The Kentucky Derby Galloped Onto Winter Park

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On May 3rd “Derby on Park” was held at the Winter Park Country Club (761 Old England Avenue Winter Park FL.) Event organizer, Anthony Dinova, invited me out to sketch the event. This was on the same day as the Kentucky Derby so women came out with their finest wide brimmed hats. I decided to sketch the well heeled crowd waiting outside for food. Several golfers were using the putting green when I started blocking in the sketch but they left when it started drizzling. Inside there was live music, wine and of course the Kentucky Derby was on TV.

The exciting ambiance of the well-renowned annual Kentucky Derby was
brought to Winter Park. This themed event boasted unlimited
craft beer and wine along with samplings of delicious food and desserts
from various local vendors for all in attendance. Guests were encouraged
to dress in their finest Derby attire with prizes for best-dressed in
several categories. With a complimentary private-labeled bottle of wine
for each guest, live broadcast of the Kentucky Derby, Fashion show and
live entertainment, the prestige and energy of this coveted signature
event provided guests with the most sophisticated and stylish
afternoon outside of Churchill Downs.

As I worked on the sketch I heard the crowd inside start to cheer as the race started. The roar grew louder until the horses crossed the finish line. Terry was inside to catch all the action. There was a small retaining wall at the edge of the putting green and people used it as a bench to sit while sipping their mint juleps.  A women who came outside to get away from the claustrophobic crowd inside sat on the ledge and then unexpectedly fainted. Luckily she fell back onto the soft grass rather than forward onto the brick patio. She was revived by her friends and event organizers called the fire department and EMTs to check her vitals. She hadn’t been drinking so she couldn’t figure out why she fainted.

With the sketch done I went inside to spend time with Terry and to grab a bite to eat. A new batch of pasta was being warmed up and I waited for a bit. The crowd thinned out fast after the race but Terry and I stayed to see who won the best bonnet award. One woman had a huge bouquet of flowers on her bonnet and I was surprised that she didn’t win. Perhaps connections are more important than flourish.

Snap! Space is a New Hip Cultural Hub in Orlando

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On May 2nd I went to the opening reception for Edge of a Dream at Snap! Space (1013 E. Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida). The show explored the fine line between figurative narratives, reverie and the familiarity of reality while resembling a dream. Curated by Patrick and Holly Kahn, the exhibit featured the works of eight nationally renowned fine art photographers, along with sculpture, installation, fine art origami and jewelry.

Guest artists were in attendance. Cocktails were offered by ‘The Courtesy Bar‘, and music was by resident DJ Nigel John.  I was most intrigued by the photos of Richard Tushman. His “Hopper Meditations” series showed an isolated couple in a bedroom. The lighting and compositions made the photos look like Edward Hopper paintings. The photos had a surreal quality to them. It wasn’t until after the opening that Patrick explained that the rooms were miniatures created by the photographer. Looking at the photos again I could see that the curtains didn’t hang quite right.

At the opening I sat next to the reception desk to sketch the bar. Snap! girls volunteer at these events and field any questions people might have. Holly came to the desk with a prospective client and sold a small sculpture made from vintage watch gears and pieces by Mike Nuriel. Sketching the Courtesy Bar was a challenge, since the line kept moving as people picked up their drinks. My artists stool wobbled as my crossed legs grew tired. I have a nasty habit of leaning back in a chair until I’m balanced on the back two legs. Unfortunately the small artist stool couldn’t handle my maneuvering.  The back legs folded under me sending we toppling backwards in slow motion. A lamp cord was strung behind me like a clothes line to the outlet, so as I fell, the lamp flew off the table. The Snap girl acted with quick instincts and caught the lamp like a professional baseball outfielder. I landed squarely on my ass and flushed red as I got up and reset my stool with what little remained of my dignity. “Great” I thought, “Save the lamp and let the artist flop down like a rag doll.” Actually I was very grateful. Patrick and Holly had “borrowed” the lamp from their son’s bedroom. Had it been broken, I would have felt horrible. I finished the sketch without incident and then looked at all the art one more time before I slipped out.

Making Nails

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In July, the Thorspecken Clan descended on Orlando. Cornelia and her daughter Nini came from Wiesbaden Germany, Don, Val and their kids, Nichole and Kyle came from Connecticut. Carol and her kids, Anna and Kristen came from Upstate New York. Terry and I drove to the hotel where everyone was staying on the first night. Anna immediately wanted to borrow my watercolor paint supplies. I gave her a watercolor palette and a brush and for the rest of the evening she created a tropical sunset on a paper plate. Mark Bishop took a test drive in Terry’s new Porche, and his animated excitement about the ride was fun to watch.

Anna then began to experiment with painting fingernails and toe nails. She created pink strawberry toenails  with bright green leaves and then neatly placed black seeds. Other nail designs included smiley faces and floral nails. Every woman left with fully painted toe nails and finger nails.When everyone came to our house for a visit, Anna set up a little lab on our kitchen table. A blue plastic cup was filled halfway with water and then fingernails paint was poured in. The nail polish floated on the top of the water and then she would pour in another color into the center creating concentric rings of color that floated on the water. She would drag a small stick into the slick and pull it outward much as baristas do with patterned foam in a coffee cup. The result was a sort of colorful spider’s web. She would then submerge a fake fingernail under the slick and try to get the pattern to appear on the top of the nail. The experimenting went on for hours and Terry helped out by attaching nails to sticks.

I’m still experimenting with a tablet to draw, and the results are a bit garish as I get used to the interface and controls. I haven’t yet found the tools that can give me a spontaneous took that I usually get from splashing real watercolors on the page. Like Anna, I need to keep playing until I get the results that I want. Terry hates the look of the digital sketches and feels I should stop trying to use technology to sketch. I’m stubborn however and I’m convinces that in time I’ll get amazing results. I’ll keep throwing spaghetti at the wall until it starts to stick. If I look back at the sketches I did the first year I started this blog, I have to admit that there was plenty of sketches that just didn’t work back then. I just need to find the tools that work for me. Right now I’m fighting the machine but eventually when it becomes fun to work with I’ll improve. One step forward, two steps back, that is what it takes to keep growing as an artist.

Sunstroke Melt Race at the Daytona International Speedway

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Wendy Wallenberg invited me to the Sunstroke Melt Race at the Daytona International Speedway. She is friends with one of the drivers,  Jim Kneeland, so she had full access to the inner field of the raceway as well as access to the pit area and garages. This was a sketch opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. This sketch is at the starting line to the race. Two rows of cars lined up facing one another and at the start they rolled onto the race track in order of their standings. So I was sketching in an area where I might get run over if a driver jumped the line. It was nerve wracking and I had to work fast.

Jim’s car, a Mazda Miata,  was number 37 and he had body damage from an accident from the day before.  It had been raining all day and many cars spun out on one particular curve that day. This was Jim’s first race and he had a lot invested in being sure he stayed on the field. He wasn’t expecting to win, he just needed to place. Jim has worked in the pit crew for other drivers and this was his chance to get on the track himself.

The official on the starting line stood near me and she made sure to give me time to get behind the line before the start. She had never seen an artist sketch the race, so she was glad to help keep me out of harm’s way. Race cars don’t have air conditioning so drivers get incredibly hot as they wait. Their driving outfits actually have coils with cool water that keep them from over heating. Some assistants also had fans to blow cool air into the cars.

There was no dramatic squealing of tires at the start. All of the cars rumbled to life and filed onto the track at a relaxing 25 miles per hour. They then followed a pace car to get up to speed. Wendy drove the golf cart to the curve where the cars were spinning out the day before. From those infield stands it was possible to see Jim’s Mazda as he made his way around the track. The front runners went so fast that they caught up to and passed the cars at the back of the pack. Then it became confusing to figure out who was in front of who.

Watching the Daytona International Speedway Pit Crews from the Turn 1 Infield Bleachers

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On May 4th, I had time for one more sketch when a second race began at the Daytona International Speedway. The races were not very long, so there wasn’t much action to sketch among the pit crews. I decided instead to watch the race from covered bleachers that overlooked the pit crews. I needed to get in some shade before I became a red neck. The cars racing on the track were a blur of motion and intense sound. Here we saw the cars as they came off the first turn and headed down the straight away. There weren’t many people in the bleachers, only a few family and friends of the drivers. The large bleachers on the outer rim of the track were empty. The Speedway is undergoing major renovations which made it hard for me to find the entrance to the infield when I first arrived.

Driver Jim Kneeland didn’t win the race but since it was his first race, he was happy to finish. He went to the officials office and recovered his license. In a few weeks, he would be on the track again.  Daytona left his car with some body damage that would need repair on the front driver’s side bumper. Some drivers had huge air Conditioned trailers with state of the art amenities, while others scape by with only the bare essentials. Having all those bells and whistles doesn’t guarantee a win. Watch for number 37 to start moving up the ranks.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for August 16th and 17th

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Saturday August 16, 2014

1pm to 3pm Free. Family Days at the Maitland Museum. Maitland Art Center, 231 Packwood Avenue West, Maitland, FL. Gather your family for an afternoon of quality time together at Family Days at the Museum! Family Days at the Museum is held on the 3rd Saturday of every month, and each program is held in a different location within the Art and History Museums. Join us for this afternoon of family fun!

3pm to 5pm Free. Orlando Artists’ Quarterly Social. Sleeping Moon Cafe 495 N Semoran Blvd Suite 1, Winter Park, Florida. Please join us for an opportunity to meet and connect!

This is a networking event for Orlando area artists to help create support and opportunity within our local community. Be sure to bring your business cards or any other printed information about you and your work that you’d like to share. ALL ARTISTS WELCOME!

Bringing a friend or significant other is always welcome. Sharing this event page with your artist friends is also greatly appreciated.

Friends, PLEASE RSVP with the utmost sincerity. Since this meeting’s location is at a cafe, I am reserving the time and space with the venue so that they can be prepared for food and drink orders, and appropriate staffing. They are very supportive of the art community, so please help me in supporting them with appropriate RSVPs so that we can all plan accordingly.

This event is organized by Rebecca Williams. Please contact her with any questions or concerns via Facebook or through email at: info@theartofrebeccawilliams.com

3pm to 7pm Fee. Cruisin’ Downtown DeLand Car Show! East Indiana Ave Downtown DeLand, Deland FL. Classic cars & rods.  Live DJ, giveaways, shopping & dining. Fun for the family! Every 3rd Saturday night! INFO: & for showing your car 386-738-0649

http://mainstreetdeland.org/calendar.cfm/mode/details/id/12037/recurringId/71147/cruisin-downtown-deland-car-show

http://mainstreetdeland.org

Sunday August 17, 2014

Noon to 3pm Free. Music at the Casa The Olde Noyse. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 North Park Avenue, Winter Park, FL. The Olde Noyse has been a musical fixture in the Central Florida area for well over a decade.  In chamber music settings (both vocal and instrumental), the Olde Noyse is an ensemble made up of highly talented musicians who can provide an exquisite and pleasurable level of enjoyment.

4:30pm to 6:30pm $13 Roller Derby: Serial Thrillers vs Sunnyland Slammers. Semoran Skateway 2670 Cassel Creek Blvd, Casselberry, Florida. Come out and watch the Orlando Roller Derby – Serial Thrillers and the Orlando Roller Derby – Sunnyland Slammers battle it out at Semoran Skateway! Doors open at 4:30 and first jam is at 5:00.

This is an all ages event.

Food and BEER will be available at the snack bar.

We will have a 50/50 raffle, so bring some cash!

Remember to bring your own chairs; chairs with rubber bottoms are allowed on the track, high heels are not.

And don’t forget, you can take home a piece of OPCDG with one of our league or team shirts, or even a one of a kind, derby girl made, necklaces, magnets, and more. (CafePress.com/OPCDGmerchandise)

After party will be directly after the game at Friendly Confines, Winter Park.

Tickets are $10 in advance through Brown Paper Tickets or $13 at the door.

Any questions, check us out at – Orlando Psycho City Derby Girls

9pm to 11pm Free. Solo Acoustic Spoken Word. Natura Coffee & Tea, 12078 Collegiate Way, Orlando, FL. 407 482-5000.

Before the Race

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Between races, the cars returned to the garage on the Daytona International Speedway infield for repairs and maintenance. You get to the infield by driving under the track through a tunnel. Here all the trailers that transport the race cars are parked. Wendy Wallenberg leaned against Jim Kneeland‘s number 37 Mazda Miada. Before the race, the drivers have to give their driving license to race officials. Only after the race can the drivers get their license back. This is to keep drivers from being overly agressive or breaking rules of conduct.

Tires literally melt as the cars scream down the Daytona Speedway track.  They often jet stream behind another car. The cars don’t only tailgate, they touch bumpers. The back car pushes the front car and both cars go faster. lt is very easy to cause a spin out but no accidents happened while I watched the race. This was my first time watching a race from up close, and it was a unique thrill. I believe the red car, number 25 was the car that won the next race.

Orlando Soup Highlights Community Projects

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On May 13th, the inaugural Orlando Soup event was held at East End Market. Modeled after the successful Detroit SOUP that started four years ago,
is a micro-granting community dinner offering local activists,
entrepreneurs and creatives a platform for networking and an opportunity
to win funding for projects.

For a donation of $7, attendees received soup (made by Slow Food Orlando using fresh, local ingredients), salad and bread. Before dinner was served, everyone listened to four short community project proposals covering a range of community improvement topics such as art, urban agriculture, social justice, social entrepreneurship, education, technology, and more. During dinner, attendees cast a vote by placing a cube of sugar into cups representing the different projects for their favorite project and, at the end of the night, the project that received the most votes was funded by $5 from each attendees’ donation. The winner will appear at the next SOUP dinner to report their project’s progress.

Brendan O’Connor pitched a wacky, fun idea of starting a Pop-up University offering college level courses in a bounce house. The simple idea is that people learn fast when having fun. The courses taught wasn’t yet established but I’d love to teach animation principles in a bounce house.  Ricardo Williams was part of a group called Project Rethink that intends to to place “sustainable graffiti” around Orlando that has environmental awareness messages.  Sustainable graffiti is accomplished by picking a dirty wall and using a stencil to spray wash or clean the message into the grime. Over time the message will disappear was the wall gets dirty again. Another method of creating messages would be moss graffiti. The message would appear where moss was encouraged to grow. I love this idea and hope to get out to sketch artists in action.

I sketched Ashley Erin Pollard as she pitched the idea of creating vending machines that offer art. She is an architect by day and hopes this project will help her become better connected to the Orlando Arts community. The idea isn’t entirely new but I’d love to see it brought to Orlando. Ashley was the presenter right after Brendan. I was inspired by how petite she seemed compared to the huge podium. Ultimately my cube of sugar went into the cup for her project. I am all for bringing more art to Orlando.

Jimmy Sherfey presented the Florida Coffee Symposium. This local
miniature conference will celebrate the culture of coffee producers at
origins across the globe. He is
planning the first Florida Coffee Symposium for September 6, 2014.

The winner at the first-ever Orlando SOUP on May 13, 2014 was Project ReThink, presented by Chris Castro and Clayton Ferrara.  They won $500-800 to help fund their project.  My Ivanhoe district, Fringe mural will be in the line up at the next Orlando Soup, TONIGHT 7-9pm at East End Market (3201 Corrine Dr, Orlando, FL)! The tickets were $10 and the event is SOLD OUT. Hope to see you there as you support creativity, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and community building.

The History Boys at The Mad Cow Theater

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On August 5th, I went to a dress rehearsal of The History Boys, written by Alan Bennett, at The Mad Cow Theater.  This show, directed by Mark Edward Smith was quick witted and fast paced. The school bells rang with incessant frequency causing the boys to cascade and rush like waves hitting a beach.  I grew flustered, trying to catch then all in one place. Philip Nolen, gave a memorable performance as the boys’ unorthodox history teacher. Philip kept the boys and audience laughing while making them think. He would playfully swat a student if he wasn’t keeping up with the playful banter. The boys would protest but they didn’t mind. One admitted he was a bit hurt that he wasn’t swatted. It meant the teacher didn’t like him.

One boy described his date with a girl as if he was recreating a historic battle. Adolescent sexual yearnings were fodder for playful humor. I came to admire the teacher’s closed door tactics until he was found guilty of inappropriately touching a boy.  It suddenly seemed that the all boy’s school was bubbling over with homosexuality. A young teacher, Peter Travis, joins the school staff and he challenges the view of history as entertainment. he prepares the unruly handful of senior
schoolboys, for coveted places at either Oxford or Cambridge by making them challenge historic fact. Everyone at an Ivy league school knows the boring facts. They want to see someone think outside the box. The boys were encouraged to challenge conventions and therefor  they not
only learned historic fact but they understood its motives and meaning. I was a bit put off by this teacher’s view that any student who didn’t get good grades could always go into the arts.

When the older teacher is about to be expelled, he breaks down in class, lamenting the years he wasted teaching the same material again and again. It is the first time the students got to see him as a flawed man rather than a clown. Everyone seems to want to sweep his indiscretion under the rug except for the school administrator played by Tommy Keesling. The very purpose of education seemed overshadowed by the chaos of adolescence. The play write turns a blind eye to the harm done from lost trust. The one boy who didn’t play along in classroom games got accepted into his chosen Ivy league school not because of what he learned from history, but from his family connections.

 The History Boys plays Thursdays – Sundays, Aug 8 – Sept 7, 2014 in The Harriett Theatre.
Curtain time is 7:30pm for all evening performances and 2:30pm for all matinees. Tickets start at $28.25.

 The History Boys

• What: A comedy-drama by Alan Bennett

• Length: 2:40, including intermission

• Where: Mad Cow Theatre, 54 W. Church St., Orlando

• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through Sept. 7

• Tickets: $28.25 and higher

• Call: 407-297-8788

• Online: madcowtheatre.com

The China Garden Restaurant in Winter Park

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After work at Full Sail, I planned to sketch a Batman vs. Superman themed event at The Comic Shop. I got off work at 5pm and therefor was in the neighborhood early. The China Garden (118 S Semoran Blvd, Winter Park, FL)  is in the same strip mall as The Comic Shop, so I decided to stop in for dinner.

 I ordered a simple fried rice dish and sketched as I ate. Across from me another man ate alone while reading a book, so I sketched him. The colorful lanterns on the ceiling also caught my eye. While living in NYC, I once had to purchase such lanterns for set designer, Jim Yeomans as a set prop for “A Streetcar Named Desire“. The lantern’s I purchased however were too large so I was stuck with them. It took me years to sell them all off. In the booth in front of me a family settled in and they all spoke French. This seemed surprising since Orlando always impressed me as being rather homogeneous rather than a cultural melting pot.

The fried rice was decent and once the sketch was done, I walked over to The Comic Shop. In the back room of the Comic Shop is a bar known as “The Geek Easy” which is where I assumed the Batman event would be. The entrance to the Geek Easy however was now the entrance to a bathroom and two workers were busy installing the plumbing. Because of this construction the Event was delayed several hours. I already had a sketch for the day so I got ready to leave. I was offered a black cape and cheap cardboard Batman mask as consolation, but I didn’t take the swag. I couldn’t imagine any instance where I might need to wear a Batman cape. I’m no super hero, just a mild mannered artist.