The Art of Breast Feeding.

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On a recent trip to New York City, Terry and I met with Leigh Anne O’Connor in a bustling lower East side bar.  Leigh Ann was a dear friend when we lived in NYC over 20 years ago. She is now an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Parenting Expert with over 17 years
experience working with families. She is the past President of New York
Lactation Consultant Association, a member of International
Lactation Consultant Association, United States Lactation
Consultant Association, and a past member of the Bank Street Head
Start Health Advisory Board.
When I expressed an interest in sketching nursing moms, she pulled out her phone and put out a message to that effect on Facebook. The next day, I was sketching Rebekah Grossman and her beautiful 11 week old, Harper. Leigh Anne’s job is to help moms who have difficulty getting the child to start feeding. Little Harper didn’t have enough suction at first. Rebekah told me that this was a perfect sketch opportunity because they could sit like this for hours. Once Harper was finished feeding he fell a sleep on her breast. After a long nap, he might feed again. The family dog slept at Rebekah’s feet.

Rebekah’s husband is an artist. He painted the walls of  baby’s area purple with white billowing clouds. Rebekah is facing the prospect of having to return to work as a political consultant. She wished she could stay home longer to bond with Harper. European countries give working moms much more maternity leave. Her mom is going to babysit while she is a work. In preparation she has been bottling her milk with a breast pump and storing her mill in the refrigerator.

Breast feeding is the most natural way to supply the needed nutrients to an infant. In the 1960s moms turned to bottled formula served in bottles with plastic nipples. There was no added benefit to the bottle feeding other than to the corporations who sold the formula and bottles. I suspect This is how I was fed as a baby.  Breast feeding has made a huge come back with working moms often having to feed on the go. There is some controversy as to weather it is appropriate to feed a child in public. Americans can be such prudes.What could be more natural? I heard of a case where a mom was asked to stop feeding her child in a fast food restaurant. The next week, 50 moms showed up in force to feed their children in the restaurant.

It was such an honor to sketch Rebekah and Harper in this quiet intimate moment. New York City is such an amazing place. I hope that I have the opportunity to do similar sketches in the future.

Robert Johnson performs at his Wedding Reception.

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Robert and Maria Johnson‘s wedding reception was an informal home grown community effort at Kimberly Buchheit‘s Farm in Sorrento, FL. Robert’s mother made delicious Filipino food, and a few other award winning “chefs” added to the menu. Kim’s garage functioned as the bar and a large tent covered all the picnic tables. A bonfire was lit after the sun set, an the hard core guests settled around the flames late into the night.

The stage was cobbled together I believe from former mushroom planters thus being known as the Mushroom Stage. The stage was just the right size to be covered by a single tent which was illuminated by strings of lights. Robert performed solo and then was joined by other musicians on strings and drums. One song that rang true for me was about an artist painting his masterpiece. Another rather funny original song, had to do with getting stuck in I-4 traffic. Between the fiery blaze and , music, it was a magical night.

Many guests were staying the night, laying sleeping bags in the grass, or finding shelter on Kim’s floor inside.  Some people simply stayed up all night, watching over the flames. The next morning there were muffins and mimosas at sunrise. As the day heated up, the stage tent was turned into a misting parlor to keep cool. I set up an outdoor lounge chair and enjoyed the wet spray. We all chipped in a bit with the basic clean up work but a crew would later rewove all the tables which were rented. The wedding couple had camp in Robert’s van and they looked so happy on their first day as a married couple together.

Guests could take home candles nestled on sand inside mason jars. Each candle had a saying tied to it with a ribbon.

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” – Carl Sagan,

“Have courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” – Maya Angelou

“Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Come on baby light my fire.” – Jim Morrison

“All you need is love!” – John Lennon

El Potro Mexican Restauranl in Winter Park.

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I arrived in Winter Park an hour early before a sketch opportunity at a shaman healing workshop. I decided to get dinner at El Potro Mexican Restaurant (501 N Orlando Ave Winter Park, FL) in a nearby shopping mall. There is a daily lunch time buffet for a little under $13. The buffet was empty when I arrived so I ordered tacos and re-fried beans, it was decent meal at a very affordable price.

The paintings on the walls were by Dominican artist  Jose Calcano.  They depicted rural scenes with scarecrows and migrant workers in the fields in the fields. The Scarecrow was painted in 1974.he colors were hyper saturated. I must have arrived before the dinner rush because the couple in front of me were the only other people in the place.

I recently moved my studio to Winter Park and ironically this restaurant is right within walking distance. Another restaurant in the same shopping area however has caught my taste buds. It is an Indian Restaurant called Tamarind Indian Cuisine, (501 N Orlando Ave #149, Winter Park, FL). This place has a Vegetable Jalfrezi that is to die for.  It is a medley of fresh vegetables with onion pepper and curry sauce. If I was to be sent on a space mission spending five years travel.’ to another planet, the the Jalfreizi is what I would wan to lire on.  The Malai Kofta is also good, being mixed vegetable balls cooked in a rice green cream sauce. I tried a Dosa, which is a thin crispy crepe, but it was rather dry compared to the other dishes. I almost tasted Dosa once before but my sketching got me kicked 8 of the Indian Market, before I could taste it. My curiosity about Dosa has been satiated.

Both restaurants are incredibly affordable, with enough food as leftovers to last as lunch and dinner the next day.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for May 7th and 8th.

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Saturday May 7, 2016

 11am to 6pm Free. Big Bang Bazaar – INDIE ART, CRAFTS and VINTAGE BAZAAR. 625 E Hibiscus Blvd, Melbourne, FL. We are pleased to announce that Big Bang Bazaar (Indie Art, Crafts and Vintage Bazaar) will take place at a new indoor venue! The event is family friendly and appropriate for all ages! Admission and parking are free to all guests!

Big Bang Bazaar will feature a curated selection of over 200 local Indie artists and crafters, along with a free photo booth, and movies playing all day! Shoppers will find a wide variety of goods, all handmade by local artisans! Products such as clothing, accessories, jewelry, original art, art prints, housewares and much more will be available for purchase!

Interested in VENDING?

Noon to 11pm $10 Online TicketSmashington 2016. Mills 50 District 1200 Weber St, Orlando, Florida. Soul of the City has started an exciting new partnership with Local Music and Art culture! Our vision is to bring a diverse, and interactive art experience to Orlando for the 4th year in a row!!

Smashington 2016 Art & Music Festival, is an all day celebration of progressive music and art culture.

This years’ festival will feature over 80 Music acts, live performance art by Perego of The Art Army, dozens of local business vendors, plus more fun and exciting activities making this one of the biggest mix of Central Florida’s up and coming artistic talent.

We will be showcasing Urban and Street Art styles by incorporating graffiti walls, community art walls, a chalk walk and spray painting a school bus!

There will be live performance Art, Acoustic duos, Bands, HipHop acts and a collection of Central Florida’s rising artistic talent featured across 5 stages. With the help of an exciting lineup of Performers, Creators and Progressive brands to share the stage with, we are displaying a new look and feel on community culture events.

8pm to 11:30pm Free but drink and donate. Jazz Jam and More! Bar Louie 7335 W. Sand Lake Rd. Orlando, Fl. TOP Musicians and Vocalists…

Some Internationally known!

Featuring Joseph Jevanni-Keys, Jacqueline Jones-Vocals, Carl Lewis-Sax and many more. Hosted by Yvonne Coleman, MNJJ Co-Founder and Radio Personality Jazzy103.com

Great Music, Great Food & Drink,

Great People, Great Ambiance.

A Sophisticated, Casual Atmosphere. 

Plenty of seating and they have an

Outdoor Patio with a Fire Pit!

Bar Louie will donate 20% of net sales to 

HAPCO Music Foundation, our charity for the month.

This event has provided great entertainment and supported charities since 2008.

THANKS to all of the Musicians, Vocalists and Supporters for making this event a HUGE success.

Sunday May 8, 2016 

Noon to 2pm Donation based. Community YogART class: 7 Chakra series. Artegon Marketplace 5250 International Dr, Orlando, Florida. Every 2nd Sunday of the month YogART will be hosting FREE Color Therapy Yoga classes for the community at Artegon Marketplace (located in the community room across from section B6 – use movie theater entrance)

We are excited to bring you our “7 Chakra Series” that will focus each class on each individual chakra: breaking down it’s color, meaning, location and function. This particular class will revolve around our second major energy point known as “The Sacral Chakra”.

Color Therapy glasses will also be provided for those who wish to experience the effects of color therapy. Orange will be the primary focus for our Root Chakra but you may wear any color you want to work with.

This is an ALL LEVELS class which incorporates stretching, breathing exercises and light yoga poses geared around the Sacral Chakra.

We also have a color wheel on our site that explains the benefit of each color (glasses) Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. http://www.yogartinc.com/color-therapy-chart/

Please bring your own yoga mat and prepare to unwind.

1pm to 5:30pm Free Family Day. The Mennello Museum of American Art, 900 East Princeton Street, Orlando, FL. The make-and-take craft table is open from noon-2:30 p.m., and docents are available to give mini-tours of the museum. Then it’s open house in the galleries until 4:30 p.m. Every second Sunday.

2pm to4pm Free. Script Reading Workshop. Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show, 8267 International Drive, Orlando, FL. Read and workshop plays.

Eco – Action Cleanup cares for Orlando’s lakes while being hindered by city red tape.

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I went to Eco – Action Cleanup number 845 at Lake Concord. Jef Shelby organizes this intrepid group of volunteers who use canoes to help clean up the garbage from Orlando’s lakes. The Mission of ECO-Action, Inc., is to protect and preserve the
natural environment by encouraging, creating, and supporting ecological
education, responsible consumption, development of alternative energy
sources, and public participation in addressing environmental issues.

The GPS brought me to Central Christian Church. Across the street there was a lake, but I didn’t see any volunteers. Thinking I was in the wrong place, I drove up and down the street and then I drove behind the church. This is where I found the truck with a trailer full of canoes. People were already in canoes and on shore placing trash in yellow bags. By keeping the lake clean, wildlife is being protected. Fishing line in particular can strangle a bird who becomes entangled. Birds and turtles can also eat the fishing lines, which is a health hazard. On some cleanups birds have been found and turned over to the Birds of Prey Center for medical care. There is no shortage of garbage, bottles, beer cans, plastic cups, fishing line, grocery bags, cigarette butts, and even condoms. Despite the endless effort it seems that garbage is dumped faster than it ca be removed. These volunteers are true eco-warriors.

Rather than support these environmentalists, the city decided to impose restrictions and permitting. It seems politicians need to know exactly what lake is being cleaned and when. Jet ski’s and power boats are fine, but having volunteers out cleaning the lakes in canoes was considered a bit too anarchistic for city officials.  Now Jef has to apply for permits and wait up to four months for approval. The added bureaucracy is causing the Good Samaritan effort to be too much trouble. Jef hopes someone else will take on the effort because he doesn’t have the time for all the paper work.

Morgan Steele had volunteered to stay behind and watch the remaining canoes. He stopped over to see what I was working on. It turns out he is an artist himself. He loved that I was documenting the cleanup effort with sketches. He searched in the reeds next to me and pulled out a hypodermic needle. “Can you believe someone would shoot up behind a church.” he asked. He then walked over to a shady spot under a huge live oak, sat down, and leaned back against a large cross. Jef wrote me a Facebook message a few weeks after the cleanup.  “Since Morgan Steele’s passing, I’ve thought about some of the Jungian signs that prophesied his death – and I think of that last painting you did of Eco-Action’s clean-up at Lake Concord where he was taking a rest under the cross.” On April 23rd, Morgan lost control of his car while driving back from Stardust Video and Coffee. His car slammed in some concrete constructions on Bumby. A memorial will be held for him around Memorial Day. The Herculean task of cleaning Orlando’s lakes lives on. More Eco Warriors are always needed to stem the tide of a wasteful consumer society.

A whistle sounded and the canoes returned. Each canoe was filled wit yellow bags full of trash. The bags were stacked in a pile and everyone lined up for a group photo. Probably 30 full bags of garbage had been removed from the lake. More remained. The most unique finds, were a laptop computer, and a three foot white sign that said, “Church Parking Ahead.” If anyone had followed that sign, their cars would be found on the bottom of the lake. If you ever want to make a difference while canoeing on a central Florida lake, be sure to look up Eco -Action Cleanup.

Les Mamelles De Tiresias at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

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Les Mamelles De Tiresias (The Breasts of Tiresias) presented by Florida Opera Theater is a comical opera that was basically written to encourage people to go home and make more babies after the war. Therese is a housewife who is tired of her domestic life and wants the exciting life of a soldier. Her husband keeps interrupting her singing to come effect by demanding bacon. She unhooks her apron, and her breasts float away like balloons and she becomes a man. After she goes off to war, the husband puts on her apron and becomes the wife. As the wife he has to fend off the affections of a police officer who is taken in by the female attire. The improbable changes of sex seemed to ignite a heightened desire.

In the second act, the husband (wife) has given birth to more than 40,000 babies. All his children had successful careers in the arts making him a rich man. As a finale, the two large balloon creatures I sketched, floated over the audience. Phallic appendages gave the creatures a surreal appearance. Each had trap doors in their under bellies and those doors opened, raining balloon babies down on the audience. I had hoped to sketch the stage hands work in the pulleys that hoisted the balloons over the audience. I was asked to move twice and then to to leave the upper balcony by the spot light operator. Only staff were allowed. I finished the sketch on the ground floor in my assigned seat in row L.  Of course I was in a foul mood, but I managed to complete the sketch. To add insult to injury, I lost my bag of art brushes in the theater. I checked with lost and found, but they were never turned in.

General Tiresias wage war on childbirth. But her former husbands success in raising so many children thwarts her plan. There is a playful scene with dozens of children singing and playing hide and seek in a nursery. This was definitely one of the strangest Operas I have ever seen. I’m still not sure what to make of it.

Polihale Beach in Kauai.

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The wonderful thing about Kauai is that you can drive  a few miles and find yourself at a deserted beach. It can only be reached via a poorly marked, dirt sugarcane road. We felt we the first people to ever walk on this sand. Known for its 7-mile stretch of white sand beach and hot cloudless days,
Polihale is the spot to dry out when the rains come. Framed by the west
end of the Na Pali cliffs, sweeping sand dunes and a Ni’ihau capped
ocean, Polihale can be a breath-taking experience. On this cloudy day sunlight forced its is through the rare gap in the clouds creating a theatrical spotlight effect.

Polihale has been translated in many instances as the
“House of the Po”, where Po is the Hawaiian after world. By this
account, spirits are said to travel to the coastal plain adjacent to the
beach, and stay in the temple, known as the heiau.
From there, they would climb the cliffs to the north, jump off into the
sea to get to the mythical Po. The story further indicates that this
belief was so strong that all the homes built in the vicinity of
Polihale would have had no east facing doors, so that no traveling
spirit could become trapped within.

Frankie mixed the vinyl at the wedding reception.

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The wedding of local singer, songwriter Robert Johnson to Maria happened during a beautiful golden sunset at Playa Linda Beach. It is a place where they find peace and center themselves; to look to a new future, one far beyond earthly desires and wants. This stretch of pristine, protected beach is also where man has reached for the stars since NASA started. It is one of the longest stretches of undeveloped beach on the East Coast of Florida (24miles) and is breathtakingly beautiful. Robert has made a tradition of watching the sun rise on the new year for over a decade and shared this experience with Maria in 2014. Maria came to love this place when Robert was still only “this cool musician guy” singing Rainy Day over the stereo at her host family’s house.

The wedding reception was a home grown community effort. It took place at Kimberly Buchheit‘s Farm in Sorrento, Florida. This celebration of the couple’s love on the first day of their marriage was meant to kick off the rest of their life in a manner that hopefully will set the tone for all their future endeavors. They want to invest in experiences rather than objects and most importantly, experiences they can share with the people they love. The DIY party relied on the talents of everyone. Frankie Messina mixed the old school vinyl all night long a people danced on the grass. Early in the evening , h huddled under the tent with the support legs half retracted. It made an intimate compact music fortress. He taught others how to mix from one record to the other seamlessly.

Robert’s mom prepared an amazing spread of delicious Filipino food. A large tent was set up Amish style where everyone could eat drink and chat. The drinks flowed and the party got lively. After the sun set, the forest around Kim’s farm loomed black, and then a large bonfire was ignited, offering a tribal community circle with faces glowing orange in the night. After all the festivities, Frankie went to sleep under the table in his musical fortress. He had other worldly dreams that on the surface might seem scary, but he just went along with the flow.

Urban Sketching at Elite Animation.

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For the Urban Sketching Course I teach at Elite Animation Academy, I take the kids down to a local pond. We sketch the ducks who have just had chicks. If you stay very still, the mom a duck brings her chicks right up to you, assuming I suppose that we will feed them. It is a great opportunity to get quick sketches of them.  They never stay still of course, so getting a sketch is a challenge.

the students are also instructed to sketch the architecture of the shopping mall that i n eat to the lake. Finding the vanishing point is a challenge to many beginning Sketchers, but I point out the visual cues to each student one on one. Some kids just put the sketchbook aside and enjoy the sun. [ can lead them to water but I can’t make teem drink. A little day dreaming is also part of the artistic process. When we get back to the classroom, we tape our favorite sketch on the board and have a mini art show.

Live painting demo in the Rose Garden.

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The Winter Park Paint Out has brought about 25 plein air painters from all over the country to central Florida where they are capturing the area’s charm mostly with oils on canvas. From 6pm to 8pm on April 26th, John Guernsey from Marietta Georgia gave an Oil Painting Demonstration on Dynamic Shadows in the Rose Garden in Central Park. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and join us in Central Park by the Rose Garden. Spectators brought lawn chairs to sit and watch as the painting took shape. It was the golden hour, so warm light ignited the scene as the sun set.

John had completed the drawing aspect of the small composition by the time I arrived. He then blocked in dark shadows using a large two inch flat paint brush. He used this brush for the entire painting using mostly vertical and horizontal strokes. The resulting grid was a bit like a pixelated version of the scene. He used the paint thickly and boldly. He worked incredibly fast. When the sun set behind the trees in the west, he stepped away and said he was done. In a conversation with someone, he said that architects and graphic designers are great wit the drawn aspect of a painting, but the messy and abstract blocking in of colors and valves often gives them trouble. Even after the demo was over, John kept adding dark strokes to the canvas to push the value range.

The Paint Out will come to a close with a Garden Party from 6pm to 9pm tonight, April 30th at the Polasek Museum (633 Osceola Ave, Winter Park, FL). Tickets are $100. Each ticket enti­tles the buyer to $50.00 off the pur­chase of a paint­ing dur­ing the Gar­den Party! (Limit one ticket per paint­ing val­ued at $300 or more)