The Dreyfus Syndrome

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This small Winter Park home has sported red white and blue for years. Grover C. Walker was a former army and air force intelligence officer who also served as a special agent for the Pentagon. In September 1965 he was assigned to the secretive 7113th Special Activities Group at Rhein-Main, Germany. He soon found reason to suspect there were corrupt and subversive activities being carried out possibly by his superiors. he threatened to “blow the whistle” on what was going on, he was
whisked-off under guard to a superficial psychiatric exam that lasted
only a few hours but branded him “chronically paranoid.” He was as sane as any man and in an instant had been labeled crazy. He
says it was a conspiracy to discredit him if he spoke out.
“Who will believe you when you’ve been labeled?” His story parallels closely the 1894 case of Alfred Dreyfus, Jewish
lieutenant in the French army, who as the result of a conspired
political injustice was sentenced to Devil’s Island.

A sign on the front lawn defines the Dreyfus Syndrome: Character liquidation. As a tyranny in the midst of freedom. It stands as a treat to us all. Assassination of the mind where conscientious sanity is cast into the hole of inanity, and there is no way out. Whistle blowers in government are the primary target. It is alien to the norms of the American System and recognized human rights. Hundreds of thousand of American lives have been destroyed spanning decades.

The large American flag used to be hung upside down as a universal sign of distress. After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center it was decided to hand the flag right side up again. For decades, Walker flew a giant
flag upside down on the 90-foot flagpole in front of his Winter Park home, painted red, white and blue, and staged loud protests and publicity
stunts that often ended with him, and his children, behind bars.

His family stamped protest messages on millions
of dollar bills that circulated around the world. When the county threatened
to take his home after he refused to pay steep fines levied for his protests,
Walker threatened to fill the house to the rafters with concrete. An Orange County official once asked Walker
when he would end his protest, and he answered, “When the world ends! When
hell freezes over!”

There used to be far more signs on the lawn but the city of Winter Park fought the family at every turn to downplay their private property protest. Only 2 signs remain. The family was brought to court multiple times and Grover Walker and his wife were arrested and put in jail. His wife collected seeds from the food in jail and planted her own garden she also swept up the cell block every night. She was missed when her incarceration was over. The son I spoke with had also been in jail over this protest and while incarcerated he found that he had a talent for sketching.

When Grover Walker died in 2005 several of his seven children wanted to sell the property but one son, decided instead to take up the charge and keep the property and it’s display of protest in tact. He chatted with me as I sketched. He showed me a photo from the 1970s of the entire family raising their hand in oath as they faced a court hearing about their property. Grover said that someone can take your property and you can recover but if they take your identity than there is nothing left to recover. I was seated in a small triangular park between three streets and found out that it had been landscaped beautifully by the present home owner. There were milkweeds to attract the many Monarch butterflies andBromeliads which had red flowers that attract hummingbirds every afternoon. This property is a reminder of an American protest over 50 years old while also being a quiet and beautiful oasis if  you take the time to soak it in.

Harry P Leu Gardens House Museum

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Kathy Miller Patages organized Weekly Paint and Sketch, a local sketch group that held a sketch outing to Harry P Leu Gardens (1920 North Forest Avenue Orlando, FL), and I decided to stop out on this sunny hot day to sketch. I never did notice any other sketchers, but I focused on the task at hand to capture the historic home.

Harry P Leu Gardens is an amazing 50-acre botanical oasis minutes from Downtown
Orlando. Each garden is designed specifically to further their mission:
inspire visitors to appreciate and understand plants. The garden and
historical home were donated to the City of Orlando in 1961 by Mr. Harry
P. Leu and his wife, Mary Jane Leu.

The roof of the Leu Home was still covered with a blue tarp because a tree limb had crashed through the roof of the home during Hurricane Irma. I had helped Orange County Regional History Museum staff one day as they volunteered to help the Gardens move bedroom furniture in the upstairs bedroom, so that it would not be further damaged by the rain leaking through the roof. It was an easy enough task, but a drop in the bucket compared to all the damage done. The smell of wet mold already was prevalent upstairs. The home repairs had to wait while the damage repair in the garden kicked into high gear after the storm. The gardens lost 175 trees, mostly hickory and magnolias, to the storm. 100 volunteers and staff helped clear up the debris.

As of May 2018, Leu Gardens was still seeking contractors to do exterior repairs to the historic home. Needed were replacements of structural members, siding, re-roofing of all shingled areas and repainting of the structure. The Leu House Museum is a restored 19th century home that was added to
the National Register of Historic Places in December 1994. The museum
was closed because storm damage by Hurricane Irma and has since reopened, but repairs are ongoing.

Aloma Bowl

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Towards the end of my six week Urban Sketching course at Crealde School of Art I like to bring my students to Aloma Bowl (2530 Aloma Ave, Winter Park, FL 32792) only 2 blocks from the campus. On Sundays Bowling leagues are competing and most of the lanes fill with talented bowlers who are serious about their game. My hope of course is that my students will feel just as serious about their sketch game. There are bars made out of the bowling ball holders at the end of the lanes and those high top bars make a great perch for the sketchers to work from.

I dash off a sketch as a demo to show students how I time the various stages of my sketch to finish in the several hours allotted. These bowling sketches are not as finished as my usual work since I also visit each artist multiple times giving advise and tips. The end of the bowling lanes where the pis are lined up offers a perfect horizon line which is something I talk extensively about when discussing perspective and composition.

Students are also encouraged to just do a sheet of studies of peoples gestures so that they loosen up and are not worried about the final composition at fist. Prior to the trip to the bowling alley we did a series of quick gesture drawings in the classroom. By goal is to loosen up the students enough so that they have something on the page from head to toe in the first 30 seconds and use the remaining time to add the “Icing” or detail that makes each sketch unique to the person being sketched.

The most challenging pose if of course the final “release” post as the bowler sends the ball down the lane. Everyone had their own stance as they release the ball and the pose is gone in an instant. The great thing is that they get up every few minutes and repeat the movement making it possible to attack the drawing multiple times and considering each angle and curve individually. This takes patience and perseverance and the realization and acceptance that no drawing is perfect.

Dinos In Lights!

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Stan the T-Rex and his fossil friends in DinoDigs have been outfitted with Christmas lights that change color in synchronization with music as they show off their twinkling talent in a festive display of music and light  at the Orlando Science Center (777 E. Princeton St. Orlando, FL 32803).

Dinos In Lights will be the Science Center’s feature attraction over the holidays. The show lasts about 5 minutes which of course made catching a sketch a slight of hand challenge. Three separate dinosaurs were outlined in colorful Christmas lights and when the music started the lights blinked and changed color. One song, Sleigh Ride by Arthur Fidler, featured the sound of a whip. Whenever the whip cracked the ceiling ice-cycle lights would flash white and bright. AS a grand finale snow was pumped into the space. This was my first time experiencing Dino In Lights and it was a blast to sketch.

WHEN:

Shows begin every 30 minutes between 11:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. daily from November 23, 2020 – January 7, 2020.

WHERE:

Orlando Science Center 777 E. Princeton St. Orlando, FL 32803

COST:

Dinos In Lights is included with daily general admission to Orlando Science Center, which is free for members, $21 for adults, $19 for seniors and students, and $15 for youth (ages 2 – 11).

Parking is available for $5 per vehicle in the Orlando Science Center parking garage.

INFO:

For more information, please call 407.514.2000 or visit https://www.osc.org/holidays/

Pulse Temporary Memorial Dedication

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The interim memorial design was created by the team of by Kody Smith, Christina Hite, and Greg Bryla, of the landscape architecture firm of Dix.Hite + Partners, and David Stone of Phil Kean Design, all of who worked closely with onePULSE Foundation’s memorial task force. Pam Schwartz of the Orange County Regional History Center worked on supplying the hundreds of photos from the history museum’s collection used on a winding wall that surrounds the club. Many of local photographer J.D. Casto‘s photos cover the wall. He was at the GLBT Center on the morning following the shooting and his photos document the outpouring of love and support that followed this horrible tragedy.

The scene was already crowded when I arrived at the club. Families of victims and survivors were seated. Since I had my own artist stool, I set up in front of one of the new trees on site and started to sketch. I focused on Christina Hite while she spoke at the podium. Greg Bryla is a dedicated Urban Sketcher, so I was pleased to know he had a hand in helping design this temporary memorial. An unexpected aspect of the temporary memorial is that there is a window in the surrounding wall allowing visitors to see the spot where the club was breached by the swat team so that the hostages held in the bathrooms could escape. Bullet holes litter the brickwork around the blast hole. This is where the terrorist was finally killed.

The architect firm of Coldefy and Associés has recently won the deign competition to create a permanent memorial at this site. Their design surrounds the Pulse Nightclub building with a pool and fountain that has 49 colors in concentric circles radiating from the pool’s center. The typical rainbow, (ROYGBIV) only has 7 colors. If you multiply that by 7 you get 49 colors. Another aspect of their design that I like is a circular canopy that supplies shade for anyone visiting the site. They also had elegantly incorporated a wall separating the quiet space from the sound of traffic on Orange Avenue. The most striking feature is that the club is cleaved in half, creating a canyon like space that people can walk through. 49 trees will cover the site creating a garden to celebrate life.

The Pulse Museum design looks a bit like a futuristic reactor. It has a slatted white exterior that is squeezed in the middle with an undulating
roof profile. Glimpses inside show a twisting staircase and plants,
echoing features of the memorial, and a large circular opening that
floods natural light into the space. There are large public areas where the community can gather to learn and have events. It is an exciting design that would immediately become a defining landmark of the SODO area. Green spaces radiate from the club beautifying the district. Only time will tell how much of this amazing design will become reality. The Museum and Memorial are both intended to open in 2022.

Corsets and Cuties Kick off the Holiday Season

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Corsets and Cuties a Burlesque Cabaret will kickoff the season Sunday November 24, 2019 from 8pm to 10pm with a little teasing plus guest stars and treats from Premier Couples Superstore at Theater West End
(115 West 1st St., Sanford, Florida 32771.) Final touches are being added to costumes. The cuties always deliver their burlesque with a strong dose of humor and I consider thus the best way to kick off the season.

This sketch is from a rehearsal at the Venue. If you have not experienced the Cuties yet you are missing a treat. Lovely ladies and some not-so-gentle men sing, dance, and tastefully strip down for your entertainment pleasure! Whether you’re celebrating with the one you love or out on the prowl, the Cuties are ready for ya! You can be sure of a fantastic night out!

NOTE: The show is intended for adult audiences, as it contains adult content and nudity. So leave the little ones at home and get ready for a night of laugh out loud fun. I’ll be sketching in the back row, documenting this lively side of the Orlando Arts scene.

Tickets are $18 General Admission.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for November 23 and 24, 2019

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Saturday November 23, 2019

2pm to 5pm Free. Sketch Crawl at Ivanhoe. Washburn Imports, 1800 N. Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804. Come sketch with us along the historic stretch
of Orange Ave near Lake Ivanhoe once known as Antique Row. This area
offers glimpses of Orlando’s past with it’s 1900-era shop buildings
built along a railroad and also offers glimpses of the future with
construction of new high-rise apartments across from beautiful Lake
Ivanhoe. Unique shops, restaurants and bars line the stretch of this
easily walkable area.

Schedule:

Sketch crawl along Orange Ave from Washburn Imports towards Virginia
Dr. If you miss the meet up at 2pm, you will find us sketching along
this 3 block stretch.
Sketchbook Throwdown: 4:30pm at The Lucky Lure, 1427 N. Orange Ave, Orlando, FL.

Parking -lot on corner of Orange and New Hampshire across from Washburn
Imports, street parking along Orange Ave, NE Ivanhoe, Alden Rd, and a
small lot at Gaston Edwards Park at Lake Ivanhoe. Be aware, parking may
be time limited.

Tip: You may find yourself wanting to stay a bit
longer as Virginia Drive Jingle Eve begins at 5pm. Along Virginia Drive
there will be shopping, Christmas events, music, fireworks, and food.
After the meetup, a few of us may walk to this area to get food/drink
and sketch some more.

All drawing levels and skills are welcome.

Bring your sketchbook and sketching supplies of your choice. As this
event is OUTDOORS be prepared with drinking water, a hat, portable
chair/stool, and appropriate clothes for the weather.

5pm to ? Free. 2019 Jingle Eve.  Ivanhoe Village North Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32804.
12 Wines of Christmas, Santa’s Village, live music, food trucks,
vendors and more! Last year we had over 3,000 visitors on this night to
remember.

5pm too 7pm Free. McRae Studios Open House to Feature Guest Artists Victor Bokas and Matthew Cornell. McRae Art Studios 1000 Arlington Street in Orlando. On-site parking is available. McRae Art Studios’ 2019 Holiday Open Housewill serve up art works by its 22 members and former McRae members Victor Bokasand Matthew Cornell. The annual event at McRae (mcraeartstudios.com)
gives artcollectors and gift-givers a unique opportunity to browse
artist studios, visitwith the artists and purchase original art.
Hundreds of original art works willbe available including paintings,
pastels, drawings, photographs, mixed media,sculpture, jewelry and
ceramics. The open house is free and open to the public.

Sunday November 24, 2019

10am to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

11am to Noon $5 Yoga. Lake Eola near red gazebo.

Noon to 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Brian Hayes. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. Members
of the public are invited to visit our historic home museum on a Sunday
afternoon to listen to live music and take a tour of our historic home
museum and the James Gamble Rogers II Studio by trained docents.

Roller Derby Match 2

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Since I was sketching a double header, I decided to do a second sketch during the roller derby. Game 2 at Orange County Barnett Park (4801 W Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida 32808) was between the Orlando Sun Blockers and Rockin City. In the second match the Orlando Sun Blockers lost with a score of 87 to Rockin City from Texas’s 175.

Besides the action on the truck I was also fascinated by the half time action which consisted of kids making paper airplanes. The plane that flew the furthest would win. It was a fun as a minor league baseball game mid inning stretch. Planes spiraled and did loop de loops. Over in front of the bleachers a woman dressed in a sun costume danced in front of the crowd.

The huddle in my sketch occurs often in a match as one team tries to roadblock the other team from lapping them. If there is no opening then the roller derby athlete wearing the star on her helmet would have to try and press her way through he crowd. Living in a big city like New York would be the best place to develop these tight squeeze tactics. 

Legislative Town Hall Featuring Representative Smith and Representative Mercado

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I went to Acacia Banquet Hall (1865 Econlockhatchee Trail Orlando, FL 32817) to learn what I could about the 2018 Legislative Session. I had seen the invitation from Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith  Representative Amy Mercado for a Legislative Town Hall. They provided an update on priorities, issues impacting our community and they took questions directly from constituents. Special guest Monivette Cordeiro of the Orlando Weekly will be moderating this important event. Montivette has since moved on to become a court reporter for the Orlando Sentinel.

Carlos Guillermo Smith is a community activist, lobbyist, and politician from Orlando, Florida. He is a Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives . Upon his election in 2016, Smith became the first openly gay Latino to serve in the Florida Legislature. I was very pleased to see he recently got married.

The Florida Legislature meets in session every year for sixty consecutive days. Legislative proposals may be in the form of bills, resolutions,
concurrent resolutions, joint resolutions, or memorials. A bill is a
proposed law, and it may be either a general bill or a local bill.   A
general bill would have a general impact within the state; a local bill
would affect only a particular county, city, or town named in the bill. A
majority vote is required to pass a bill, unless otherwise provided in
the Constitution. The Florida Legislature is largely Republican so proposals for progressive democratic bills have an uphill battle.

The bill, cited as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, sought on its surface,to comprehensively address the crisis of gun violence, particularly gun violence on school campuses. Components of the bill included, among others, provisions to enhance school safety policies, procedures, and personnel on the state and local level, to improve and expand mental health services, and to revise laws and empower law enforcement and the courts to limit access to firearms by young adults or by individuals exhibiting a risk of harming themselves or others. The bill also created and or revised operating and  capital funding policies and provides appropriations to implement the provisions of the bill.

Endangers positive school climates by: 

•Allowing school employees, including some teachers, to carry guns; 

•Requiring the placement of armed personnel in every school; 

•Requiring educators to “consult with” law enforcement whenever a student commits more than one misdemeanor or “exhibits a pattern of behavior . . . that would pose a threat to school safety;” •Creating an anonymous reporting mechanism without proper due process protections.

The one take away for me was that the Florida Legislature feels bad that students were killed in Parkland, and therefor it is important to get guns in the hands of volunteer school employees and or teachers. It would seem $400,000,000 was appropriated to get more guns into more hands. Carlos voted against this bill which fights gun violence by providing more guns on school campuses. The bill was approved by the governor on March 9, 2018. Welcome to the Gunshine State.

Newsweek reported that “More children have been killed by guns since Sandy Hook than U.S. soldiers in combat Since 9/11.”

Talk Radio

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Theater on the Edge (5542 Hansel Avenue Orlando, FL 32809) is presenting Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian and Tad Savinar. The set by Samantha DiGeorge is amazing in all it’s nostalgic splendor and detail. The space is divided into two rooms with a glass divider so that the soundboard guy can see the talent. The date is May 8, 1987 at WTLK in Cleveland Ohio. Spike (Christopher Ivers) who was in charge of running the ads was leaning back in his chair reading his Playboy. One radio show was winding to a close with a financial expert giving lofty and hard to follow financial advice to a confused listener. I started my sketch by getting him in place with his glasses and mustache. I wasn’t aware that he was about to be replaced by the star of the next hour of talk radio Barry Champlain (Marco DiGeorge). Champlain’s sound man was Stu Noonan (Alex Jackson). The two had worked together for years as Barry’s career skyrocketed. On this night the manager Dan Woodreuff (Christian Wienker) informed Barry that his show was about to go national and that the new sponsors would be listening in.

I grew up listening to talk radio in high school, So I was familiar with the insipid callers who would say, “Long time listener, first time caller.” It seems many would call in just to hear their own voice. Marco DiGeorge gives an amazing performance as the hardened talk show host who puts some callers down just to stay sane. Each character in turn had a blue illuminated cameo in which they relate their experiences with the radio talk show host. We learn about him from those who have to deal with him daily.

The soundboard used on stage must have been live because the calls came in quick succession. One caller claimed to have been partying for two days and his girlfriend was unconscious. There was some panic in the studio by Barry saw it as a prank call. On a second call in the high strung caller admitted he was making it all up. He then insisted on stopping by the studio to meet his talk show idol. Kent (Adam Minossora) had spiked up hair and his panicked manic performance caused me to stop sketching and just enjoy the performance. Kent was hilarious with his high wire antics and I thought for sure the executives would want him to have his own talk show. He rushed at the talk show host as if intent on murder but quickly shot a photo. Barry was actually a bit of a scholar before becoming a talk show host and Kent represented the lowest common denominator that Barry now had to accommodate.

Linda McArthur (Elaitheia Quinn) with a clipboard in hand produced the show. She wore a vibrant colorful jacket with neon colors. A raw and intimate moment came as she related how she felt about the talk show host. She decided to call in and she asked the host advice about how she should deal with her boyfriend. As they looked at each other through the glass window he told her she should move on and she stormed out of the studio visibly upset.

The entire show was an amazing roller coaster of emotions as the talk show host handled racists, bigots, and quiet fans who worshiped him yet really had no idea who he was. It all pushed him to the brink of giving up on humanity. Before social media and 140 character tweets, talk radio was where you got to experience trolls and desperate lonely people looking for attention.

I stood quickly for a standing ovation. Many of the cast were the callers who nettled the talk show host all night. The show was an existential rush felling claustrophobic with so many people calling with so many needs. This was a stellar show and should not be missed. The small theater had you right on top of the action. It felt like the host might fall into the abyss at any time and yet it was just one night that looked at a thin slice of crazy disturbing humanity.

Tickets for Talk radio usually run from $22 to $26. Every seat in the house is amazing. The show runs through December 8, 2019.