I bumped into Carl Knickerbocker at an art opening at the Peacock Room, we started talking art and I asked him if he would mind if I visited his studio and sketched him at work on one of his larger canvases. He told me he had a canvas ready and planned to paint the Annie Feiffer Chapel which is at the Florida Southern College in Lakeland. He suggested I should get there myself someday to do a sketch. Frank Loyd Wright had designed the chapel and he personally supervised its construction. Students from the college who Wright referred to as “Children of the Sun” had helped in the buildings construction.
Carl lives out on the East side of town in Oviedo. When I drove up to his home I knew I was in the right place because one of his Honda Element Art cars was parked on the front lawn. The second I walked through the front door I knew I was in the home of a serious working artist. The living room was used as a storage space for Carl’s huge canvases. Rather than having them stretched, Carl had a seamstress sew loops on the tops of the canvases so that they can easily be hung like curtains.
His studio is located right off the living room in a sun porch. Most of the painting was complete. He just had a few oranges that he wanted to add to the painting as I watched. He used a large painters palette to lay out the pure florescent orange acrylics. He quickly used a palette knife to lay in the color with bold strokes. He then used a hair dryer to dry the paint a bit. He then re-attacked the surface with the knife to get the impasto texture he was looking for. Carl decided he didn’t like the color of Frank Loyd Wrights building so he changed it to a cool blue. He was infatuated with the red steps which lead into the building and these became a very important pyramid shaped element in the final composition. He felt that the building resembled a UFO and so he had it floating above a black ground into which are scratched two Gator-Men.
I asked him how he first came up with the idea of using 3D glasses to see his work and he told me about an artist names Key Scramble Campbell who was a bit of a hippy and a psychedelic artist. Campbell had done his painting to be seen with a black light and he also experimented with the 3D glasses. Carl bought 60 3D glasses for his show at the Museum of Florida Art. This show exhibited many of Carl’s larger pieces. One painting of Mermaids of Wicki Wachi, is stunning when viewed with the glasses. The mermaids seem to float above a sea of deep blue pigment as if you were seeing down to the bottom of a pool of water.
On shelves next to me while I sketches were a bunch of objects which were used in the making of a 6 minute short film called “A Dog Goes From Here to There.” Heather Henson was pivotal in suggesting Carl make this film so she could have it shown in her Handmade Puppet Dreams Film Festival. Carl’s bold painterly style is used as the basis for this amazing short. This film was first shown in NYC on December 6th of last year. It had since made its way around the film festival circuits, including Providence, Atalanta and Prague. Carl said he will submit the film in a few more festivals this year.
Carl showed me around his home and when he opened the door to what was once a guest doom, I saw hundreds of paintings stacked against the walls. He has enough inventory to fill the Menello Museum several times over. He said that now that he is getting older he is focusing more on exhibiting his work in large museums. He recognizes that as he gets older these large paintings will become harder and harder to do. He is racing against time to make his mark. As I got ready to leave, He gave me a car magnet of one of his Crocodile-Men. I now proudly exhibit it on the back of my truck. When viewed with 3D glasses the painting floats magically.
Tempus
Sultana Ali suggested I sketch a meeting of Tempus at the SAIC building which is located on the east side of town on Ingenuity Drive. The building is a sleek all glass monolithic cube. The glass doors were locked, so I placed a call to Sultana and she let me in. The Tempus club was formed by Sultana in 2000 at Edgewater High out of its Engineering, Science and Technology program. The 12 students in the club will be participating in the finals of the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) this year which will taking place at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Tempus is one of 12 teams from around the worlds who were selected for the finals. This International Competition is supported by NASA. The assembled group high school students and mentors are going to have to work as a team as they design and pitch innovative ideas for a space station design. From photos I have seen it looks like the design process involves several sleepless nights as the teams rush their projects toward completion in just 43 hours. The students will have to face stress and find ways to remain positive. When the team gets to Texas they will be issued a request for proposal and the teams must address all the points in the proposal as well as fulfill specific requests from competition organizers. The culmination of the process is a presentation of their work in front of aerospace engineers and designers who act as judges.
Sultana began the meeting by stressing the importance of confident and inspired public speaking. She began addressing the group while behind the podium but then she stepped out and got up close to the assembled group. She used this as a way to point out how important it is to have close contact with our audience and to always project. The students had been asked to prepare a 5 minute presentation with a slide to help build their public speaking abilities. In turn each member of the team got up and made a presentation. She stressed the importance of facing the audience and avoiding placing hands in pockets or fiddling with notes.
What followed was for me a highly educational view of how different people presented the material. Some students who were training for the competition for the first time were shy and very quiet, reading the notes and never looking up at the assembles group. The mentors would offer notes on how the presentations could be improved and the supportive atmosphere guaranteed that everyone would improve if they put in the effort. Roger gave a presentation in which he had long pauses every time he had to gather his thoughts. I know that if I was presenting I would panic in such a moment, but Roger just muscled his way through the material. Sultana said he had improved his presentation 200% from the week before and he now could be relied on in any situation if a presentation had to be done. Kevin Rucks would often ask a presenter to just explain what was their favorite aspect of the presentation. When the student answered, he pointed out that they were no longer giving a rehearsed speech, but talking in a relaxed way, as if to a friend and the excitement and sincerity would carry them through.
When everyone had a turn to present, the Mentors better known as Ninjas told everyone to assemble for a team building exercise in the parking lot. When the team got out to the parking lot they were face with the task of moving a small garbage can which had dry ice smoke billowing out of it. The garbage can was surrounded by a yellow rope. Team members could not go inside the roped off area or they would be vaporized. They had to use the assembled junk to move the can 20 feet and pour the liquid into a container. Failure was not an option. The teams first effort, which was largely devised by Hailey Rohrer, used rope tied to a small rubber tire. When the ropes were pulled taught the tire would clamp in on the garbage can. The problem was that only 3 team members were at the ropes and the liquid spilled because the can was off balance. Another hour went by before a another viable solution was offered. Tempers started to flair as some team members started throwing some items away in anger. The answer waited to be found in the pile of junk. Finally mentors started offering clues and one by one removing items from the mix.
The final solution was identical to the efforts of the first try but used different materials. A bungee chord was used instead of a tire to wrap around the garbage can and many more ropes were tied to it to offer more stabilization. It was a glorious moment when all the team members helped move the can and pour its contents into the destination pan.
“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”
-Joe Paterno
Tweet Up at the Enzian
The Enzian Theater along with Bess Auer of Central Florida Top 5 Blog, hosted an event called a tweet up. When I got to the Enzian I scanned the bar which was half full and then noticed two large boards set up outside. One had a computer screen projected on it with tweets neatly stacked and scrolling down as more tweets were added. The other board had peoples twitter names written in dry erase markers. There were also name tags to I wrote Analog Artist Digital World on mjne. Later Mark Baratelli pointed out that my twitter name was only Analog Artist. I had to go fill out another name tag. Then he pointed out that I should have put an @ sign in front of my twitter name. I went back for yet another name tag. How do people know all this stuff?
I finally settled myself and started sketching. The fellow to the right in the forground noticed me sketching. I wasn’t looking at him but he said, “Look at me.” in a hipnotic tone as he held an orange juice bottle up to his face and stroked it lovingly. I laughed out loud and then got right back to work. The sun had set and dusk was making the scene darker by the minute.
Apparently during the whole event people were tweeting rather than engaging in the usual party conversations. Every tweet went up on the screen if people put the proper hash tag on the tweet, whatever that means. Then I found out that prozes were being offered and I desperately tried to figure out how to get to twitter on my new cell phone. Passwords kept getting in the way and I didn’t tweet once. People won $25 gift certificates as I struggled to try and get in the running.
I ordered 2 Orange Blossom Pilsners which were absolutely delicious. They helped take away some of the sting of defeat.
Taco Truck Taste Test
Mark Baratelli of thedailycity.com hosted the 5th Taco Truck Taste Test near Tacos Del Rio (9785 South Orange Blossom Trail). As Terry and I drove down OBT it started to pour. We had the usual difficulty in trying to see any numbers on the strip malls, dealerships and the bright riot of signage. We found one building number that was close and pulled into the parking lot. We then hop scotched up one parking lot at a time until we found a lot filled with a whole bunch of taco trucks. Thankfully the rain subsided. As we walked up to this truck we found a small crowd gathered and Mark was there holding a corrugated cardboard sign with The Daily City written in black Sharpe. Mark had asked a friend to work as an interpreter and the whole group started walking from truck to truck with the interpreter explaining the menu items.
I stayed behind at the first truck to finish my sketch. Several times Brian Feldman breezed by to fire a joke my way and then he was off again. Terry let me know that a group of people were going to go into the brick and mortar Tacos Del Rio so they could sit down. When I finished my sketch I went in to join them. Matt, Amanda, Terry and Mark were sitting in a booth at the back of the restaurant. There was an empty seat so I joined them. Terry was still finishing her meal. I tried to sneak a bite but she wouldn’t stand for it.
I decided to get a few tacos myself. The line was short but when I got to the counter to order the guy shouted that he had to go to another building. He disappeared out the back door. A group of us waited for like 20 minutes. I should have gone out to the taco truck but I had already committed so much time to this line. The food wasn’t that great. The meat was bland and they were running out of every topping. When I was eating Terry suggested I get some sour cream. When I got up to get it she snatched one of my tacos and tried to devour it. Amanda’s loud laughter gave Terry away and I caught her red handed.
Later Mark Baratelli started video taping Sultana describing the finer points of marketing an Improv Festival. Matt, who was sitting behind Sultana started flexing his biceps theatrically for the duration of the interview. Amanda who was sitting behind Matt was leaning forward in embarrassment, trying to hid her face as if she didn’t know Matt. Of course Sultana couldn’t see what was going on behind her, and Mark behind the camera didn’t notice. It wasn’t until he played back the video that he noticed the hilarious background action. I laughed harder than I have in a long time.
The proprietors of Del Rio must have thought we were having too much fun, because they turned on the flat screen TV above out heads and blasted the audio of the cheesy Spanish soap opera. We left soon after.
Copper Rocket
The Copper Rocket Pub (106 Lake Avenue) held a fundraiser for the Mustard Seed Foundation. The Mustard Seed provides furniture and clothing to families is need in the Central Florida area. When I got to the Copper Rocket, I found the parking lot full of tents for food and merchandise. Finding a parking spot was a real challenge but I finally found a sweet spot on a grass lawn. I met Terry and the first order of business was getting some food. We sat down of a curb to eat. Behind us two women were dresses a hula girls with leis and grass skirts. I was torn between wanting to sketch and finishing my meal. My stomach won. There must have been costume contests inside because other woman were dressed as 1940’s bombshells. How is it that those fashions ever went out of style?
When we finished dinner, Terry gave me the freedom to find a spot to draw. Rather than focus on the constantly milling crowd, I decided to sketch this van covered in graffiti by Black Chapel Tattoo parlor. The sun was setting so I worked fast. A bunch of motorcycles were also parked in this area and occasionally men would come over and examine the sleek lines of these slick machines. A very drunk woman approached me from behind and demanded to know what I was doing. Slurring her words, she said, “Hey thass not bad.” She then tromped off to the bar talking to a friend on her cell phone. She approached me three more times as I worked.
AS I was finishing up the sketch, Terry came over and sat on the running board of a hot red 1940’s pickup truck. Dina Peterson came over and joined her. They had a long discussion about buying food locally and the finer points of being a vegetarian. Vendors started striking their tents. A bombshell and her man started loading stuff into the Black Chapel van. When I finished, Terry decided she was tired so we headed home. From Dina I found out there had been costume contests in the pub. Oh well, I will have to catch that action next year.
WLOQ Radio Interview.
Amanda Chadwick asked me if I would like to sketch a radio interview as she promoted The Children’s Home Society of Florida on the radio. Amanda was a bit nervous anout the interview and she had just finished a gruiling morning moving hundreds of boxes and backpacks from a storage unit to the business park where the Children’s Home Society resides. Amanda had to do a quick change of clothes and freshen up a bit before heading to the station. As we drove there in her Toyota Carola, I asked her questions from a sheet of questions she had prepared and sent to the talk show host. As times she let go of the steering wheel and looked through her notes to get the right statistics. I grabbed the wheel to keep the car on the road. My nerves were starting to get shot.
Robyn Austin the Morning Show Co-Host, on Smooth Jazz 103.1 WLOQ, introduced herself to us in the lobby. As we walked back to the recording studio she said she would have to check with the station manager to see if it was alright for me to sketch. I am used to being turned down any time I specifically ask to do a sketch so my stomach tightened in anticipation. She came back beaming and told us it would be fine. For all of her nervousness, Amanda performed like a pro when she was in front of the microphone. She was at ease and managed to tell several stories which illuminated the work of the Children’s Home Society on a human level.
The Society will be handing out close to 900 backpacks this year to needy school children in the Central Florida area. Amanda told the story of noticing a little girl that was wearing one of the backpacks in the previous years style. The backpack was to large for the little girl so she knew the mom had not picked it out in a store. This bought her work right into her own front yard. The work the organization was doing affects children in all neighborhoods through out the area. Imagine trying to do your job without the necessary tools. Many children have to face this dilema every day as their parents have to choose between putting food on the table of getting school supplies.
The Art of the Thriller
Thriller novelist Jamie Freveletti visited the Cagan Crossings Library in Clermont. Her first book “Running from the Devil” was nominated as the best first novel by the International Thriller Writers Association. When I entered the small room, she was talking about research she had done for her second book “Running Dark”. This novel is about a cruise ship which is invaded by Somali pirates. To research the book she wanted to talk to cruise directors but they wanted nothing to do with a book about piracy. They said it would be bad for business and she shouldn’t write the book. She finally got to talk to a cruise ship captain who was helpful. When she shopped the book around to publishers no one was interested until pirates made the news off the coast of Africa. Suddenly everyone was interested and she landed her deal with Harper Collins.
Jamie and her husband are both long distance runners. When she said she was planning to go to Somalia for research, he said “You can’t leave me alone with the kids for that long, I am coming with you.” She pointed out that she has always been a woman in a mans world. Her first career as a lawyer toughened her to this reality and now she is one of very few women thriller writers. She is shocked by the stellar success that her books have seen. She got a six figure advance for her most recent book. When asked if she uses an outline to plan her book, she said that she would like the reader to feel the same excitement as she does as she discovers what is going to happen next. Although she has some idea what her protagonist will do, she has no idea how the book will end. She almost excitedly started to tell us what might happen next in the book she is now writing but she held herself in check. Her enthusiasm was contagious.
She offered some advice to aspiring young writers about which publishers to approach when starting out. In all there were maybe 15 people in the small room listening to this talented writer but she was as engaging and excited as if she was addressing a crowd. She is humbles and excited by the success she has worked so hard for. After the talk she signed a few books. I was surprised to find her relaxing in a chair with now one standing around her asking questions. I asked her to sign my sketch.
House Warming
For the past month artist Doug Rhodehamel has been living in a cardboard box which he sets up in peoples homes so they might have a “Artist in Residence “. Six different Orlando residents opened their homes and allowed Doug to set up his makeshift home. Doug always wanted to build his own home and he finally did so on a somewhat small scale. What did this artist in residence do? He made art! He constructed little cardboard bewilderbeasts for the homes. He just needed a spot in the house to set up his 6′ x 3′ home. The home can be folded up and transported to the next residence in his car.
On July 21st Doug set up his home on the red stage at Stardust Video and Coffee. When I got to Stardust I found a seat at a table up near the stage and then wandered off to find a beer. Carl Knickerbocker, a painter of primitive folk art, was also looking for a beer. He was studying the many bottles and I chose to go for what was on tap. We discussed our tastes in beer and found some common ground.
The sketch was a challenge since the place people tended to congregate and stand was right in my line of sight. It took nerves of steel and much patience to sketch areas I could see when I was blocked. On the loudspeakers, piano music from the Charlie Brown cartoons was playing setting a playful mood. So many beautiful people kept walking in to see. Doug would offer guided tours to select VIPs and they would crawl inside. I never went inside up I did take a look to see how the walls were decorated. A black hairy spider was perched on the roof above the entry and horse photos were galloping above the door. Window boxes held paper flowers and a small donate box was stationed near the entry.
From Dust to Life
I went to an art opening titled, “From Dust to Life” which featured the work of Jason Lee. The art was hung in the Peacock Room (1312 North Mills Avenue). The work will stay on display through August 15th. The Arts Hub and the Peacock Room sponsored the event. When I entered the bar, I immediately looked at all the paintings on the wall and then found myself a seat at the end of the bar so I could get an overall view of the room and bar patrons. Toni Taylor was seated right next to me on my left and next to her was, Jen Jacobson, a friend and fellow artist who has turned to Tony for painting advice. That is right just like in renaissance days, this artist has asked Toni to take her under her wing and share her working secrets. Together they are working on a huge 5 foot high canvas that will be on display at Tu Tu Tango’s on July 30th.
On the ceiling of the bar Doug Rhodehamel had perhaps a hundred brown paper bag mushrooms suspended upside down. On the far wall of the bar an Andrew Spear mural was staring straight at me. I started my drawing by focusing on that beautiful face. All the perspective lines point straight at her. Toni’s apprentice took an interest in my sketch so she sat next to me and watched for a while. I discovered she works at the Animal Kingdom training the birds that are in the shows. We talked parrots for a while, since I have a pet cockatoo. She lost interest and then she and Tony started talking girl talk.
Carl Knickerbocker, an amazing local artist is in the left hand side of the sketch. He noticed me sketching and came over to see my progress. I asked him about the idea of sketching him at work on one of his larger pieces. He agreed so I might visit his studio soon. Brad Briggs who helped organize the evening came over to say hi, he was with his partner Linda Brandt. I had sketched Linda as she worked with her pet dog, Otis, at Hip Dog Hydrotherapy. Brad checked back a few times and I felt he might be impatient with my slow progress. A group of artists stood behind me talking about various shows. Part of me felt I should be socializing more myself. I honestly know little about the Orlando Arts scene but I figure if I just keep doing my sketch a day, the rest will work itself out in time.
Boudoir Bombshells Calender Shoot
Kristen Wheeler invited me to a photo shoot for a Boudoir Bombshell calender. The shoot took place in Clermont which is way out on the west side of Orlando. Driving on 50 heading west there is still quite a bit of undeveloped land. Clermont is a quaint little old Florida town. the shoot took place in a small storefront business called Thyme of Day which offers yoga classes. When I knocked on the door, a boxer dog barked a few times and started spinning around in a circle. Kristen welcomed me and introduced me to an author who was at the shoot as research for a character in her book titled 3 Flavors. A character in that book is loosely based on her observations of Kristen. None of the models had arrived yet and Kristen was just starting to set up her backdrop. She suggested I get lunch at Cheeser’s Palace across the street and after hearing her descriptions of some of the menu items I decided that was a great idea.
While waiting for my order to arrive, Marcie, an actress I had met before at the Fringe walked in and ordered the 5 cheese grilled sandwich. She had just gotten back from Alaska and we chatted for a while about sea otters and the unspoiled beauty of the Alaska wilderness. Marcie was the first model to show up for the shoot and she got her sandwich to go. When I got back to the photo studio more models had arrived and they were sorting garter belts , nylons and staring to apply makeup. Brooke had been assigned the task of blowing up as many red white and blue balloons as she could. In the back room of the studio the women began to get into their costumes. Timarie, or T, began to began to work on Marcie’s hair. She used her curling iron to help establish the 1940’s look she was after. When Marcie saw the final results in a mirror she was delighted.
The first model to be shot was Chloe. She had never done a Boudoir photo shoot before so Kristen walked her through a quick introductory course. Kristen said, “Now say your vowels but enunciate and exaggerate how you use your lips, A E I O U.” The pursing of the lips on U made for a sultry Marilyn Monroe look and everyone laughed. Kristen had taken a number of shots of Cloe before Roz stepped in and asked Chloe if it was OK for her to remove her glasses.She pointed out that Chloe had beautiful eyes and they wanted to see them. Chloe was fine with that and the shoot continued. She then lay down on the floor and Kristen shot her from above. She held her legs in the air and announced, “O” for Kristen. Rosalind said, “Now push the girls together.” Chloe adjusted her bra with the desired effect. She said, “I have never been complimented so many times in one day.” It is true that she was told she was beautiful and a natural so many times it is hard to count. Dizzi, the boxer, is a bit of a ham and whenever she was let in the photo shoot room she would spin around and then find a spot where she was sure to be photographed or sketched.
Next up was Marcie who was dressed in a cute tight fitting sailors outfit. She was to represent July 4th and she stood in a sea of balloons. During her shoot all the other girls grabbed as many balloons as they could and they threw then up in the air letting them rain down on Marcie while the shutter clicked away. Dizzi, the boxer, was having a fit spinning in a tight circle and barking her head off. This was more excitement than any dog should be expected to handle. Marci is a pro and she knew how to play up the coy looks and come hither gazes. Whenever she would raise her left eyebrow, it bought about a round of laughter from everyone. The white backdrop behind Marcie will be replaced by an American flag for the calender.
Getting to sit in on a Boudoir photo shoot was very fun and there were so many other sketching opportunities. In late October or early November there will be a calender release party. I will keep you posted.