Groundbreaking Celebration

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A large tent was erected on the site for the groundbreaking celebration for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Located across from City Hall, the tent’s entrance was right where Magnolia bumps into South Street. I was directed to the media check in table where Jordana Lipkin gave me my press lanyard. The tent was air conditioned, but it was so hot out that everyone was waving their programs to stay cool.

There were rows of white folding chairs, all of which had “Reserved” signs. I bumped into Mark Baratelli of TheDailyCity.com. We took photos of ourselves shoveling the dirt. His face popped up periodically on video monitors so I was hanging out with “the talent.” We joked about all the reserved seats. No one was sitting. It seemed that, like the Emperor’s new clothes, the event was so exclusive that no one would be allowed to park their butt. The first act on the stage was a string quartet from the Orlando Philharmonic which is ironic since the performance hall will not benefit the Orchestra since it isn’t an acoustically designed hall. It will only be good for traveling Broadway shows that use microphones.

The second act, “Sovereign Brass” also had performers from the Orchestra. I wondered if any local performer at the groundbreaking would ever benefit from the new stage. A little girl in a black dress watched the musicians mesmerized.

Andrea Canny joined Mark and I in our prime viewing spot. By now the tent was crowded full of several hundred people. Mayor Buddy Dyer started his speech with a quote from Michelangelo that I rather like…

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” He said that over 200 businesses have opened since the Amway Center opened. Many of them might be the bicycle driven handy cabs. He stressed that Arts and Culture are the soul of any city, and I couldn’t agree more. The tourism industry helped put the whole package together. I just hope they sprinkle enough pixie dust to somehow make the financial numbers work out. In three card Monti we eventually find the Ace of hearts if we bet enough money. Don’t we?

Davis Gaines sang “This is the Moment,” and for a moment, I believed. There was an orange band of sand in front of the stage. Several people walked on it and the orange crust broke showing the white sand beneath. We speculated that it might be some Tibetan sand art or perhaps it was an indication of the front wall of the new building. Our questions were answered when Buddy Dyer and city commissioners all lined up with shovels to break ground in the orange sand. Cannons fired sending streamers over the crowd and two tent panels were torn open showing huge bulldozers which fired up ready to work.

Food Truck Bazaar

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On Father’s Day I met Terry and Amanda at the Food Truck Bazaar. The event took place at the Fashion Square Mall (East Colonial Drive and Maguire). I couldn’t find the event at first so I drove aimlessly through the Mall parking lot circling around the Mall as best I could. Anytime I am near a mall I feel like I am out of my element. I finally spotted a tent and then the trucks.

I sat in the shade of a tree and got to work. It was blisteringly hot. The Winter Park Fish Company truck was elaborately decorated so that became my focus. Mark Baratelli who organized the event came over to say hello. He was a bit nervous that attendance might be down. He suggested I sketch a few more people. The trucks were lined up on opposite sides of the parking lot. In the center of the lot Ford was offering test drives in a program called “Drive with Purpose.” Mark explained that they were giving away $8 vouchers good for any food truck if you took a test drive.

An RV full of friends and children drove from Coco Beach to experience the Bazaar. People sat in lawn chairs and folding tables they had carted from home. One family had their own tent set up in the parking lot. They kept angling the size of the four legs as the sun dipped lower toward the horizon. A large group of bikers sucked down water and calories.

Mark went back to a table where he was selling water. He must have been coaching his volunteers on how to best sell water because he started doing a hilarious jig and he tossed a water bottle in the air like a baton. He missed and the water crashed to the pavement. Terry and Amanda arrived and I finished up my sketch. We ordered several Salvadorian meat filled pupusas. Then we tried several fish tacos from the Winter Park Fish Company truck as well as a delicious Tuna kabob. Baxter, Amanda’s dog was a nervous wreck. His tail was curled under between his hind legs and he wasn’t happy unless he sat in her lap like a cat.

Just as I finished my fish taco it began to rain. We all dashed to our cars for cover.

If you want to catch a Food Truck Bazaar, here are future dates…

June 26 | 6-10pm | Parliament House

JULY

July 10 | 6-10pm | Oviedo Mall

July 17 | 6-10pm | Fashion Square Mall

July 24 | 6-10pm | Parliament House

AUGUST

Aug 14 | 6-10pm | Oviedo Mall

Aug 21 | 6-10pm | Fashion Square Mall

Aug 28 | 6-10pm | Parliament House

Shut Up and Play

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Last year the organizers of “Shut Up and Play”, Jeremy Birdsall and Thuan Nguyen, invited me to sketch at the all day all acoustic concert. The next week must have been a busy one since those sketches never made it to the blog until now. This year’s “Shut Up and Play” concert presented by Presented by Kavode Entertainment & 11/12 Lounge looks like it will pack a punch. More than 20 bands will perform on three indoor stages. Headlining the event will be the jaw-dropping Regi Wooten Band from Nashville, and there will be an all-star jam at the end of the night! The variety of acoustic music on the menu is astounding. There is fusion, funk, jazz, new age, rock, groove, hip hop, blues, Latin, new age, 70’s progressive, ambient, world, flamenco and classical! Obviously there is something for any musical taste and palate.

I had so much fun sketching at the event last year. First I got to meet and work with Louise Bova and Dawn Schreiner, several visual artists whose work I respect and admire. Louise and Dawn worked live on stage as the bands performed. Dawn worked on a whimsically decorated room divider while Louise painted a portrait. I sketched from the wings of the stage and then from the open area in front of the stage. The music from “Bucket of Shrimp Ears” was energetic and a blast to sketch to. This amazing music festival will leave you dancing in the aisles. I intend to sketch till I drop while enjoying the music.

Some of the bands I have seen before, like the Absinthe Trio, Shak Nasti, and the Forefathers. I look forward to hearing them again. There is body painting, live art, massages and prizes. Come on out to “Shut Up and Play” Saturday June 26th from 2pm to 2am at 11/12 Lounge (843 Lee Road Winter Park).

The Attack of the Jellies!

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Over the Memorial day weekend Terry and I met Elaine Pasekoff and Derrek Hewitt at Coco Beach. We stuffed quarters in the parking meters and hiked over the small boardwalk to the beach. We were surprised that the strip of beach we were on wasn’t crowded. A huge sea turtle lay on the dry sand its shell broken. The stench of death overpowered us and we moved up the beach. The umbrella and chairs that Derrek had carried were set up. I was the first to walk to the water’s edge. There I was shocked to find billions of jelly fish being washed up in the surf. These were mauve stingers which are usually native to the Mediterranean. The wet sand was littered with jellies each one being the size of a ping pong ball. There was no way I was going in the water. When I looked up and down the beach I realized that there was no one in the water. The pink blobs had taken back the ocean on one of the busiest weekends of the summer season.

Lifeguards treated over 1,800 people for stings. Though not as potent as the sting from a blue Portuguese man-of-war, the stings were painful. Local convenience stores ran out of Benadryl and vinegar. We joked that we might have to pee on each other if we got stung. A few people were sent to local hospitals after suffering from allergic reactions. It wasn’t safe in the water. The four of us huddled under the beach umbrella. I sketched the view to the north.

The attack of the jellies was unprecedented. This species of jellyfish had never been seen on these beaches. Jellies are flourishing in the warmer ocean waters, being washed up on beaches more often. After invading the beach for the weekend, the smack of jellyfish disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

Casey Anthony Case

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A little more than two years ago, when I first started doing a sketch a day, I found myself sketching at the damp uprooted woods where Caylee Anthony’s body was found. I also attended a memorial service in her honor at the First Baptist Church. For me the endless media coverage of the trial seems ridiculous in the face of the human tragedy that is being flaunted for profit.The empty lot across from the courthouse was over run with TV media trucks with their satellite disks pointing to the heavens. As I approached the site I bumped into Louise Bova who bikes past the courthouse every day on her way home. She pointed out that there were even more trucks parked in another empty lot across from where we stood.

I nestled myself in the shadow of the Bank of America building. In the courtyard behind me a musician was setting up the amplifiers for his guitar to sing to patrons at the bar. He began singing “Let it be” by John Lennon. For me the music was soothing, appropriate and somewhat comical relating to the scene spread out before me. A homeless man who I had just seen sleeping under an I-4 overpass walked on the sidewalk in front of the media trucks. He saw some trash and picked it up and put it in a trash basket attached to a light pole. Peter Murphy waved to me as he biked by. Moments later my phone vibrated and there was a tweet from Peter announcing that he had just seem me sketching. “Keep Orlando awesome” he tweeted.

To be honest I am not following the constant TV coverage of the trial. In the morning I asked a teacher who was watching all the TV courtroom drama what she thought. “Guilty” she said. There are lines of people that start forming at 4am and yesterday a fight broke out when someone tried to cut into the line. This kind of spectacle certainly doesn’t make Orlando look good. People keep suggesting I should sketch the trial. That would involve getting up at 4am and standing in line with those lunatics. I think not. If any media wants to issue me a press pass then I’ll be there in a heart beat.

As I sketched a tourist stood taking photos. He became curious in what I was doing. He told me his girlfriend used to live right next to the JonBenet Ramsey home. That was a case where a little girl who competed in beauty pageants disappeared. He was annoyed that such cases become a media circus while many other children go missing with hardly a headline and other children go hungry.

24 Hour Embrace (after Young Sun Han)

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On Father’s Day, conceptual artist Brian Feldman vowed that he would hug his father for 24 hours straight. “24 Hour Embrace” was first performed by artist Young Sun Han at Swimming Pool Project Space in Chicago, Illinois on December 31, 2008. “24 Hour Embrace (after Young Sun Han)” marked the first time that Young Sun Han had granted permission to re-perform this piece, as well as the first time that Brian Feldman had re-performed another artist’s work.
I arrived at Orange Ave Gym (1616 North Orange Avenue) just before midnight on the eve of Father’s Day. Brian was a nervous spinning dervish. He kept knocking over his “Best of Orlando” award plaques as he adjusted them. He coached volunteers David Mooney and Christin Carlow on admission prices and the media press comp list. I was thankful that I was on that list. Admission was $10 for an all day wristband. Christin slipped the wristband snugly around my wrist. I asked where the boxing ring was and she directed me to a cavernous back room to the left. When I entered the back gym, Brian’s dad Edward was getting changed by a locker. He asked me to shoot several photos on his iPhone when he and Brian first embraced.

This was going to be one of Brian’s last major projects of 2011. I felt a sense of urgency and wanted to fully document this piece. I considered doing 12 to 24 sketches, staying with Brian and his dad through the whole embrace. After talking to Terry, I altered my plan, deciding to just sketch the beginning and end of the hug. As I was filling my watercolor brushes with water in the bathroom, Brian and his father entered the ring. Edward opened his arms and said, “I love you Brian.” and the hug began.

The event rules stated that I could enter the ring at anytime. I took off my boots and crawled under the ropes. I set up my stool and leaned back in the corner. Brian and his dad shifted their weight leaning back and forth into each other. They twisted and rotated always searching for a new more comfortable angle. David shouted, “Good night!” and soon Al Pergande came in and shot some digital photos. Orlando Live had a video camera set up to record all 24 hours. Two videographers shot cutaway shots constantly during the first hour. Halfway into my first sketch I was alone with father and son. One of the rules was, “No talking inside the ring.” The embrace continued in silence.

I began my second sketch around 8pm on Father’s Day. Brian looked green and exhausted, relying of his father’s blocky solid stance for support. Omar Delarosa and his mom Virginia Brown sat and watched for a while. Then they crawled into the ring and embracedfor perhaps 15 minutes before leaving. In the final hours, a crowd began to gather. A rowdy young man put on some boxing gloves and danced around the ring like a gorilla to his girlfriend’s delight. His antics actually caused Brian to laugh. A freelance photographer shot endlessly. With my second sketch finished, I exited the ring and laced up my boots. I didn’t need to see them exit the ring. The drama was not in the smattering of applause but in the long tedious moments of pain and reflection that happened when there was no audience. I was a proud witness.

Sam Flax Grand Opening

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Sam Flax moved into a new building just a few blocks east of the old store on Colonial Drive. The building was painted to look like the paintings of Piet Mondrian. The bright red, blue and yellow painted building looks like it is built from Legos. Andrew Spear and business partner Chuck Marklin executed the colorful conversion. To help commemorate the opening day, three mural artists were asked to paint murals on the side of the building in three panels that faced the parking lot. . Since I have to paint a mural myself now, I decided to go to the opening and talk to the artists.

There seems to be less parking available at the new store. I drove around the block to finally locate a spot right on Colonial Drive in front of a martial arts facility. Swamburger was working on a bold panel with a distorted circular fish eye view point. His under drawing was done with bold green brushwork. The face resembled an African mask. Andrew Spear was working on a crosshatched vision of an elephant. I was fortunate that Andrew introduced himself while I was still working on my sketch. I asked him what he used to do the bold line work on his murals. He handed me a Krink marker and explained that he had to order them online since few people carried them locally. I found it ironic that Sam Flax doesn’t carry them. Mother Falcon sometimes has them.

I went to Mother Falcon the next day to locate the markers. They had a much thicker marker than the one Andrew showed me but I bought it to try out. I inked in the largest figures on the Mennello Museum mural using that fat marker. I decided to order the thinner marker online and I used that for the next few figures. I am continuing to experiment and play with the ways that work best for me.

The Yum Yum Cupcake truck was there offering free cupcakes to anyone who bought art supplies in the store. A vendor saw me sketching and he offered me several General’s sketch and wash pencils along with an art training DVD and several erasers. Score! Maisy and Ron Mars said hello. She was shooting photos of one of her shirts discarded on the ground. This was supposed to be the end of the world and she wanted to leave photographic proof that she had ascended to heaven. The end of the world never came and the next day I had to face my 50th birthday.

FAAE Leadership Lunch

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After the first summit session all the arts teachers filtered out into the hallway outside the main ballroom. There was just a fifteen minute break before the Leadership Lunch. I pulled out my tablet and began a quick sketch. I use the tablet when I know there isn’t enough time to finish a sketch. I feel less guilty deleting the image from memory rather than throwing away paper. Next to me I thought I heard a familiar voice. I couldn’t quite place his face so I went back to the sketch. He recognized me and started telling a story about how he came to know Margaret Hill through one of my drawings of her. His name is Dario Moore and I last spoke to him when he sat on the review board for the United Arts grants this year. I remember him asking pointed questions that got to the heart of how art could affect and inspire a community.

At the morning session Mrs. Edna entertained the teachers with her puppets. William Shakespeare was the puppet in her lap and a grandma puppet had people laughing as she dozed off between sentences. Mrs Edna’s voice was a bit shaky at first but she rallied. She will be graduating from Full Sail University this year with a masters degree in music business management.

When Jennifer Coolidge got to the podium, I found a place to sit at the front of the room. The tables were full so I ended up using my camping chair. Jennifer is the executive director of the Museum of Florida Art, a trustee of the Florida House in Washington DC, and she was a past Executive Director of the Florida Alliance for Arts Education from 1995-2001. More important she has a face that was designed for smiling and a curious spirit. She was the only person who noticed I was sketching that morning. She introduced Frank Brogan who announced the Leadership Awards. A principal received an award and she talked about how her father now has to live with Alzheimer’s disease. At this late stage in his life he began making art. He was never interested in art in the past but suddenly it became his passion. She stressed that it is never too late to embrace art and she loves that she can help inspire and motivate children, making art important and meaningful to them. I started to well up with a broad smile as she walked back to her table and she was embraced by her staff.

Then Dario Moore was awarded the Doris Lieber award. Doris was an accomplished artist and the award acknowledges artists’ contributions to the arts community. Dario stressed that the community brought him to this place. He stressed that everyone should have the chance to fully express themselves. As a young boy he would excitedly shout “Moma, moma, moma!” and get a slap on the back of his head when all he wanted to express was, “I love you.” It was through art that a poverty stricken boy like himself could rise to a moment like this. He is a choreographer and I have heard good things about his “Sacred Slave Stories” which was performed this year as part of Arts Fest. After the awards ceremony I congratulated Dario and I asked if I could sketch rehearsals for “Sacred Slave Stories.” He said rehearsals are starting up again this August. I left the FAAE Summit inspired and fired up to continue to explore the arts with my humble sketches.

Arts Integrated Learning

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Walking into the Double Tree hotel (formerly the Sonesta) downtown near Lake Lake Ivanhoe, I was greeted with the sight of the collaborative mural I did for a downtown arts district fundraiser. I was here to report on the 2011 Leadership Summit for the Florida Alliance for Arts Education. After a brief welcome and introduction in the main ballroom, the art teachers in attendance split up to attend various learning and inspirational sessions. I went to the Delaney room to listen to Eric Booth speak. I had to finish up a sketch so I entered Eric’s session a little late. I was surprised that everyone in the room was standing as Eric spoke. He then immediately had all the teachers doing pantomime. I couldn’t see anything from the back of the room so I marched down the aisle amidst the chaos and I sat next to Eric looking out at the teachers.

Eric had everyone engaged involved and excited throughout his discussion. He acknowledged the value of anything that was offered for thought. He feels most students are taught to only provide the answer a teacher is looking for. Americans hate not knowing the right answer. He encouraged asking questions that have multiple answers. What matters then is the quality or inventiveness of the answer. Students become more creative after many small successes. Reflection is something that is missing in arts education today. 80% of what you teach is who you are. Passion and really engaging with the students in new and unexpected ways is vital.

He has found that when a student creates something he truly cares about then learning becomes essential. What is taught should have real life relevance for students. He stressed that a prime role of a teacher is as a witness. Every student must be acknowledged and encouraged when they think creatively. The student then can reflect and learn something about how they best learn.

Another activity was offered where teachers were paired in groups of two. One teacher stood and they were given the assignment to convince their partner to give up their chair. The energy in the room soured. There was begging, bribing cajoling and plenty of unexpected fun. There was certainly no room for boredom. When the exercise was over he pointed to several methods that had worked in NYC. One person acted like they might vomit. Another took the seated persons purse and put it out on the sidewalk. The seat was immediately given up. Mean yet creative sometimes works.

Mystery Sketch Theater

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The model at this month’s Mystery Sketch Theater called herself “Arsenic”. She talked about a body painting convention that had happened last month and it sounded like a choice sketching opportunity. When she entered the “Geek Easy” in the back of “The Comic Shop” she was carrying a tray of home made cupcakes. The red haired wig was large and cumbersome. As it shifted around on Arsenic’s head, it made her seem extremely young. The two artists next to me were comic book artists and their work had a polished look.

After finishing off a sketch of all the artists at work, I started doing isolated studies of Arsenic. Her poses were not particularly dynamic since the focus seemed to be on the costumes details rather than any one story point. I began blocking in my sketches immediately with ink. I skipped the tentative spidery pencil work I usually do and I think the sketches were stronger because of that.

There were the usual artist complaints that the drawings were not “on” or that the pose wasn’t working from their viewing angle. I don’t get bothered by the little details anymore. I was just happy she didn’t walk away. Kristen shouted loudly giving us all a one minute warning. Several artists groaned that there wasn’t enough time. I’m slowly learning to let go since sometimes an unfinished sketch has more charm and appeal than a finished piece.

The cupcakes were light and fluffy with no icing. Where else do you get to spend a relaxing evening drawing where the model offers treats? On the way out I thumbed through several graphic novels. I keep searching to see if there is an artist whose work feels like it was sketched on location. I keep toying with the idea of working with a small cast of actors who would be sketched at various locations around town to create the panels needed for a graphic novel. The huge response I got from people willing to pose for the Mennello Museum mural made me realize that my idea might not be a pipe dream.