new job in the morning. I shouted good night to Natalie and Vicki who stood and shook my hand. I owe these amazing musicians a beer, but I know I’ll be back. If you haven’t been to one of these sessions, you have to go.

Night of Fire

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Crealde held an event called “Night of Fire” at the school campus (600 St. Andrews Blvd. in Winter Park). Tiki torches lined either side of the long gravel path leading back to the school. I wandered around trying to decide what I should sketch. There was a huge kiln about 8 feet tall that filled a shed. It was burning hot but there was little activity around it. I then found this little garbage can kiln in action. The garbage can glowed red hot, sitting on top of fire bricks. The flame was fed by a propane gas tank. This is referred to as Raku firing.

Lynn Warnicke would remove a properly heated ceramic pot with long metal tongs and place it in a garbage can with newspapers. The newspapers would smolder and then burn. I was blinded quite a few times by the smoke, finding myself downwind of the cans. A garbage can lid would be lifted and then the tongs would be used again to drop the pot in a vat of water to cool down. The finished and glazed pots would then be lifted by hand and placed on a bench where they were all lined up.

There was a constant flurry of activity and I was never certain if I was catching the right moment. I learned about the process as I sketched and now that I better understand it, I would probably get a better second sketch. There was no time for a second sketch. I walked around searching for Terry. There was a cool sculpture behind the school, lake side, that shot up a blue flame into a tall glass tube. There had been a bronze pour but it was finished before I got there to sketch. A story teller waved her arms as she spoke to enchanted children and parents.

Inside the school, Ken Austin was demonstrating his watercolor techniques and Megan Boye was in the print department showing people the process. There were prints and paper hanging and lying everywhere. It was an amazing event. I probably cold have learned a thing or two had I lingered.

Orlando Improv Festival

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On February 6th & 7th, Mark Bartelli of the Daily City hosted the Orlando Improv Festival at Urban Rethink as part of Arts Fest. When I arrived, Mark used a bright red sharpie to write “sketch artist” on my name tag. I was rolling with the big boys now, an official sketch artist. This was a smaller, more intimate Festival than last year but Mark still had a plethora of posters.

I set up my artist stool next to a speaker and started blocking in the space. I was sitting next to a college student with a camera around his neck. He had “Press” written on his name tag. He confided that this was his first time using the camera. My inflated ego shrank. The two young women seated in front of me were from the same school. The woman in the stripped shirt asked several audience members questions. “So, what do you hope to gain from tonight’s performance?” “Well Missy, I hope to laugh!”

The evening consisted of long form Improv. The audience would supply a few cues and the performers would keep the Improv going for the duration of an hour. The first group, Offsides Improv is the one I sketched on stage. The performance centered around the strained relationship a couple had developed with someone they had kidnapped. For the longest time we were left to assume this was a typical insular family. The audience was packed full. Mark actually had to squeeze a few more chairs on the sidelines to fit in late comers.

Once the first improv group was finished, the room had to be cleared so people could pay to see the next group. I believe there were five performances each night. The second comedy troupe was “Nobody’s Sweetheart.” This was a notable performance since Peter Murphy had returned to Orlando from LA to be in the show. Peter played the part of a corporate executive speaking with lazy employees. He kept the action lively and his irony brought plenty of laughs. After two hours of Improv, my sketch was finished. I decided to head out to the street with the second audience and head home.

Lace Makers

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Terry and I returned to the Mennello Museum of American Art for the second day of the Folk Festival. Our first order of business was to go in the museum since admission was free for the day. On display was “Style & Grace, which was a magnificent collection of paintings from the Michael & Marilyn Mennello collection. There was a large golden statue of Marilyn in a gorgeous long flowing dress in the room to the left of the entry. I felt a bit sad since she had passed away, yet this sculpture was beautiful as was all the art she collected. There were so many paintings from artists whose work I love and respect. There was a whole wall full of John Sloan landscape paintings and a Robert Henri portrait right in the entry. Robert Henri was a fantastic teacher as well as a painter. I studied his color theories in detail and he is still teaching me today.

On display in the gallery to the right of the reception desk was, William H. Johnson: An American Modern on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. Arranged chronologically, the paintings begin when he was a student in France as he experimented in different styles. His later work, started in Harlem, New York, showed his hard edged maturity. As Terry and I walked around, I pointed out how some of the paintings focused on important details in certain spots while letting bold brushwork fill the remaining canvas. This is something I’m just beginning to learn with my sketches. A lesson learned over hundreds and hundreds of sketches. She let me know that it is this kind of insight into the process that she appreciated me sharing. I need to learn to share my thoughts verbally more often.

Before going to the Mennello, I brought Terry to Avalon for a couples Valentine Tarot Card reading. My aura was bright yellow with a candle flame flickering. Terry’s aura was filled with presidential figures. Between us stood a totem pole. Two column of Tarot cards were dealt out with one card between at the top. Terry picked the column of cards closest to her. She was blown away by her reading. Things said about her mother were spot on. My column had the death card in the mix. That implied change is coming my way. The common card between us was a heart pierced by three swords.

In college, I copied a painting of a Lacemaker by Vermeer in the first painting class I took as a freshman. Perhaps for this reason I decided to sketch Peggy and Anne as they clicked their small wooden bobbins, creating intricate lace patterns. A small lace pattern was started on a red pillow on a card table and occasionally Peggy would coach someone on the intricacies of the craft. A young Spanish man sat down and tried his hand at the Mundillo process, Peggy coached him calmly. She said, “I’ve been doing this longer than you have been on this Earth.” When she saw my sketch she said, “I’ve never been sketched before doing what I love to do.”

Crooked Road

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At the Mennello Museum Folk Festival music stage, Crooked Road played its blend of Celtic folk music. Natalie Doyle was on piano, Kathleen Cavanagh on pipes, Vicki Gish on fiddle and Scott Vocca on banjo. A slender wisp of a girl did Irish dances to the music, kicking her feet up with her arms straight at her sides. Mothers and their children played in the grass. It was a cool and very windy day. The large mobile sculpture in bright reds, yellow and blue moved slightly in the breeze. Children clamored up on Its cement base and tried to crawl through the hole in a blue shaped pyramid. One of the artists tents started to take flight and people rushed in to help keep it grounded. As I walked past the artist was ripping off the tent panels until only the skeletal structure remained.

When the band finished playing, Kathleen told me that I had to add the bands new byline, “We prevent murders.” Vicki explained. A woman had gone to their concert and she had been having a really bad day. She approached the band after and said, “I was ready to murder someone, but after listening to your music, I feel great!”

Kids Day at the Folk Festival

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The Mennello Museum Folk Festival was three days this year. The first day on Friday was set aside just for kids. I arrived in the early afternoon to see what was going on. The place was quiet with a small encampment of white tents set up under the overcast sky. I decided to lean against a flag pole to do a sketch. Dawn Schreiner and her husband, Eric, arrived to set up her tent. Dawn did the poster for this year’s festival with a nice painting of Earl Cunningham whose folk paintings comprise the main focus of the museum’s permanent collection. I always look forward to seeing Dawn’s colorful and whimsical work.

Genevieve Bernard pulled up in her VW Bug and she explained to me that there were about 50 school children running all around that morning. Ibex puppetry was there with puppets from “Panther and the Crane.” Frank Holt, the museum director, pointed out that there was a new puppet of a manatee. These puppets were life sized and a few children were scared, but when they were allowed to touch the puppets they were OK. There were crafts activities using recycled cardboard. Kids could paint a Valentine heart or lace a cardboard disk with an intricate pattern of yarn.

Unfortunately my mural was hidden by go carts, cars and mobile storage units. Very few people attending the festival would ever know it was there. Regardless, I made my way through the maze of machinery and signed the mural with a sharpie above the list of school children and parents who had helped. It rained lightly when I began the sketch but never hard enough to force me to run for cover. Then the sun came out and I sweated and baked since I hadn’t thought about shade. When the line work was done, I walked about ten feet back under the shade of a live Oak tree. I’m looking forward to seeing “Style & Grace”. These paintings are from the private collection of Michael & Marilyn Mennello. I saw them when I visited his home and they are from some of my favorite “Ash Can” artists, like John Sloan, Robert Henri and George Bellows.