Sound Scape Park

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After a solid day of viewing art at Art Basel, our group decided to meet up at Sound Scape Park, just a block from the Convention Center. Mark Baratelli and I arrived first. Videos were going to be projected on the side of the New World Center which is a performance space for the New World Symphony. The palm trees in the park were all fitted with speakers for a surround sound experience. I started sketching near the projection booth at the back of the lawn. Orange and purple been bags were scattered all over the lawn for people to lounge in. Mark and I gathered three been bags for our group. Mark was thirsty so he walked to Washington Avenue in search of sodas. I was left to guard the bean bags as I sketched.

Every few minutes people would interrupt me asking how much it cost to rent the bean bags. I guess, since I was seated next to a group of bean bags they assumed I was in charge. I would explain that seating was free. They would then reach for the bags next to me and I had to explain I was saving them. One guy grabbed one and said, “You aren’t going to miss just one.” It wasn’t worth getting in a fist fight over a damn bag. They would have to make due. I decided it was easier to say “The bean bag chairs are $50 to rent” any time someone approached. Finally Terry and our friends arrived. They all squeezed together on the remaining bean bags, joking and snuggling.

The video I sketched was called, “I’m not much, but I’m all I think about”, by Marilyn Minter. Dimensional sculpted “ME” kept falling into a viscous fluid which splashed and then enveloped the letters in slow motion. I would have to guess that it was a film about narcissism. The next film was called, “God bless America” by Martha Rosier and it featured a woman saluting who struggle to pull the saluting hand away from her face.

After the screening, Derrek Hewitt rushed off to get the car in a parking garage. Terry, Mark and I lost his group on the way. Mark and I quickly walked through an abandoned store front that was full of stitched art. Female nudes were outlined with stitching on large six or seven foot canvas sheets. Two girls sat on the floor stitching. “Great sketch opportunity”, I thought but we had to find the group. After phone calls and texts, Mark and I piled into the car and we were all off to find a restaurant.

Art Basel Video Kiosks

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The sheer volume of artwork to be seen in the convention center is mind boggling. These large video kiosks build out of plywood were constantly occupied not only by people curious to see the videos, but by people just looking for a chance to rest their feet. I sat on my portable artist’s bench and started sketching. The video pods were playing 22 films selected by Artprojx and they played on a continuous loop. I watched one for a short while. It was a black and white film that showed a Marlyn Monroe look alike as she wandered aimlessly in a deserted city lot. I lost interest quickly and moved on.

In the background of the sketch is a black sculpture hanging by a chain from the ceiling joists. It is “Untitled #1176” by Petah Coyne made between 2007 and 2010. The piece consisted of a chandelier which was covered with taxidermy birds, candles silk flowers, hair pins, felt, thread and Velcro. I don’t know where someone would want to hang the thing.

I walked around with Mark Baratelli for a while and we came to the conclusion that this was the year of broken mirrors and hair. Just as we agreed on this, we came across four woman’s wigs framed on the wall. One small piece mounted inside a clear plexiglass box looked like a bar of soap carved out of a piece of wood. Mark read the plaque and discovered that the wood grain was actually a long strand of pubic hair. He enjoyed explaining the piece to two women who wandered by.

One artists work did capture my imagination. There were large plexiglass dioramas mounted on the wall. One diorama depicted a giant swirl in the ocean with two tall ships getting sucked into the “Maelstrom” by Mondongo. The colors were small strips of Plasticine. It reminded me of a 3D version of a Van Gogh. I loved how the work danced a fine line between painting and sculpture.

We went to the Wynwood Arts District in the evening to check out the vibrant galleries and graffiti art. We went to an Absolute Party, sipping Coconut Vodka while listening to musicians performing in front of a shipping storage container. Art covered every imaginable surface. The whole neighborhood was a riot of sound and color. A sketchers dream, but I was being escorted on a lightning tour of the neighborhood. We stopped in an empty lot full of food trucks. I suspect the neighborhood would be partying all night but it was time to crash.

Art Basel Miami

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Terry, Mark Baratelli and I drove down to Miami to see Art Basel. Basel is a city in Switzerland where art galleries from around the world gather to show their art. This was the tenth year that the art exhibition has taken place in Miami as well. Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff was gracious enough to let us stay in one of her South Beach Condos. When we arrived in the late afternoon we all relaxed and read the Miami Herald entertainment section to get an idea of what we might like to see. Art Basel is centered in the convention center but also has satellite tents and exhibitions all over town. It is impossible to see everything.

I was intrigued by a performance piece by Glenn Kaino. In a park near the convention center he was asking people to help him levitate a 20 by 20 foot platform with a representation of the 1934 Worlds Fair perched on top. Called “Levitating the Fair“, it was to be held up for the entire four day duration of the Art Basel. Derek Hewitt dropped Mark Baratelli and myself off in the park. As Mark photographed desert food bikes, I searched for a crowd holding up the Worlds Fair. I never found it. I did see the platform but it didn’t appear to be levitating. Perhaps everyone was on a bathroom break.

Star Wars paratroopers were guarding the balconies of an apartment complex across the street from the park. Picasso held a house painting brush loaded up with bright pink paint. “Love is the answer” billowed in the ocean breeze. A huge Mr. Potato Head had a green Swiss alps hat on and for some reason he was pleased to be holding a squeeze bottle of ketchup. “Brainwash” was printed above the doorway. After I finished my sketch, I hiked over to the convention center. The art marathon had begun.

DRIP Dance on International Drive

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Drip dance is renting a new performance space on International Drive (8747 International Drive, Orlando). I had some trouble finding the entrance. You actually enter the space via a loading dock behind a Denny’s restaurant. Jessica Mariko, the dance company’s founder, wants to keep the feeling that you are entering an independent, alternative venue off the main drag. Signage will help guide people back. The space is raw and unfinished, a blank canvas waiting to fulfill it’s creative potential. Large plastic sheets were taped to the walls and floor in a far corner where dancers would later be photographed along with flying pigments. The space used to be an indoor miniature golf course. Large rolls of artificial grass were arranged around a square in the center of the cavernous space. About twenty volunteers sat down for an informal meeting. There was beer and snacks for the people helping make this dream a reality.

Jessica outlined Drips mission statement for the new people coming on board. “DRIP combines performing arts and visual arts to create compelling sensory-stimulated experiences that excite and move audiences. We believe everyone has the potential to succeed at whatever they desire. DRIP provides a supportive environment that encourages participants to continually develop themselves while doing things they are passionate about. We aim to become a worldwide household name that is know for innovative, captivating and stimulating entertainment.” Jessica said that she is building the business plan based on shows like Circque Du Soleil and Blue Man Group. David Traver who composed the music for the new DRIP show actually works for Blue Man Group.

DRIP‘s opening show in the new venue will offer a “wet, raw, sexy rock ‘n roll experience, that stimulates many senses. The show includes dance, acting, live music, visual art installations and a powerful story. A variety of alcoholic beverages and merchandise will also be sold at the venue.” The bar is one element that is taking form fast. Jessica wants to have an urban dive bar that serves colored beers. Brian Sikorsky is in charge of trying to make that happen. Big beer companies are reluctant to have organic coloring added to the beer since taste is the top priority. Every option is being considered to make the colored beer bar a working reality.

Dancers are still needed to fill out the core group. A ramp has to be built up to the loading dock entrance, permits need to be filed, and the bar completed, all within a month’s time. An explosion of volunteer creative effort is going into making DRIP an alternative hit on International Drive.

Little Shop of Horrors

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Director John DiDonna staged a lively production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Annie Russell Theater in Rollins College. I love the Annie Russell’s fabulous Baroque architectural touches. As the audience filled in, several bums lounged on the stage, occasionally shifting positions to get comfortable. I’ve always loved the music from this play. I used to blast it while I painted in NYC. I always hoped that someday I’d live somewhere that’s green.

Audrey, the plant, was four different sized in the production. I ended up drawing the third largest version. When Audrey was at his largest, he filled the little shop. John took me back stage after the show to see the inner workings of the puppets. A puppeteer had to get inside the plant and bend at the waist to get the plant to talk. I must have been physically exhausting.

On stage right a chair was draped and hidden with fabric. It turned out this was the dentists chair. Today I went to the dentist and discovered I needed four wisdom teeth pulled. I was given Nitrous gas and told to relax. Old x-rays from eight years ago turned out to be from another patient mixed in with my own. As new x-rays were taken the tech told me they were short staffed. An assistant disappeared because of a family emergency. As the dentist worked on my teeth, he kept coaching the assistant so she wasn’t in his way as he worked. It seemed like this was her first time applying suction. I suspect she was usually in the reception area but she was excited to learn.

The bright light in my eyes, I saw a large needle and felt a sharp burning sensation in my gums and in my cheeks. I flinched and the doc apologized. He kept the needle in and kept vibrating it pushing hard. He repeated the process on all four quadrants of my gums. The worst pain happened when he stabbed the roof of my mouth. I was fitted with a bright orange clowns nose with two hoses for the gas. My head swam and my legs relaxed. Some sort of wedge was inserted inside my mouth to keep it open.

Before he began, he advised me to take an extra deep inhale of the nitrous. I heard his stomach gurgle. The dentist started prying at my back wisdom tooth and he pushed hard under the roots. I heard a crunching noise, like a tree branch breaking and I felt the tooth give way. For an eternity he continued to pry. There was cracking and crunching as he broke the teeth free. Giant hands and tools invaded my field of vision. “I should be sketching” I thought. When he was done he patted me on the shoulder and said, “Time flies when you’re having fun, kind of makes you wish you could have them all out.” He loved his work.

I was left reclined in the seat to recover. My whole mouth was numb and I realized I couldn’t swallow. My throat felt like it was constricting. I started to panic. I heard shoes ringing on the tile as assistants and dentists rushed from station to station. Would they notice if I stopped breathing? I gasped for air through my mouth and struggled to relax. When I was finally seated upright and the orange nose removed, I breathed a deep sigh of relief. A simple trip to the dentist for a deep cleaning turned into an unexpected horror.

Orlando Holiday Pops Concert

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The Orlando Philharmonic performed a free Holiday Pops concert in Winter Park’s Central Park. The lawn in front of the band shell was crowded with families with blankets and lawn chairs. In order to sketch the stage up close I sat next to the stage with a few others. The sun was setting so I made sure to sit in the shadow of a tree. Within a half an hour the sun shot out below the canopy of the band shell. I was blinded every time I looked at the performers. I shifted my attention to the audience in the grass.

Children scampered around playing tag. A young boy was seated against a tree and he was startled when a frantic squirrel charged at him through the crowd. At the last second the squirrel saw the boy and changed course to leap up another tree trunk. The music was your standard holiday fair. A youth chorus and an adult chorus joined the orchestra. Chorus members lounged on the band shell steps waiting to go on stage. Two tiered bleachers were set up on stage left for the chorus.

Of course all the upscale stores on Park Avenue were open to attract the Holiday hoard after the concert. Let the shopping season begin.

Puppets for Harbor House

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The Michelee Puppets Studio hosted volunteers from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch to create sock puppets for the children of Harbor House which is a safe haven for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. Jodie Hardman who organized this volunteer effort arrived with a stack of red volunteer T-Shirts. Tracy Conner the executive director of Michelee Puppets welcomed me warmly. I had met her once before at a United Arts award ceremony where she won an award for her work in the community.

Michelee puppets teach children to respect themselves and others, basically encouraging them to be good human beings. A recent production called “Little Heros” teaches violence prevention and ways to be safe. It teaches where children can go for help. Bullying is taught to be unacceptable. Cyber bullying is apparently rampant now among children. Children are taught that words do hurt.

Volunteers provided the new colorful socks and Michelee provided sequins, googly eyes, yarn fabrics and hot glue guns. Everyone worked with focused concentration like busy holiday elves. Jody was proud of the long Pippy Long Stocking braids she had on her puppet. There was a fun playful spirit to the event. When Jodi placed the puppet on her hand she became the character. She whipped the puppets head side to side enjoying the flowing braids. The kids laughed, their guards down. Each person made about two puppets. Everyone posed for a group photo.

On Friday all the sock puppets created, and about a dozen mini Christmas trees, will be donated to moms and children at Harbor House.

The Goonies

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Denna Beena invited friend over to celebrate her fiance, Travis Fillmen’s birthday. It was an evening potluck and barbeque. As soon as Terry and I arrived, it began to rain and everyone ran up the wooden steps to the second floor apartment. The first thing I saw entering the apartment was a sinister life like baby with blood stained teeth. I had seen similar babies at Spirit Halloween. Travis was at the stove preparing some deep fried pickles. I had never tasted a deep fried pickle before and now I’m a huge fan. Many of the people at the party were comedians from the SAK comedy lab.

The grill outside was kept going an soon there were hotdogs and hamburgers for everyone. There were cupcake sized cheese cakes that were to die for. Terry and Wendy Wallenburg sat together on the couch looking at shoes and other accessories on Wendy’s phone.

The highlight of the evening was an out door screening of “The Goonies“. The movie was a silly and fun Spielburg kids adventure. Travis had purchased a huge wide screen TV but discovered that it was impossible to get up the stairs to the apartment. The TV now lives in the garage and is rolled out for outdoor screenings. Perhaps a dozen people sat in a semi circle of camping chairs watching the movie. A cage was suspended from a tree above them with skeletal remains inside. Candle light and a string of Christmas lights offered the only illumination. I created my own second row so I could sketch.

The Diviners

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Beth Marshall Presents brought this Depression Era story set in the dust bowl to the Garden Theatre (160 West Plant Street, Winter Garden). Directed by Aradhana Tiwari, opening scene set the stage full of movement as townspeople went about their daily routines. A windmill stood in stark silhouette and Buddy Layman played by CK Anderson gasped awake. Walking down a dirt road was C.C. Showers played by Michael Marinaccio. C.C was a former priest running from his fathers calling. He found work with the Layman family.

Buddy Layman was a high spirited, somewhat retarded boy who referred to himself in the third person. He had a gift for divining where there was water. He used a tree branch to search as farmers followed with eager anticipation. He had a natural gift. He could feel a storms approach on a clear day. It became clear in time that the boy feared water because he once almost drowned. His mother died in that incident and Buddy was unable to accept that she would never return. Buddy and C.C. developed a bond, a brotherly friendship. Buddy’s fear of water was so severe that he would bolt at the sight of a bucket. He feared he could not breath when it rained. He never washed, and that became a problem cause he constantly had itchy feet.

The cast did an amazing job with thick accents and rural mannerisms. I was particularly taken with Marinaccio’s performance. When he demonstrated his father’s preaching, he became bigger than life, bombastic and powerful. What he yearned for however was a simpler life away from the priesthood. But once townsfolk discovered his past calling, they wouldn’t let him be. He was asked to say grace before meals and anytime he was seen with Buddy, they thought he was saving the boys spirit and that he could cure Buddy’s fear of water. This conflict between too much and too little faith is what caused a tragic oversight.

The final scene of the play was beautiful and tragic. The stage was illuminated from below with a green flickering light. C.C. had lost Buddy in the river. They moved under the water and the theatre filled with the muffled sounds of bubbles and rushing water. When they burst up for air, the light burst warmly on and the watery audio stopped. When then slipped back under, the world flickered green and muffled again. They struggled against the current. Townspeople moved in horrified slow motion.

The play ended as it began, a full circle, with townspeople going about their business and then Basil, the town farmer, and Dewey, a farm hand, gave a eulogy. The weight of their words had new meaning. Amazing Grace filled the dark theater. The Diviners will run December 15 -18th. Performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm , and Sundays at 2pm.

Harmonious Universe

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In the beer garden behind the Social Chameleon, the DJ Mo’Negro, had a portable mixing board perched open before him. His hand rested on the earphones as he mixed the music.A young woman painted several small automobiles and then spelled out, “Bank” in bright red paint. A dollar sign was added by another gentleman later in the evening. My favorite part of the mural is a gnarly black and white stripped tree which looks like it could grow and take over the wall. A young woman with curly blond hair knelled before it and I thought she might be the creator returning to let the tree stretch it’s limbs and grow. Unfortunately she just added a small detail next to the roots.

Todd Morgan got up on a short ladder to work up high. His wife Laura was going to paint, but when she was coached, she decided to sit it out. The creative impulse is so easy to break. Markus Adkins made bold large changes to the mural. He added a huge bold area of red above the large face of a woman. He liked adding paint with a squirt bottle letting it drip down. In spots the mortar of the block wall was accentuated with dark paint. The wall was compartmentalized yet in spots it began to pull together as a whole. A few more drinks and many more brush strokes and who knows where it will go. Work will continue on the mural on the evening of December 17th. Get out there and make your mark, everyone is welcome. “Be it, share it.”