Lake Eola Farmer’s Market

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Each Sunday morning the Lake Eola Framers Market is open on the South East corner of the park. There is a picnic area under a huge live oak tree surrounded by a fence where people enjoy the snacks they picked up at various food vendors. I took my advances Urban Sketching student here to sketch.

A table opened up just as we got there offering a perfect view of people enjoying their Sunday in the park. The bulldog was a real challenge to catch in the sketch since he never stood still. It was hot out and he sprawled out for a moment but couldn’t sit still.

Before we were finished sketching the food vendors started to pack up. The some drizzle caused everyone to rush off. I was done enough with the sketch and called it a day. The drizzle never transitioned in to a downpour, so we could have lingered, but nature sometimes has a way of telling you that the sketch is complete.

Monetizing COVID Aid

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Republicans the filibuster to block a $10 COVID Aid bill which would have helped the Department of Health and Human Services to buy more therapeutics, vaccines and testing supplies. The federally funded free at home testing program came to s screeching halt. If you need a COVID test you have to hope your insurance will help cover the cost. Free testing is a thing of the past, now be prepared to possible pay hundreds for a nose swab.

Omicron specific vaccine boosters are becoming available for this fall. The new shots from Pfizer and Moderna are bivalent, meaning that they target both the original Covid strain and omicron’s BA.5 subvariant. To be eligible, you’ll need to have completed your primary vaccination series — and be at least two months out from your last dose of any Covid vaccine, according to the CDC.

The new shots are free of charge to receive, for now. Here’s where you can get them if you’re eligible:

  • Walgreens began offering both Pfizer and Moderna’s new boosters on Friday. The shots haven’t reached all of the chain’s locations yet, but new appointments are being added daily. You can view and schedule appointments on the Walgreens website, on the pharmacy’s app or by calling 1-800-WALGREENS.
  • CVS also began offering both updated boosters on Friday. Its online system allows you to schedule multiple patients at once, which could make it easier for your family to get vaccinated together. You can schedule those appointments on the CVS website or on the pharmacy’s app.

“The consequences of not getting COVID funding are really serious—scary, almost,” Senator Chuck Schumer said, “The rest of the world is racing to buy up the supply of these treatments and these therapeutics, and if the U.S. falls behind because of a lack of funding, vulnerable Americans, and our whole country, will pay the price.”

America has seen more deaths from COID-19 than any other county in the world with over 1 million 400,000 dead. More than 400 Americans are sill dying every day but that has become business as usual. When politician have a chance to make a difference, they choose instead to run around with their hair on fire. Your tax dollars will no longer help protect you from the next COVID wave this fall.

WJBW New Season: Ether

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JB Webb has been the executive producer, hosting WBWB Networks  for over a decade.WJBW is a live internet radio station, and is a passion project. The 10th season ended in 2020. WJBW Syndicates to over 20 different platforms and counting. Programs are recorded  LIVE then released across all distribution sites. In the past, you could catch the roving studio set up in the mysterious love dungeon in the back room, or on the front patio of Maxine’s on Shine (337 Shine Ave, Orlando, FL). I had been interviewed in the back room in the past and it was a riotous affair.

JB Webb decided to end the show solo, just as it began. In the coming season, known as season Ether, he will be the sole host. The goal is intelligent phone calls and interactions with people, minus the tomfoolery that was rampant in the previous season. The goal is to help people by giving them a platform to exercise their voices.

As he put it on Facebook, he is back to dumping praise on talented folks every week! Curiosity and admiration. Sincere heartfelt appreciation of people and their talents and passions. Respectful and intelligent conversations with people that deserve some love and recognition! I’m genuinely excited and eager to bring this voice back to the community.

A more serious journalistic season lies ahead.

Poster Evolution: Noises Off

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Noises Off by Michael Frayn will run at the Orlando Shakespeare Center from September 7-25, 2022.

One of the funniest plays ever written, this hysterical play-within-a-play is filled with screwball antics, prat-falls and sight gags. A professional theater director must prevent his half-baked actors and an overworked crew from sabotaging his production with their off-stage shenanigans – and on-stage bedlam! This side-splitting comedy proves the adage – The show must go on!

I watched a movie,  based on the play to get a feeling for the show before I started work on the poster. Every scene is incredibly fast moving with doors slamming off stage and on stage. I became intrigued by a scene in which a beautiful woman looses hr contacts and the actors all struggle to find in on stage. It is a very meta moment in which life and art combine in a hilarious moment.

My first pass at the poster was of the curtain falling on that scene as the actors struggle to find the contact lens. Granted the Shakes will likely not have a curtain in the Margeson Theater, but it offered me an opportunity to show the chaos of the scene as just a thin slice. It leaves much to the imagination. The notes were pretty straight forward and make sense, “More legs, less curtain.” That in itself could be a guiding principle of any theater production.

I always do two sketches of each poster to make sure I am exploring different options. I had heard that there might be a spinning stage that shows back stage as well an the forward facing stage set. I wanted to explore a back stage scene that faces out towards the audience. One of the actors has a drinking problem and to keep the production moving forward, the cast has to hide his bottle. There is an upper balcony on the set with multiple doors, so back stage these would have to be a staircase to get the actors up to those imagined and never seen rooms. The problem with this poster is that the show had not been cast yet.

The final poster was a simple revise of my first concept. I had to get rid of a few actors legs but the idea certainly holds up with everything bigger, larger and better. I am excited to see the show. Several of the actors I have seen in other productions and they are absolutely hilarious. Tickets range from $26.25 to $36.76

Casa Feliz

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This sketch is a bit of a mess since it started raining as I was throwing watercolor onto the sketch. If you don’t know, rain has a tendency to explode the colors that are already on the page. When the rain got really bad I took cover in the car port along with my students. Once the rain let up to a drizzle, I went back out and started adding paint again. That is why the sketch has so many smidges and smears.

Despite the struggles, I found out that I like how a colored pencil seems to melt when drawing over a wet page. I fin myself recreating this effect which was discovered by accident thanks to mother nature.

I am planning to return to this site with a student and looked to see if the Casa Feliz Home Museum (656 North Park Avenue, Winter Park Florida), was doing it’s Sunday parlor music series. I was pleased to see they are still holding off on the parlor series due to social distancing concerns. So many Americans have returned to an imagined pre-pandemic life style, but I remain cautious all my shots and boosters and have so far avoided a COVID infection. I continue to mask and social distance when out and about. That makes me a bit of a unicorn.

Crealde Urban Sketching class

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My Crealde Urban Sketching class will be starting on October 23, 2022, just in time for the Halloween season. Each class begins with a premise that help build towards students completing a sketch in two hour time. We cover perspective, composition, placing people in the scene and much more. For some this is the first time using a sketchbook to document the world around them.

Crealde School of Art has now broken the course into two groups. The first intermediate group is a beginning series of classes that covers the basics needed to complete a sketch. All these classes take place on the Crealde campus, usually outside.

A new series of classes for more advanced students ha been introduced which will be for students who took the first course and want to take on more challenging subject matter. These classes will meet at various locations around Orlando. In these classes students will get used to the notion that people might look over their shoulder as they sketch.

Check out the Crealde web site if you are interested in joining us for Urban Sketching: Tips and Techniques.

Christ Lutheran Church Hebron Connecticut

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Christ Lutheran Church on 330 Church Street, Amston Connecticut, is a recent addition to Hebron, being built in the built in the 1980’s.

The Church’s COVID policies as of August 29, 2022 are as follows:

  • Do not attend service if you are running a fever or feeling sick.
  • Masks are not required.
  • Seating capacity is no longer limited.
  • Hand sanitizing stations are available in the Narthex.
  • “Sharing the Peace” and passing the plate are suspended.
  • Communion will be distributed by individuals or families. The pastor will wear a mask.
  • Individual cups and hosts will be used. The common cup will be unavailable.
  • Hand sanitizer is available at the distribution of communion.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Woodrow United Methodist Church

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In November, 1771, Francis Asbury, called the farmers together at the house of Peter Van Pelt which became the birthplace of the Methodist church on Staten Island. In May of 1787, a meeting was called for the purpose of establishing the Woodrow Methodist Church.

The first church in this site was built of wood, smaller than the present building.  In 1842 that church was struck by lightning. The building was torn down, and the materials sold to many of the worshipers. That same year the present church was built on the same site. It was located with the front facing the road. On December 25th of 1842 it was dedicated.

Woodrow United Methodist Church at 1109 Woodrow Road in Woodrow, Staten Island, New York is a wood-frame, clapboard-sided, temple-form Greek Revival style building. It features a portico with four Doric order columns supporting a plain entablature and unadorned pediment. Above the portico is a three-stage, open bell tower and spire in a vernacular Italianate style added in 1876. It is the oldest Methodist Church on Staten Island.

   In 1850 two acres of land were purchased for a parsonage site. The parsonage was built in that same year. A frame structure was built in 1884 as a meeting hall. This was on the easterly side of the church.  The hall burned in the fire of April, 1963, which leveled Staten Island’s South Shore. In 1971 the church hall was rebuilt.

 The burial grounds surrounding the church are older than the church organization. The oldest grave site known to be used is marked with a tombstone dated 1767.

On December 1, 1976 the Wesley Methodist Church, and the South Shore Presbyterian Church which had been meeting in Eltingville, on Richmond Avenue, and the Woodrow United Methodist Church  merged in a decision to become one church and to meet at the Woodrow location.

United States National Historical place and in 1967 it was registered as a New York City Landmark.

 

 

Lake Lorna Doone Park

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Lake Lorna Doone Park is a 12 acre park located in the between the neighborhoods of Westfield and Parramore in Orlando, Florida. The physical address is 1519 West Church Street, just to the north of Camping World Stadium. I had a fun assignment to add landscaping improvements to the park. Improvements had already been made, thanks to a donation from the Arnold Palmer Foundation. The $8 million dollar renovation including a new walking loop, fitness stations, a pavilion, inclusive playground, basketball courts, covered seating, and a splash pad and even a putting green. Walking around the lake I was quite impressed, but what really stands out is the wildlife. Water birds off all types can be seen exploring the shores.

What I was tasked with was to show less grass and more butterfly garden plantings. Other proposed additions include an outdoor classroom under a huge live oak tree, a natural log climbing play area and a small floating platform for water birds to rest on. For all the money that had been invested in the park, the planners didn’t consider the brutal Florida sun in their plans. Most outdoor benches have no shade from the sun making them unusable. Outdoor chess tables suffer the same fate.

Lake Lorna Doone: The Meadow

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The Ideas HIVE has been planning the the pollinator garden, park improvement concept which is planned for the south west corner of the park. The IDEAS Hive is an interdisciplinary, inter-generational community Think + Do Tank designed to educate the public about sustainability and develop their ideas into local action projects. The IDEAS Hive is designed to transform communities to advance positive change.

In this particular illustration I had included an inset of a bee pollinating a flower. This was a macro view making the bee look as large as the children. It turns out having a six foot bee in the scene is rather unsettling. Other insects like the butterfly and dragon fly also had to be reduced in size. I simply got rid of the bee so no one could be stung.

On the shore, a fisherman is testing the waters. Several kids are playing on a natural log climbing area. The meadow is an area that would be allowed to grow naturally. A white picked fence is planned to keep over zealous city maintenance workers from mowing the meadow down. I am left wondering how much of this will become a reality. It would certainly be an improvement if it does.

Nature walks are already being offered to kids aged 5 to 10 at Lake Lorna Doone Park.