Crown Royal

Posted on by Thor

It was the evening of an Orlando Magic game. I heard that a NASCAR vehicle was going to be on display down on Church street.When I arrived the closest thing I saw to a race car was this stumpy race simulator. Magic fans on the way to the Amway Center could also have their picture taken with a racing trophy on a pedestal. Reaching into my bag, I discovered I had left my sketchbooks at home. Subconsciously I must have wanted to use the tablet PC. Since there was little light it was the best option. A woman named Dana introduced herself. She had organized this event and she also handled events out at the Daytona International Speedway. She also let me know that car number 17 the Crown Royal would be at Church Street around 9 pm.

Just as I was finishing up this sketch a huge sixteen wheeled pulled up in front of me. The driver got out of the cab walked to the back of the truck and extended a shiny chrome ramp. Then using a winch the black race car was backed down to the street level. About six police offers were there and they inspected the cars every curve. It was a sexy machine. The truck driver asked if we all wanted to hear the engine fire up. Of course we did! He turned the ignition leaving in the cars diver side window. The starter clicked and sputtered like an old worn out Chevy. I thought, “Oh, great, the one race car I get to see on the streets of Orlando and it is a dud.” Then the engine, suddenly roared to life with such force and volume that it literally pushed me backwards forcing me to catch me balance on one foot. The noise filled the Church Street corridor. After revving the engine a few more times he shot the engine down. The silence was deafening.

I had promised Terry I would be home at a reasonable hour, so I didn’t stay to finish a second sketch. I agonized about this, placing about and considering the best sketching angle. When the Magic game was over there would be huge crowds of people around the vehicle. I also knew that I would be out at Daytona the next day. It turned out, that Terry stayed out late so I could have finished the sketch. Oh well, there will be other race cars.

Nude Nite

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This year Nude Nite was in a large warehouse South of Downtown, (SODO). Terry and I arrived in separate vehicles. I parked in front of a cement factory. Terry got to the event before me and greeted me at the entrance. We got to the event early but it was already packed inside. The first thing we saw was this woman seated nude on a blue inflatable chairs with a red fabric covering her head and a phone outlet cord plate where her face would be. I started sketching Immediately. A sign invited people to pick up the phone. On occasion people would sit opposite the woman and hold the phone. Most people only did this long enough to have their picture taken. As one patron said, “I am presuming that’s what pay-for-phone-sex sounds like. It was hard to hear, because of all the ambient noise, but I did hear enough.” As the crowd grew thicker, fewer people took the seat since there would be an audience watching them for a reaction. Terry came back after wandering and looking at all the nude art. She mentioned that there was nowhere to sit in the whole place. I suggested she sit opposite the woman I was sketching but she didn’t want to become part of the performance.

After the first sketch we walked around together and I got to see all the art for the first time. By now the venue was jam packed. Emotions Dancers slipped gracefully around among the crowd. Periodically one of the dancers would let out an ear piercing scream. We kept bumping into people we knew. I recognized the work of some of the artists I know. For the second sketch, I watched beautiful women get body painted with graffiti from head to toe. I noticed that no one was completely nude. women always wore panties. A more accurate title for the event might be Topless Night. Sketching the body painter, I was often bumped by photographers who were so excited to shoot a nude body that they never looked where they were going. Actually this was true all night, everyone stared and crashed into one another.
I was starving. We had been to a reception prior to Nude Nite but the food was gone by the time we arrived. Terry had some sushi provided by Sushi 101. She couldn’t use the chop sticks provided so they wrapped a rubber band around them to make them easier to use. We wandered around looking for an open restaurant but nothing was open but fast food restaurants. We were almost home before we had to give up and go to Burger King.
I found out that an artist who exhibited work at Nude Nite had a painting go missing. If you see this painting anywhere around town, leave a comment on this blog. The artist is offering a reward for information leading to its return. The reward is either a print of the painting or a small original charcoal drawing of the artists choice. I had my own work disappear at a Sonesta Hotel fundraiser and work has been defaced at Pom Poms Cafe, we need to stop the madness or Orlando will become a cultural backwater.

Shooting Orlando Live

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After spending 82 hours on the streets of downtown Orlando, Peter Murphy went straight into shooting a video broadcast of Orlando Live. The show began at 10 pm at the City Arts Factory. Cameras were set up in the hallway entry. There was the frantic activity of getting ready with time running out. Wires snaked everywhere in the hallway. Singer, songwriter, Britt Daley who was setup right outside the entry gave a live performance. Peter looked tired, his eyes glassy, but he lit up once the cameras started rolling.

His first interview was with Hannah Miller. Hannah is a puppeteer and she had several of the puppets she made for an upcoming show titled “Gift of the Magi.” One puppet hung from a light. A stagehand was concerned the light might topple with the added weight, but Hannah assured her that the puppet was extremely light. The conversation quickly turned from the world of entertainment to the experiences Peter had on the streets of Orlando. He discovered that Hannah volunteered for an organization called iDignity, which finds identification papers for the poor. Without IDs it is impossible to get a job. The organization’s mission is so simple and yet empowering, allowing people to take control of their lives.

Hannah had wonderful ideas about how to revitalize downtown by allowing street performers to work and improving the downtown culture through art. The only big business downtown at night now seems to be the sale of alcohol. Just then a gaggle of college girls started yelling and screaming because they saw the cameras. As Hannah walked back to her car, some jerk snatched a puppet out of her arms ripping it in the process. When she got to the parking lot space she had paid for, she found her car had been towed. She spent the rest of the night trying to find her car and extricate it from the impound lot all the way out by the airport. The towing pirates even made her wait an additional 40 minutes before they showed up to the lot. Rather than holding a grudge, she had this to say, “I’m going out of my way every time I leave my house for the next week to be super, super nice to everybody. I think Orlando needs it.”

The Human Heart

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It was Valentine’s Day. A large group of people stood assembled at the edge of the Repertory Theater parking lot for an event called, the Human Heart, an Outright Love In. There were a few Mylar balloons and much excited chatter. Out on the lawn there was a large heart shape created with Doug Rhodehamel’s brown paper bag mushrooms. Nicki using a megaphone asked everyone to form a large circle around the mushrooms. Then groups of people were invited to step in closer to the heart shaped mushrooms. She began by inviting clergy and priests to step forward.

The fading golden sunlight hit the tops of the trees, igniting them with a bright orange glow. Soon everyone on the field was formed into the shape of a heart. They held hands and began to sing, “Seasons of Love.” Earlier in the day, Nicki and Rachel, who organized this event, went to the Orange County Courthouse to ask for the right to be married. They were denied. “You never hear on the evening news that there is too much love in this world!” This event was all about equality and love. Everyone had been given candles, and as it grew dark the candles were lit and the singing resumed.

Terry arrived and we agreed to skip “The Kiss Tones “a Brian Feldman and Britt Daley production at Stardust Video and Coffee. I had my sketch for the day. Instead we went to go to Citrus for an amazing dinner and a bottle of wine. I had a crispy baked salmon with a pomegranate glaze that was mouth wateringly good. It was the perfect Valentine’s date night.

Blind Love

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I fired off a tweet asking, “Why are children taught that animals are put on this earth to entertain us?” This was along with a link to an article I wrote about abuse of animals at the circus. Mark Baratelli replied that his cat entertained him. I couldn’t argue with that. He later put out a call for help asking someone to adopt a blind Tabby cat named Smokey. Smokey was born without eyes. The Orange County Animal Services had put out an announcement that he needed a home. Mark, who re-tweeted the announcement also said he would donate money if this blind cat found a home. Though I’m not a cat owner, I tweeted back that I would match his donation if Mark’s buzz on twitter resulted in this cat getting adopted. I grew up with a gray cat named Smokey. I had to chip in. Thanks to this internet campaign, $400 dollars will be donated to the Orange County Animal Services.

Within 24 hours Smokey had a home when a mother and her son went in to adopt him. The little boy said the kitty will be able to sleep in his bed. Smokey still needed shots and to be neutered so he couldn’t leave the shelter right away. Mark texted me and asked if I would like to go to animal services to meet Smokey. I jumped at the chance. I got to Animal services before Mark and Brian Feldman arrived. Kathleen Kennedy greeted us all when we were all assembled. Mark shouted out as he hugged her, “What are you doing here?” “Living the dream.”she replied as she walked us back to the holding area. We walked by row after row of cages. Smokey’s cage was opened and she let Mark hold him. A baby kitty in the next cage kept pawing at Mark through the cage bars, trying to catch his attention. After a quick video interview and a flurry of photos, Smokey was put back in his cage.

As I started to sketch, one of the volunteers named Christopher, took Smokey back out and held him for quite some time. Smokey liked to feel the breeze on his face and he crawled up Christopher’s shoulder to sniff the fresh air. Later as I sketched the abandoned cats in their cages, another volunteer took Smokey out and held him. He is a bit of a superstar and every volunteer is happy he found a home. That didn’t detract however from the fact that there are so many cats that still haven’t found a home. Wide eyed cats stared back at me as I sketched, their future remained uncertain.

Packer Backers

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Terry and I went to One Eyed Jacks to watch the Super Bowl along with hundreds of rabid Packer Backers. I had sketched this group before and they are a fun, boisterous crowd. Brian O’Halloran who organizes the crowd had asked me to come and sketch. A stone brick encased in a wooden box sat on a stool. Like everyone else, we rubbed the stone brick for luck. We got to the bar about an hour before kickoff and I immediately sat on the staging area and started to sketch. The fan that caught my eye had on jersey 52 and he had a flag that he would wave whenever the Packers scored. The little statue of a Packer player would do a happy dance at the press of a button. The tiny mechanized hips would thrust provocatively. There was a little boy seated next to me who was wound way too tight. He had tiny lights that he kept shining in my eyes and he kept jumping up and down off the stage. I ignored him. A very drunk fan got on stage next to the boy and stumbled sending the boy flying off the stage.

By the halftime show I was finished with my sketch. Terry had disappeared. I fired off 6 or so text messages but she didn’t respond. In the second half the Packers started making mistakes and giving up ground. Fans got quiet and serious as the score got dangerously close. One of the people in charge had to jump up on stage often as he tried to play audio clips with a failing remote control. The audio would fire up shouting, “Go Pack Go!” Everyone shouted along in unison. He then fired up a dance number that had everyone dancing with their hands in the air. Terry and I danced along.

The Packers won and the place went wild. Think of New Years Eve times one hundred. People were dancing on the bar and tables. A woman flashed her breasts. Two women were french kissing. Everyone was dancing and giving high fives. On the walk back to my truck, Terry gave a dollar to every homeless person she met. The drive home was strangely silent.

United Arts Grant Panel

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The Enzian Theater hosted the United Arts Grant Applications panel meeting for the 2011 Professional Development Grants. 29 Artists and 10 Arts Administrators were to be awarded a total of $33,579. Individual artists could be awarded up to $1000 towards their professional development. The meeting was open to the public.Artists applying for grants were each given a minute to give a brief update on their project and then panelists could ask questions soften adjusting their scores based on the artists response. I didn’t pay close attention to how the scoring was done. I know there was a total of 20 points available and different criteria were considered, like feasibility, assurance that the grant will encourage the artist to grow and assurance that the project will promote and strengthen the Orlando artist community. Attending the meeting was a great way to find out what artistic projects are being produced. I also had the added incentive that I applied for a grant this year.

After the morning session was over and my first sketch was done, I had lunch with performance artist Brian Feldman. He told me all about the 11 different performances he is planning for the Orlando Fringe Festival this year. I tried to figure out how to document so many performances by sketching. Sketching while walking is a new skill set I might have to develop.

The Visual Arts part of the meeting began with a slide show of all the artwork that had been submitted. I cringed when I saw some of my sketches blow up on the large move screen. I had selected sketches at random. A sketch of a haunted house made me think, ” Why did I send that sketch? Does it say anything about Orlando culture?” There was some amazing work and I hope to catch up with some of the artists during the year. Katherine Mathisen had wonderful ceramic busts of Shamans, Gregorii had bright self illuminated fractal art that was stunning. When R V. got up and started showing a stack of his Pinocchio paintings, he expressed that he always felt like he was behind, never ahead. He runs a gallery that has an international graffiti festival each year. I have to get there this year to draw. Anyway, I learned more about the Orlando Arts scene in an hour than I did over the past year.

Here are sample comments and questions about my grant application.
Quality and Integrity: One of a kind project!
Benefit: The applicant’s contribution to the community has already been outstanding. This can only increase the value of our city.
Quality and Integrity: This makes me feel or think of the artist as the “Norman Rockwell” of our time. Have you identified the venue? When may we expect to see this gallery open?
Quality and Integrity: The best!
Feasibility: No doubt is feasible since you have already been working on this project.
Benefit: Sharing your work is a benefit in itself.
Feasibility: I’m interested in knowing at which venue(s) these will be exhibited.

I thought I would be nervous when it came time for me to discuss me project. Anytime I discuss AADW however I become animated, fueled by the fact that I believe that what I am doing has valve to the Orlando community. I got to tell the panel about a new project called LifeSketch where I team up with local authors who conduct interviews while I sketch. Many Artists in the room were checking the tally sheets to be sure that they had the required score. When I sat down, Rick Jones, I an abstract painter, informed me that I had a perfect score. I had managed to navigate the daunting process and have fun the whole time. Very soon Analog Artist Digital World will be funded in part, thanks to a grant from United Arts. When the meeting was over, I was giddy. I called Terry and we went out for a fabulous Mediterranean dinner.

Highland Games

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The Scottish Highland Games are always held the third weekend in January at Winter Springs. When I arrived, the parking both were packed. I pulled my SUV up over a curb and parked next to some woods. When I went to the press tent and asked for my pass, the man asked, “Are you that artist that sketches?” I thought to myself, don’t most artists sketch? But I said, “Yes?” He related that he follows the blog and he always wanted to meet me. We chatted for a while. I entered the event site feeling golden. Of course the first thing you hear upon entering the Highland Games is bagpipes. Bagpipers perform and compete for coveted prizes. I followed my ears and found a group of bagpipers standing in a circle rehearsing.

I wandered over to the playing fields which were surrounded by construction site orange mesh fencing. Women were throwing heavy metal weights. There really wasn’t much competition for Kate Burton, who threw that thing twice as far as any other woman on the field. Later at the caber toss it was the same story. A caber is a telephone pole sized log which is supposed to be tossed end over end. The competitor that tosses the caber closest to 12 o’clock wins. When it was Kate’s turns the announcer said, “Kate Burton is on the caber!” There was laughter from the crowd. I didn’t understand why at first. A man helped her get the caber up into position, though I think she could have done it herself. She stood up and took a step back to catch her balance. She ran forward and thrust her arms in the air achieving an 11 o’clock toss on her first try. The crowd went wild. No other woman was able to up end the caber that day.

The men’s caber toss competition was surprising in that the larger men were not the best caber tossers. Having a thick chest, legs as thick as barrels and thick beefy arms didn’t matter. It must all be about technique because the smallest man on the field, perhaps 5 foot tall and of medium build, was the clear champion.I sipped a delicious apricot ale as I sketched.

On another field, Scottish Sheep Dogs were demonstrating how to herd sheep. Four sheep were on the field and the dogs would circle around them to bring them back to the herder. Using just a series of whistle commands the dog could even get the sheep to follow an intricate course maze. It was an impressive sight. I ended the day listening to a Scottish Band called Albannach. Their high energy music had a large crowd of people dancing in front of the stage as the sun set and golden orange light filtered up to the treetops.

The Chalkboard Exercises

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It was six in the morning and I was standing in my driveway waiting for Brian Feldman to pick me up with a U-Haul he had rented. It was still pitch black outside and a deep wet fog made the orange glow of the streetlights quickly fade away as they marched away down the street toward the horizon. I heard the roar of the truck before I saw it. I pulled out my iPhone and flashed it at the oncoming headlights. I had my tablet to sketch with since it is the best option when sketching in low light. Brian had asked me to bring me video camera and tripod as well, so I piled them into the cab. In the back of the U-Haul was a large portable chalkboard. Brian had labored for days to find one since most classrooms have whileboards these days.

I directed Brian on how to get from my place to Universal Studios. There was going to be a Principal’s Appreciation Breakfast at Hard Rock Live. The event began at 7am and Brian wanted to be set up at the entrance writing “I WILL SUPPORT ARTS EDUCATION.” over and over again. When we arrived at the Universal Studios security gate the guards asked us both for our drivers licenses. Brian was asked to open the back of the truck. While he was doing that I was asked who our contact was since our names were not on the list. I told him to ask Brian. Britt Daley, who works for the Orange County Arts Education Center which was the host if the event, was our contact. Brian called her and she scrambled to find out why we were not on the list. It turns out Brian’s name was on a list, just not the one the guard looked at.

We parked behind Hard Rock Live and unloaded the chalkboard which was surprisingly heavy. We wheeled it around to the entrance and set up. CityWalk across the lagoon looked gorgeous in the misty morning fog. I set up the tripod and asked Brian if he had the tapes. He had forgotten to get them. The event guests slowly arrived. Brian started writing and I began sketching. I rather liked the clacking sound the chalk made as it struck the board. Some teachers laughed out loud. But mostly there was the clacking of the chalk and the tapping of my stylus on the tablet. The moist air was making my hand stick to the tablet making it hard to let long lines flow.

When everyone was inside, I went in and stood at the back of the room to listen. The keynote speaker, John Ceschini, spoke about the importance of arts in education. He began with a quote from Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the building of a fire.” On the table in front of me there were boxes of crayons and a single tile mosaic with gorgeous blue tiles and several clear spherical tiles. I thought back to a mosaic I had made for my mothers when I was 10 years old. On stage John quoted some more famous minds like Einstein who said,”Imagination is more important than knowledge.” A video was shown of a little girl talking about an abstract painting by Wassily Kandinsky. In it she saw birds, a bridge, a plane, rainbow and a black hole which was beginning to suck all light and color from the imaginary world. Here was a mind ignited by limitless possibilities of the imagination.

Rising Star

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It was Jeremy Seghers birthday. A group of his friends gathered at Ethos Kitchen, a vegan restaurant, to celebrate. We all pushed some tables together and everyone ordered dinner from the front counter. There was plenty of playful conversation. Someone had ordered a huge birthday cake from Rhapsodic Bakery. It was tasty but a little too sweet. After dinner a group of us went to Theater Downtown where Chicago had just begun it’s run. The cast of the show was gathered in the lobby. The room was converted into a makeshift karaoke bar. Amenda Chadwick insisted I join her singing, “Somewhere Out There”. I don’t know why I can’t just say no. She is persuasive.

Amanda did a soft shoe routine waiting for the piano introduction to finish up. We sang a bit timid at first then shouting till our voices cracked. Terry, who claimed she had never seen me sing, shot video on her iPhone which I hope was properly destroyed. To round out the festivities we went to Rising Start at Universal’s City walk. Terry and I were driving separate cars so I followed her there. When we got to the parking garage Terry realized she didn’t have her cell phone. She used my phone to call her number. Someone at the Theater Downtown, picked up and described the phone to Terry. She had to go back. I pushed on to City Walk. “The guard at the entrance to the parking garage told me that if I wanted one minute, I wouldn’t have to pay. I think there was a $5 admission for the club. I got a wristband.

Our table was populated with talented actors, actresses and musicians. Mathew Mendel got up to sing and he really bought the roof down. A table full of women were sitting at the table behind us and they were swooning and screaming. Brian Feldman looked around comically for effect. After finishing his song, Mathew took the longest time, finding his way back to our table. He must have been shanghied. This place offered karaoke with a boost. There were sexy backup singers and talented band members. Jeremy and an actress I had never met before sang, “How do I get you Alone” and the crowd loved it. Terry finally stopped in as I was finishing my sketch. She was tired and I wanted to get away before someone insisted I get up to sing.