I visited the offices of the Children’s Home Society as the organization geared up to give away 800 backpacks to children in need as part of their back to school drive. Amanda Chadwick and Sarah Dillon were in a tiny corner office stuffing envelopes. This first step in the process involved sending appeal letters asking for donations for the cause. Past back to school drives had been a huge success thanks to the many kind donations from all over Central Florida. Many children all over the state are faced with starting school without the basic school supplies needed for success. People who donated a backpack this year were given a ticket to see Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 on ice.
Many of the children in the care of the Children’s Home Society have suffered from abuse and neglect and they need support to succeed both emotionally and academically. These backpacks full of school supplies can make a difference. Here are the supplies that are given away in each elementary student’s backpack. 1 dozen #2 pencils, 1 rectangular pink eraser, 1 box of colored pencils, 3 folders with 2 prongs and 3 pockets, 1 pack wide rule loose-leaf notebook paper, 2 glue sticks, 1 ruler with inches and centimeters, 1 pair Fiskars brand scissors, 1 plastic pencil box, and a new backpack.
All of these supplies are donated by people who open their hearts, giving whatever they can to help. Should you want to help with next years drive, contact the Children’s Home Society at 321 397-3000.
Adoption
Amanda Chadwick from the Children’s Home Society invited me to the courthouse to sketch an adoption proceeding. When we entered the building we had to get past security. My portable artists stool raised a red flag and the guards got into a discussion as to how lethal a weapon it might be. Amanda’s bag needed a second search and a curling iron was found which was equally lethal. The guards were considering allowing the chair, but to cut the red tape, Amanda and I went back out to the parking lot to get rid of the contraband. When it was discovered that I planned to sketch, guards and lawyers got involved in letting me know how short the proceeding would be and how unlikely it would be that I would get a sketch. A lawyer introduced Amanda and I to the Joma family who would be adopting two children this day. The baby girl was only three days old when the family first began to care for her. The little boy, a toddler, was strutting around the courthouse like he was a lawyer himself. He was dressed in a very corporate looking suit. At one point he walked over and hugged his little sister.
The time spent in the courtroom was indeed brief. The judge quickly announced the completion of all the needed paper work and the family pledged that they loved the children and would raise them in a caring household. I glanced over at Amanda when it was over and she had gotten quite choked up. Even though she had worked for the Children’s Home Society for sometime, this was the first time she had witnessed an adoption firsthand.
The Auction
The seating was assigned, and I was surprised that Terry and I were seated right behind Harriet Lake. This was prime real estate. Tom Yokum from Lowndes, Drosdick, Kantor & Reed was seated next to us with his wife. Terry grabbed my sketchbook and showed it to his wife. The auctioneer for the evening was a no show and Tom was asked to fill in. Harriet Lake had donated a bracelet studded with 173 diamonds. Tom knew many of the patrons in the room and he used this to his advantage to get people to bid. He shouted out, “Come on now, you spend more than that to fuel up your private jet.” The bidding was fast and furious. Congressional contender Bill Segal raised his hand once but didn’t bid aggressively. Melanie Love is the woman who got to show off this amazing jewelry for the rest of the night. She had been joking with us earlier in the evening about how they would build a tower out of Snickers bars every Halloween. The bars would have to be removed gingerly by the kids to keep the tower from collapsing.
A preview of the play “39 Steps” began shortly after the auction. I fired up my book light and kept working. Watercolors were applied in the darkness. 39 Steps was hilarious. It is a tongue in cheek view of a crime drama akin to Hichcock’s “North by Northwest .” A scene in a crowded train had all the actors moving and swaying to the rythem of the train. Brandon Roberts was particularlY funny in a Chaplinesque way. A chase scene on top of the train was made complete as the actors ruffled their waistcoats with their hands. The scenes were overacted and melodramatic to great humorous effect.
After the preview, a trio performed in the lobby. I contemplated doing one more sketch but I knew time was limited. Betsy Die gave me the photo which had been taken of Terry and myself earlier in the evening. I felt like we were being given the VIP treatment. It is the little things that make an evening truly memorable.
Shakespeare Gala
As Terry and I entered the Shakespeare Theater, a woman remarked that there would be no overnight camping allowed. I was confused at first but soon realized she was talking about the camping chair that I had slung over my shoulder. Even though I was wearing a suit, I still wasn’t fully able to blend in with Orlando’s upper crust. Terry had on a solid gold gown and was concerned she might be overdressed. Shannon Lacek was the first person to greet us once we entered the lobby. She directed me to the will call booth to get tickets for a preview performance of “The 39 Steps” later in the evening.
Terry approached Devin Dominguez, who was signing people in for auction bid books. I walked around on my own searching for a spot to do my sketch. The Patron’s Room was packed and I decided against sketching in such a tight space. Instead I wandered through the lobby looking at one food station after another. I settled on the Rosen Centre Hotel’s station which had translucent blue plastic cubes which were all illuminated blue. At the meat station there were lamb shanks which I later tried and they were delicious. There was also an assortment of vegetable platters and raw clams and mussels.
The chefs were rushing to get the food prepped and ready. I stood at one of the circular tables that had been set up in the hall and got to work. Terry joined me with her plate of food. I decided I couldn’t eat until I had finished my sketch. Other couples joined us and the executive director of the Rep, Gene Columbus, was having a conversation about how the Rep needed to apply for all available grants in order to grow. He felt the Rep always did the best they could with the resources available.
When I finished my sketch, I finally got a plate of food. I ate quickly before they opened up the theater.
Candidate Meet and Greet
The Children’s Home Society hosted a Candidate Meet and Greet. Amanda Chadwick organized the event. There was primarily a focus on issues relating to child welfare although most politicians returned to issues of taxes and spending. Valerie Seidel, the board chair of the Children’s Home Society of Florida, introduced the Board. There were two young girls seated in the front row near me. They were about 14 and 10 years old. These girls dressed in their Sunday best got up on stage to lead the Pledge of allegiance.
Candidates could only speak for three minutes each so sketching was a challenge. I drew Valerie at the podium. One candidate had actually been in foster care before. After all the speeches, there was a twenty minute break with snacks before school board candidates got up to speak. As everyone got food, I was throwing down watercolor washes. As I worked, one of the little girls sat next to me asking questions. It turns out she lives next to Bernie who is an artist that holds open studio sessions in his home. I have been there a number of times. The girls name was Catherine and I soon realized that she and her sister were pictured on a poster at the front of the room. The pair are shown seated on the grass wearing purple and pink princess costumes. The sisters were adopted by Greg and Valerie through CHS of Florida. on the poster Catherine is quoted as saying, “I am thankful that CHS took good care of me and my sister when we were in the shelter and helped us to get adopted to a new family. :)” Catherine’s sister, Cheyenne, walked up and said, “Look, that is mom.” as she pointed at the drawing. I explained to them that I had started drawing Valerie, but I had to borrow some features from some candidates since she didn’t speak very long. Amanda walked up behind me and said, “It looks like you have some new fans.” Kids love art, and I am happy I got to meet these two outgoing and curious art patrons..
Crealde – Saturday Figure Drawing
Every Sunday there is a figure drawing class at Crealde from 10:30am to 12:30pm. I usually have other events on my plate but this Sunday I decided to get back to figure drawing. It is so nice to have a model stand still for five minutes or longer. Amber is a young petite model who had a steely focus when posing. She would stare at a spot right above everyone’s head and remain totally still. She didn’t take the most dynamic poses but I was overjoyed to be able to relax and take my time with my drawings. I filled 2 spreads in my sketch book with tiny studies before I decided to expand my view to incorporate all the artists. There were some female artists as well, they just happened to be on the opposite side of the room. Paul McNear runs the class starting with 2 minute poses then 5 minues then finishing up with 20 minute poses. Paul is the artist with the checkered shirt, I love drawing his expressive face.
Once I started this sketch I didn’t take any breaks, while others chatted away, I was adding washes and adding background details. The devil is always in the details. I loved that there was a poster on the wall that said simply, “Hope.” Every drawing begins with a bit of hope and faith. With this sketch I didn’t do any preliminary pencil work. I attacked the drawing by going straight to ink and I feel the result is bolder with more chances being taken. If I do this more often I should be able to finish my sketches on location much faster.
Truth or Dare with Pepe
Terry and I went to The Peacock Room to catch Pepe. We entered and paid the five dollar cover to Mike Maples who had on a very stylish fedora. At the bar we sat next to Devin Dominguez and Shannon Lacek who was just getting up to leave. Devin and Terry talked about the various boards they work for. Rob Ward was greeting people up and down the bar. I ordered a Corona and relaxed.
I decided not to sketch until the show started so I sat back and enjoyed the social interactions firing up all around me. We waited for quite a while since some of the guests for Pepe’s show hadn’t arrived yet. Aradhana Tiwari breezed up to the bar and ordered a cosmo. The bartender wouldn’t accept any of her credit cards so she had to go out to her car to get cash.
Terry and I were some of the first people to enter the backroom performance space. I collapsed into a beanbag chair at Terry’s feet. The set had gotten much more elaborate since I had been on the show many months ago. A gorgeous red patterned couch filled the stage along with Pepe’s giant red pump chair. Pepe’s co-star for the night was Blue Star from VarieTEASE Dance Company. Megan Boetto dressed in a tight red corset was the evenings Jello shot girl. Guests of the show were Beth Marshall and Mark Baratelli.
Mark arrived late and sober so he started sucking down jello shots one after the other. When asked by Pepe if he wanted to pick Truth (gasp from crowd) or dare. Mark picked Truth. Everyone was very disappointed. He related a story about someone who stole a show idea intending to use it as a fundraiser for a cause but then the individual pocked the money. It was a true arts community scandal. Beth Marshall was asked to pick someone from the audience to some on stage and she picked Air who had to be just about dragged up on the stage. She complained, “I have been up since 7:30 this morning, this isn’t fair.” She was offered the truth or dare challenge and she picked dare. Pepe explained, “I have a privacy screen behind this chair and I will allow you to sit behind it and then verbalize your best orgasm.” She asked, “Do you want the whole thing or just the ending?” He pulled the screen out and set it up 
in front of her. She gave a performance worthy of that deli scene in “When Harry Met Sally.” I was shocked and amazed. Directors are mighty fine actors.
Two men were pulled from the audience and one was told to do a lap dance for the other. Mark kept shouting out, “Take off the shirt!” When the shirt finally came off the crowd went wild. The two men were then given a slip Jim meet stick and told to chew from either end until their lips met in the middle. his was another hilarious moment. At the same time Beth and Blue Star were doing something involving a banana on the other end of the couch. A woman at the back of the room started to dance to the song, “Put a ring on it.” She shouted out that her name was Snipples. Megan started doing the dance on stage with plenty of hip action. When jello shots were thrown out to the crowd again, Pepe offed a toast, saying, “To the arts community in Orlando, may it thrive!” I raised my shot high in the air and sucked it down by shoving my tongue all around the rim dislodging the tasty jiggling mass.
Drano Royal Flush
I got a text message from Mark Baratelli from TheDailyCity.com letting me know about an event happening at the new Amway Center that was too good to pass up. He informed me that Mayor Buddy Dyer and City officials would be in the new arena which is still under construction, to test the building’s toilet facilities. All of the bathrooms were going to be manned so that 443 toilets would flush at the exact same moment.
Parking near the new arena is impossible at best right now. I parked about five blocks away under an I-4 overpass and stuffed the meter full of quarters. When I got to the site, makeshift fences still surrounded the building. I approached what I call the masthead corner of the building. As I walked towards the doors, a security guard ran up behind me to stop me from entering the construction site. I explained about the event and yet he had no idea what I was talking about. Luckily for me, City Commissioner Patty Sheehan also approached the building at the same time. He had no idea who she was and insisted we both get back off the site. I used my cell to call Mark and he told me the entrance might be on the other side of the building near the parking garage, and he ultimately found out the 5th floor walkway was the only way to enter the event. Patty and I walked that way. I told Patty I had seen her once before at an event called “Wheels for Kids” where 95 bikes were given away to needy children. She perked up and remembered me immediately. It took a few more phone calls and some waiting before we finally made our way to the event site in the new arena.
When I entered the arena, four Magic dancers were standing at the doorway and greeted me saying, “Hello Thomas.” As I was walked further I thought, “Wait – how did they know my name?” Then, I saw Mark with a construction helmet and bright yellow vest on. He had put the dancers up to the personal greeting. I got my own helmet and vest and then Mark and I walked towards a huge crowd of vested people. There was a red carpet and velvet ropes. We heard the laughter of children. A woman told us to walk down the red carpet. There were plenty of TV cameras.
Then I noticed Dwight Howard who was heads taller than any cameraman. As he was interviewed the cameramen closed in around him. I started sketching frantically. People were in constant motion and I knew I also had to get a sketch inside a bathroom. Groups of children from Nap Ford Community School were on hand and were each assigned a number which corresponded to a team leader. When it was time, the team leaders escorted the children and reporters to the various bathroom scattered throughout the building. Mark and I simply stayed at the bathroom nearest the staging area.
Once inside the bathroom, the team members kept posing for pictures. Then over the public address system, Dwight Howard said, “Everyone man your stations. The Royal Flush shall begin in 10, 9, …” The flushing began with Swiss accuracy. People ran from stall to stall, flushing in each. A woman barged in on Mark’s stall and shouted out, “Oh my! Excuse me!” The flushing continued for the next ten minutes. I imagined man hole covers being blown sky high all over the city. Then, all at once, it was over. The announcer suggested snacks out in the staging area and the bathroom immediately cleared. I remained behind adding watercolor washes to my sketch. I suddenly realized I was missing a rag and so I took the free tee shirt I had been given and used it instead. When the sketch was just about complete, a woman walked in and asked, “Can I wash my hands?” I, of course, said “Yes.” As she washed her hands, I asked, “Do you know if this is a men’s room or a women’s room?” She pointed out that there were no wall urinals and I realized I was doing my very first drawing in the new arena in the women’s bathroom.
Out in the hall I returned to the first sketch I had started, and worked on it some more. As I sketched, Buddy Dyer walked up to me and asked if I was one of the 25 artists who would have work in the arena. I said no, but let him know about my blog and gave him a card. After the event was over, I walked back to my truck only to find it had a bright green parking ticket envelope on the windshield. I had banked on it only taking two hours to flush some toilets. My enthusiasm for sketching events downtown was shattered.
Jambando
The Plaza Theater (425 North Bumby Avenue) held a Woodstock revival. Terry had scored some free tickets at a previous event. When we arrived I saw speed painter Tony Corbitt with his black and white paintings set up outside. After getting our armbands, we shoved through the glass doors and entered the inner throng of people who were pressed inside the lobby of the theater. Dina Peterson was getting a flower painted on her face. We wandered the room seeing each of the vendors set up inside and I finally decided I should sketch the band Das Vodoo that was playing Credence Clearwater Revival music on the lobby stage. I pulled out my small three legged stool and sat down to sketch, only to have the chair rip and collapse. A spectator said the chair was a good idea if it hadn’t busted. I dragged my but off the floor and marched over to a trash can and thrust the chairs parts in. I was annoyed.
The trash can was next to the bar area and I soon realized this was the most active bustling area in the theater. There was an empty bar stool, and I sat down. I was right next to the cash register and I figured as I sketched that people might just figure I was a manager taking notes. The wine and beer orders cam in a a constant and breakneck rate. The staff members were in constant motion but I found they repeated positions rather often. I have no idea why there was a brass fish sculpture near the register.
With the sketch finished I joined Terry inside to see Janis Joplin, as performed by Kaleigh Baker and the Downgetters. She was amazing. She took deep swigs from the booze being passed around on stage and her voice cut like a knife. She shouted out that we shouldn’t take the pink acid. The crowd half of which were standing in front of the stage, went wild.
Crosby Stills & Nash was performing in the next room. I was kind of distracted since a young couple was making out hot and heavy the whole time right in front of me. I really should have sketched them, they never would have noticed. Sigh.
Puzzle
Brian Feldman informed me about this sculpture titled “Puzzle” which is located in the Orlando Cultural Park on Princeton Street right across from the Science Center at the corner of Alden Road. I had no idea this even was a park. It looks like a vacant lot. It used to be covered with greenhouses. The installation was put in place by artist Chris Scala on August 18th and will be up until September 18th. If you drive past this location daily you will be surprised to find these bright yellow lightweight pieces change position every day. I e-mailed Chris and he told me to stop by that evening at 6pm when he would be moving the pieces again. As the sun sets, it paints the whole field a bright warm yellow and the long shadows grow more dramatic.
I arrived a bit early and walked around for a while before finding a shady spot which offered a good view of the sculpture. As I sketched, I noticed a MINI Cooper drive up and park on the road behind the sculpture. I added the car to the sketch noticing two men as they removed tools out of the back trunk. They approached the largest puzzle piece and knelt down using a power tool to remove stakes which held the light sculpture in place much like a tent. After they finished moving this piece, Chris walked up to me and introduced himself. He pointed out that over the course of the month, the pieces of this “puzzle” will move closer together and join, becoming first three then one large unit.
Chris went on to explain that a group of skate rats have been vandalizing the sculpture ever since it was installed. They would spray paint obscene messages and punch holes in the sculptures until he felt he had to remove the damaged pieces. When I asked him about the graffiti which claimed that the artwork was our tax dollars at work, he explained that there have been huge budget cuts in the city’s Public Art department. It took him eight months of hard work to get this installation approved. Paul Wenzel, the Public Art Coordinator for the city of 0rlando was instrumental in guiding him through all the never ending paper work. While the city is sponsoring the project, allowing him to use the park, he is not being paid anything for all the ongoing work he is putting into the piece. Chris goes on to explain that this sculpture is just a study for a larger permanent piece he wants to make with wire forms. He likes how the wire forms allow a viewer to look past the surface of the sculpture seeing the inside form as well as the overall structure.
As we were talking two kids on bikes shouted out, “Why are they moving that way again?!” Chris pointed out that they were probably two of the kids vandalizing the project. They circled all the way around the block watching the artist’s progress. Suddenly I felt I was in a war zone. Chris and Lance Parker, who is helping him with the project, moved the pieces further west closer to the street lights. Chis thinks by moving the pieces into the light it might slow the destruction and vandalism the artwork is being subjected to. On one sculptural piece a capital A in a circle is crudely sprayed. Lance explained that this is a symbol for anarchists. Even anarchists have to conform to a certain code. I get the feeling that as soon as I leave this site, and the sun is set, the spray cans will come back out and the mindless destruction will continue. I wonder why there isn’t more public art in Orlando?