Crealde Urban Sketching First Class

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At Crealde School of Art we started a new series of Urban Sketching Classes on Sunday mornings. I have kept the first two classes outside. Surprisingly the class is full with nine students. My first lessons are about using perspective when drawing on location.

The first assignment is for the students to draw a tent out behind Crealde. Everyone stayed under the back awning crowded together, so I decided to sit under the tent to give them one person for them to include in their sketch.

I shared each stage of this sketch as it was completed and also gave each student sketch notes to help them with their sketch in progress.

One other student wore a mask and I wore mine outside since I would get close to student to offer notes and suggestions. My mantra throughout was for students to make a mess. I certainly made a mess of this sketch which was done in an ancient sketchbook filled with tissue paper. Since my attention was focused on the student, I didn’t take any time to focus on details.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Grace Church

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Grace Church was initially organized in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Street, on the current site of the Empire State Building. Under rector Thomas House Taylor, who began service at the church in 1834, the decision was made to move the church uptown with the city’s expanding population.

The church is located at 800–804 Broadway, at the corner of East 10th Street, where Broadway bends to the south-southeast. The church, which has been called “one of the city’s greatest treasures”, is a French Gothic Revival masterpiece designed by James Renwick, Jr., his first major commission.

The cornerstone for the new church was laid in 1843 and the church was consecrated in 1846. Grace Church was designed in the French Gothic Revival style out of Sing Sing marble, and vestry minutes from January of that year break down some of the expenses for building a new church—including items ranging from the cost of the workers from Sing Sing state prison who cut the stone to the cost of the embroidery for the altar cloth.

The church originally had a wooden spire, but under the leadership of the rector at the time, Henry Codman Potter, it was replaced in 1881 with a marble spire designed by Renwick. The interior of the church is primarily constructed from lath and plaster. The marble steeple had its lean fixed in 2003.

Like Trinity and the First Presbyterian Church, Grace Church spun off new congregations by building chapels elsewhere in the city. Its first chapel was on Madison Avenue at East 28th Street, built in 1850. The congregation became the Church of the Incarnation in 1852 and built its own sanctuary, and the chapel, which is no longer extant, was renamed the Church of the Atonement.

Grace Church is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City, and the entire complex is a New York City landmark, designated in 1966 (church and rectory) and 1977 (church houses).

Smokey Jay’s BBQ

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I have an advanced Urban Sketching student I am working with and we meet each week at Lake Eola. Last week we sketched the farmers market where everyone sits under the huge live oak tree.

We discovered that the Lake Eola Farmer’s Market closes down about 2:30pm and we were still in the midst of the sketch as tents were taken down and vendors packed up.

Despite this, we decided to once again sketch the street vendors dishing out plenty of BBQ to the mask less crowds.

While we were sketching this week it started to rain just as I was starting to put watercolor washes over the sketch. Last week it also threatened to sketch and we bolted with the crowds as soon as the winds picked up.

This week, we held our ground. I packed away my sketch in my art bag and decided to wait until the rain stopped. The weather radar on my phone made it seem like the storm would be very short lived. As the rain became torrential, people crowded under window and porch awnings. The pine trees we were under were actually pretty good cover so we moved closer to the trunk and waited. The rain eventually did let up a bit and I painted a huge puddle of blue in the foreground before the rain became worse and forced me to once again close the sketch book.

Since we were already soaked through to the bone, it made no sense to seek cover. It was actually quite refreshing getting soaked. As we continued to debate if it might be possible to complete the sketch, the vendors started packing up. Where we were seated was where the vendors would stack up their dismantled tents so that settled it, we would have to move on. The assignment then became to complete the sketch and make it seem like a torrential summer shower had not thrown a wrench into the creative process. If this sketch looks like a royal mess, that is because it is a royal mess.

Alien Things

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North Korea claims that “Alien Things” are to blame for it’s COVID-19 “Fever” Outbreak. South Korean activist for years have flown balloons across the border which distributed pamphlets that were critical of Kim Jong Un. The dictator is furious that this activity was never stopped. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in North Korea, the activists have been airlifting masks and pain killers to its suffering northern neighbor.

Kim Jong Un claims that people who touched one of these balloon care packages became infected by COVID-19 and spread it to the rest of the nation. The CDC has pointed out that COVID-19 is spread through aerosolized particles. Though infection through touch is possible is is far less likely. At the start of the pandemic I was using antiseptic wipes to disinfect all incoming groceries but that practicewas pushed to the wayside due to the more recent findings. A mask is far more important that wiping down groceries.

A far more likely reason for the vast spread of the virus in North Kora would be the Military parade superspreader event held by Kim Jung Un for promote his missile program. North Korea has reported some 4.7 million cases of “The Fever” among it’s population of 26 Million. Since the dictator wants to save face, that number is obviously under reported.

North Korea is a nation that is completely vaccinated and therefor very susceptible to the worst possible outcome from the fast spread of the virus. President Joe Biden and Covax have offered to airlift in vaccines by Kim Jung Un claimed that the North Korean Epidemic Prevention Center had everything under control. The health Ministry is clueless and has done nothing to protect citizens. News of the horrific outcomes has been downplayed by the Communist regime. We may never know just how many people suffered needlessly and died.

North Korea’s Epidemic Prevention Center claimed that an 18 year old soldier and a kindergartner came into contact with “Alien Things” in the town Ipoh near the southern border. They later tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The nation has stressed that anyone who finds “Alien Things” must notify authorities immediately so that the objects can be safely removed.

By laying blame of “Alien things” flown across the border, the agency hopes to ease public complaints about the absolute failing of the nation to handle the health crisis while also echoing past complaints about the balloon aid program. When West Berlin was cut off by Communists Russia after WWII, a comprehensive airlift program was initiated to help the citizens of that city.  South Korea in a much smaller way was trying to offer assistance to it’s besieged neighbor.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Community Synagogue

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Although German Protestants were a minority in contrast to their Catholic co-ethnics, German Lutheranism had earlier roots in New York, dating back to the colonial era. Saint Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1857 in a Greek Revival style. It exists today as the Sixth Street Community Synagogue/Max D. Raiskin Center after thirteen Jewish women purchased the building in 1940.

This former Lutheran Church is part of one of the most tragic events in New York history. On June 15, 1904, the St. Mark’s congregation sponsored a boat excursion on the General Slocum steamer which caught fire on the East River. With over 1,300 victims, this maritime catastrophe remained the deadliest single-day event in New York City’s history until September 11th, 2001. In 1906, on the northern side of Tompkins Square Park, a memorial fountain was dedicated to the victims of this catastrophe.

The General Slocum was a side wheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. This was the worst maritime disaster in the city’s history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways. The events surrounding the General Slocum fire have been explored in a number of books, plays, and movies.

The building stood empty for years until it was brought back to life by a group of Jewish visionaries in November, 1940. The Community Synagogue has been a hub for intellectual, religious and social activity. The synagogue originally served a bustling, immigrant population within New York’s Yiddish theater district.

 

Rebound

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, caught COVID-19 and experienced a recurrence of symptoms after taking the Pfizer’s oral antiviral medication Paxlovid as a treatment for COVID-19.

Fauci reported that he had initially experienced only mild symptoms upon becoming infected with COVID-19 in mid-June 2022. “When [the symptoms] increased, given my age, I went on Paxlovid for five days and I felt really quite well, really just a bit of (runny nose) and fatigue,” said Fauci, 81.

After finishing his course of Paxlovid, Fauci claimed he tested negative for COVID-19 on antigen tests for three days in a row. But on the fourth day, he again tested positive. He also began to experience worsening symptoms. “It was sort of what people are referring to as a ‘Paxlovid rebound,’” Fauci said. Fauci is currently on another course of Paxlovid, he confirmed.

The phenomenon, known as COVID-19 rebound, has been acknowledged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In May, the CDC issued an advisory on the potential recurrence of symptoms and possibly a “new positive viral test after having tested negative” within two to eight days of finishing a five-day course of Paxlovid.

Rebound

OMA Director Fired after FBI Raid

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Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) director Aaron De Groft was apparently missing in action as FBI agents raided his museum. He has been on the lamb ever since. In a bold move of incompetence or malicious greed, he mounded an exhibit of 25 works that were claimed to be by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The authenticity of that work quickly came into question.

The New York Times reported on the shady provenance of the works with one painting done on Fed Ex cardboard with the company logo being done in a typeface created nine years after the artist’s death.

De Groft did nothing but defend the work citing the flimsy excuse of a poem as proof of authenticity. The misguided OMA board also defended the work noting OMA gift store sales had gone up.

In an email, De Groft threatened an academic (subsequently identified as University of Maryland art historian Jordana Moore Saggese) who was seeking to distance herself from a report she was commissioned to write assessing the authenticity of the works in Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Thaddeus Mumford, Jr. Venice Collection. Saggese, who was reportedly paid $60,000 for her report, requested that her name not be tied to the exhibition, De Groft wrote, “You want us to put out there you got $60 grand to write this? Ok then. Shut up. You took the money. Stop being holier than thou.” He added, “Do your academic thing and stay in your limited lane.”

The clueless board in an effort to protect their own asses fired De Groft on 28 June 2022. No one seems to be able to admit they dropped the ball and failed with this misguided show. The work had never been clearly authenticated. The board’s  clear incompetence and complicity in what could be a criminal attempt to raise the value of fake art works means that if they have any morals, they will resign from the board. Orlando is now the laughing stock 0f the art world, internationally. More heads need to roll if this crippled institution is ever to recover. In a press release the board said that the museum is not under investigation, but the FBI is still investigating. The museum very well might face criminal liability.

On 24 June 2022, the FBI swooped in before the work could be shipped over seas. As the FBI investigation plays out we will get to see just how clueless or greedy OMA’s board and director were. Besides seizing the cardboard scribbles, they also seized “any and all” communications between the museum’s employees and the owners of the artworks “purported to be by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,” including correspondence with experts regarding the artwork.

Did the Orlando Museum of Art commit fraud in an attempt to raise the value of forgeries? The work was slated to go on exhibit in Italy next. A week ago one of the owners of the work walked into the museum lobby hoping to walk away with five of the works on cardboard. You would have to think he hoped to sell the fakes for millions before the gauntlet fell.

The OMA Board:

Chair of the Board
Cynthia Brumback

Officers
Ted R. Brown
Carolyn Fennell
Patrick J. Knipe
Francine Newberg
Sibille Hart Pritchard
Winifred Sharp
Andrew Snyder
Robert Summers
Lance Walker Jr.
Michael Winn
Nancy Wolf

Trustees
Leslie Andreae (Ex Officio)
Shari Bartz
Dustin Becker
Caroline Blydenburgh
Jeffrey Blydenburgh (Ex Officio)
Kathy Cardwell
Allison Choate
Earl Crittenden Jr.
William Deuchler
Mark Elliott (Ex Officio)
Elizabeth Francetic (Ex Officio)
Chase Heavener
Joan Kennedy (Ex Officio)
Amelia McLeod
John Martinez
Zakir Odhwani
Jennifer O’Mara
Paul Perkins Jr.
Valeria Robinson-Baker
Daisy Staniszkis

DeathSantis Piper

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Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis spoke against COVID-19 vaccines for young children on June 16, 2022, saying that Florida won’t provide state programs to administer vaccines for toddlers or infants. “I would say we are affirmatively against the COVID vaccine for young kids,” he said during a press conference. “These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything.” PUBLIX Supermarkets have stepped in and refuse to vaccinate children. Of course PUBLIX also helped fund the insurrection.

The Governor is of course misguided and ignoring the science. In January 2022, there were 1,150,000 cases of COVID in children in Florida. For the week ending June 23rd, nearly 68,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported. Children represented 18.8% of total accumulated cases.

Florida is the only state in the nation that didn’t order new doses of vaccines for children before the FDA decision on June 15, 2022 to approve the Pfizer and Moderna shots for kids under age 5. This week’s approval opened fast-track distribution, and kids could begin receiving shots as soon as June 21, 2022, Politico reported.

The Florida Department of Health, which is overseen by the DeatSantis office, is headed by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccines. He previously said he opposed vaccine use in young children and has questioned the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines, Politico reported.

Right now Florida is a COVID virus hot spot. It is the bloody skin tag of America. DeathSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw is staunchly anti vax and they believe that by removing a parents right to choose if their child is vaccinated, the governor could be on the road to a possible presidential bid. A few dead children is accessible collateral damage in a bid for political power.

10,144 cases of COVID-19 per day were reported in Florida in the last week.  Deaths have increased by 60 percent. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 1 in 3 Florida residents have been infected, for a total of 6,447,100 reported cases. Anecdotally more people I know are being infected and re-infected than at any other time during the pandemic. At least 1 in 284 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 75,671 deaths.

Florida ranks 46th in the nation for the highest number of children (aged 0-4 years) who died due to COVID-19 with 11 children dead. The only states with a higher death toll, are Texas with 19 children dead and California with 14 children dead. COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S as DeathSantis forces death on children.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Joseph Evangelical Lutheran

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Saint Joseph Evangelical Lutheran Church at 81 Christopher Street, is in the West Village which runs from Sixth Avenue to the Hudson River, between W 14th Street and W Houston Street. Almost all of the neighborhood is protected by landmark status, preserving centuries of history. As the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission noted:

“Greenwich Village is one of the oldest sections of Manhattan which was laid out for development in the years following the American Revolution. Today, it contains the greatest concentration of early New York residential architecture to be found anywhere within the five Boroughs of the City.

The church was built in 1821,  on Christopher Street, between West Fourth and Bleecker Streets. The name of the architect has been lost, but the sophisticated design was worthy of the best of the period’s architects. The octagonal belfry above the triangular pediment was a near-match to the one found on the Newgate State Prison, that once stood four blocks away near the river, designed in 1796 by Joseph-Francois Mangin.

It was built by built by the Eighth Presbyterian Church, organized in 1819. The group worshiped in its dignified, Federal-style structure until April 1842, when they sold it to the trustees of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. Manhattan churches often closed during the hot summer months when their more affluent congregants left the city for country homes. On October 25, 1846 a newspaper notice announced its reopening, saying “St. Matthew’s Church, in Christopher street, is open for Divine worship on the evening of every Sunday, and will so continue through the ensuing winter.” In 1858 the trustees sold it to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for $13,000.

In 1868, the Parsonage was constructed next door, at No. 79 Christopher Street, designed by John M. Foster. Rev. Held lived here, and remained pastor of St. John’s until ill health prompted him to step down in 1879.In 1886, the congregation hired architects Berg & Clark to remodel the Parish House, giving it a new Romanesque Revival brick facade, and to touch up the church itself. A plaque within the pediments that announced Deutsche Evangelish-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche. The broad-ranged congregation of the German-language church included tenement-dwelling immigrants and wealthy businessmen.

Cirque: Drawn to Life

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Cirque at Disney Village is presenting Drawn to Life during a pandemic which has killed over one million 300.000 Americans. Pam has been wanting to see this show for several years but we have held off because of the pandemic. With her niece in town we finally relented and went down to Disney.

I packed my smallest sketchbook and minimal supplies. I knew Disney guards would be on the lookout for any sign of creativity to shut down. Our plan was to have Pam carry in my sketch bag. We ended up being pulled over and checked anyway. The bag was fully inspected but they didn’t confiscate any art supplies. I had to empty all my pockets and my mountain of snot wads filled the bin along with my phone and wallet. I then had to be metal checked by a wand and my crotch kept beeping. We did eventually did get into Disney Springs.

After we parked, I thought I would get away with just wearing my cloth mask while we were outdoors, but when I saw the insanely packed throngs crowded together, I had to layer in my KN95 as well. Literally no one in the crowd was masked. It was a dystopian nightmare. This was the perfect place to spread disease all around the world. It is a small world after all.

Pam did her homework and found seats that were at the back of a section on the aisle, so we didn’t have people breathing down out necks. No one sat in the caged off section next to me but Pam’s niece had to deal with a rude dude who was “man spreading” and leaning into her. With so many empty seats in the theater, I don’t know why he had to sit right next to her. That kind of detracted from her enjoyment of the show.

Oh yes, the show. The set was like a Disney animators desk, and since I sit at mine every day it felt familiar. The story involved a dead dad telling his daughter she should create. There is always a dead parent in any Disney tale. The villain was a wad of crumpled up animation paper and the Disney executives were represented as two foot high trolls who carried large garbage cans on their backs. Some actors wore masks which I appreciated.

The thing the production truly got right was a crew of guys who shot large rubber bands at each other. One of them shot a large rubber band out into the audience and mimed for the audience member to shoot it back. The audience member tried but shot it backwards into the row behind him. Scenes in the paper animation days were held together with large red rubber bands, There were many rubber band wars in the Disney studio and you could build a reputation not just by how you drew but how accurately you could fire off a rubber band. Animation desks were barricades in an endless ongoing rubber band war. Out of nowhere a rubber band might bounce off the ceiling and land hard on the drawing you were working on to remind you that there was no truce or cease fire.

The athletics in this show were rather tame compared to other Cirque shows Pam and I have seen. There was a lot of actors “acting” like they were drawing and plenty of projections from past animated scenes. The show actually made me a bit sad. Disney built it’s reputation on creating amazing hand drawn animation and then threw that tradition away. This felt like looking at a quaint bygone era of ancient vaudeville, and an ancient, lost, hand drawn art form.