Howie in the Hills Christmas Festival

Posted on by Thor

I went to Howie in the Hills to sketch a small town Christmas Festival. I fell on love with a home in Howie in the Hills which looked like a 1920s Hollywood hacienda. The home was on the main road where traffic is supposed to travel at 35 miles per hour, but the huge 18 wheelers seem to roar by at 55 miles per hour. The studio would have faced out on that main road.  I returned to the home a second time to see if the noise was an issue. The first time the real estate brokers had been talking constantly. This time I wanted a moment of peace to stop and reflect. There was a tall grouping of bamboo between what would have been the studio windows and the road. I considered planting more bamboo to further muffle the roar of traffic.

On the second floor the real estate broker confided for the first time that there was termite damage to a door frame. The termites had infested the home starting in the kitchen and then migrated through the walls upstairs. The door frame was so hollow that the door higes had nothing to hold onto. The door was resting 0n the floor. I hadn’t tried closing the door on my first walk through of the home. I abandoned the idea of buying that home. It was also too far from the events that I love to sketch each day. I like being able to walk to coffee shops and arts venues to sketch at a moments notice. Howie in the Hills is about an hour and a half drive from any Orlando events.

I am 0n a staycation at an AirBnB in Thornon Park, Orlando Florida. Since staying here, I have been doing several sketches every day. After I teach a virtual class tonight, I will be walking down the street to City Arts Factory to sketch Story Club. If I was still out in the country the hour and a half drive would have made the sketch opportunity a no go. The AirBnB is in a great location, but it has no WiFi, so I have to move again in a couple of days.

I parked across the street from the Howie in the Hills home I had decided was all wrong for me and I walked to the Christmas Festival. There was a stage for performers and I leaned against it to sketch the inflatable bounce houses. One of the staff who were supervising the bounce houses and slides set up beside me to eat lunch. He explained that he had to ask one kid to leave because the kid was bullying other children. By refusing the bully admission, the other kids could play without the harassment. If only politics were so easy.

I enoyed watching the kids trying to scale the rock climbing tower. One boy kept trying and failing at reaching the top. I admired that he never gave up. An older girl managed to get to the top on her second try. She raised her hands in victory and was lowered to the ground swaying on her safety rope. The little boy looked on in wonder and then attempted his climb with renewed determination. He failed again. He was dropped to the ground swinging on his safety rope with his arms dangling. I don’t know if the little boy ever made it to the top of the tower. As I packed up my sketchbook he was in the midst of another attempt.

I walked down the street filled with tents where vendors offered their Christmas knick knacks. I wasn’t tempted to purchases anything. To be honest I kind of skipped Christmas this year. My Christmas highlight this year was a Christmas market in Plettenberg Germany and sipping mulled wine while overlooking Wiesbaden Germany from a mountain top. This small Howie in the Hills estival felt overly commercial and shallow in comparison. There wasn’t much history behind the festivities. Being single and completely unattached, the holidays have less meaning. I might just treat myself to a new sketchbook or some new tubes of paint. I can’t order them online, since I don’t know where my next address will be.

No Kings Protest Orlando Florida

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Stella Arbeláez Tascón has wanted to build a large puppet for some time. When she found out that a No Kings Protest was being staged nation wide, and in Orlando Florida, she decided it was time to build a 14 foot tall puppet of Donald Trump as a Jailbird in Chief. Such large puppets are often build in Europe but it is a tradition that has not yet taken root in America. I became Stella’s studio assistant to help bring this behemoth to life.

Stella found many videos online that showed how these large puppets could be built. She borrowed from various puppet workshops to come up with her n. A walker was cut apart and when turned upside down to became the spine of the puppet. She borrowed the shoulder straps and belt from an existing backpack and miraculously they fit neatly onto the walker.

The Trump head was constructed from 1/4 inch plastic tubing which formed the three dimensional framework. Paper mache was then added to create the skin of the face. The result was a highly stylized and expressive head. In the final night of construction, I was tasked with building the hands and painting Trump’s’ Orange face. When Stella gave advice on using thin washed of red over the nose, and ears, the face started to gain a ruddy life. Bruises and blotchy skin were replicated. By 3 or 4 in the morning I had to drop off to sleep, but Stella kept working. She had to sew the huge orange prison jumpsuit by the time we would have to leave for the protest in the morning.

The rib cage of the puppet had to be cut back to allow the puppet to fit in the hatchback of her Prius. The giant head could just fit in the passenger front seat. It is an absolute miracle that the entire fourteen foot puppet managed to fit in her Prius.

Stella hired a second puppeteer to handle the extremely large left hand. She dressed like a secret service agent with a white dress shirt, black tie and sun glasses. Since I am living out of a backpack, I didn’t manage to pull together an equally stellar garb. I made due with what I had.

Assembling the puppet and getting Stella set inside was challenging. We practiced the assembly at her studio and then recreated the steps outside the parking garage near Orlando City Hall. The trickiest part of the assembly has snapping the bulk of the puppet onto the walker that Stella had strapped to her back. With the huge Trump head mounted on top, the puppet wanted to topple. I was grateful when everything snapped into place. Stella’s solid hips and low center of gravity were an absolute advantage.

The puppet was so tall that it could not walk under the covered awnings on the side of the skyscraper leading to City Hall Plaza. When we stepped out of the shadows into the open plaza people shouted out, “The hands are too big!” That is my fault, I built those monsters. The puppet would be so much more manageable with tiny little raptor hands. You know what they say about tiny hands, right? Anyway, that was the ongoing joke all day long.

We marched the puppet around every corner of the City Hall complex. In several places the tree branches were too low to allow passage. We found other ways to navigate around. Hundreds of people were gathered. I kept shouting out, “Jailbird in chef coming through!’ to help clear a path. Stella was the brains of the operation. She would let us know which direction to turn and make sure we were all lined up. If one of us walked too fast we could throw off the balance and cause the puppet to topple. When Stella wanted the hands to wave she would let us know. She then wanted us to walk the diamond shaped crosswalk in front of city hall. When we did that the honks and shouting from the cars waiting at the light became overwhelming. Crossing quickly with a fourteen foot puppet isn’t an easy task. The Trump puppet can’t break into a run when the time runs out on the crossing signal.

Since I was busy holding the rod that controls the puppets right hand, I didn’t get any sketching done at the protest. In one of the videos I saw of the protest, I overheard someone saying “Wow pretty awesome.” I was sure he was taking about my stellar puppetry performance in waving that right hand. I was a sweaty mess by the end of the day and muscles I didn’t even know I had were sore, but it was sooooo worth it.

I returned the next day to sketch city hall and then added protestors and the puppet when I got back to my Thornton Park studio. The Jailbird in Chef go plenty of coverage on the news and social media.

Brooklyn Pizza

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In an attempt to locate arts events in Lake County, I found out that Brooklyn Pizza has live music on Thursday nights. Stella Arbelaez agreed to stop out for the sketch opportunity. It is always fun to sketch with another artist. When we got to Brooklyn Pizza on highway 27, we f0und out that there was no live music. The website had been wrong, or rather misleading. Live music was a rare occurrence. It is more likely to happen in the summer months rather than leading up to the Christmas holidays.

Rather than leave, we decided to settle in and order a pizza and sketch anyway. The tables in the center of the room had been pushed together and there was a large group of retirees, probably from The Villages which is a short distance to the north. Their pizzas had not been served yet so there was time to sketch the group.

Our waitress was an artist herself. She had done the Christmas window paintings at Brooklyn Pizza. Stella and I checked out her handy work when we were leaving. I have returned to Brooklyn Pizza several times since this outing, since it isjust one of the three choices if you want to have a quick bit out. There always seems to be a crowd of baby boomers enjoying a slice here at Brooklyn Pizza.

At the No Kings Protests around the country, baby boomers came out in force. Even in the deep red south, the young and old alike are furious at the fascist direction the country had shifted towards. There are plenty of Boomers making their voices heard.

Our waitress kept checking in on our sketching progress. I think having artists sketching is a rare occurrence at this pizza joint. The open sign was a lit up as an American flag. Seeing people crowded around a pizza pie as the world burns is true Americana. The only thing that could have mede the scene more complete would be for a guitar player to be standing in the corner working hard to drown out the conversations.

Krampus Fest

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From the home I was c0nsidering buying pn F0rest Avenue, I walked up Bumby to the Plaza Live Theater. I havnt sketched at the Plaza Live since before Christina Grimmie was shot by a fan on the evening before the Pulse Nightclub Massacre that took 49 lives. There was a long line t0 get through security to get into the event which was staged in the Plaza Live parking lot. I stood in the block long line that made its way to a huge inflatable cow. The cow makes sense since the Plaza Live theater is in the Milk District. Officers checked peoples bags as they moved through the belly of the beast. Just as I exited the butt, it started to rain. I ran to some cover near the theater and considered sketching the security check point but the driving rain would have soaked my sketch page.

I made my way instead to the front of the theater and found cover under an awning that covers the long arching entry ways. It was still early in the day. I am certain that the best Krampus bests would come out after dark. W9th my bck against the wall, I sketched. Orlando Urban sketchers were supposed to be at the even, but I never noticed any other sketchers at work. I did notice plenty of people wearing horns. The spot was perfect to see bests as they entered for the first time.

There was a small puppy seated to my right and he seemed as curious as ai was about all the creatures with horns. When the rain let up a little bit, I wandered through all the booths. I never stopped since I was still getting wet. There was a main stage set up in the parking lot, so there would be music at some point. If I needed a Krampus themed Christmas present, this would have been the place to get it.

The rain was clearly not going to stop, so I made my way back to where I parked my car on Forest Avenue.

The Delgado Ponzi Scheme

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I was called in to do a courtroom sketch in the case of the United States vs, Christopher Delgado of Goliath Ventures at the Orlando Federal Courthouse. Christopher Delgado stands accused of building a $300 million dollar Ponzi scheme that bilked thousands people out of millions of dollars. The scheme was paying off for Delgado who bought himself fancy cars a milti-million dollar Winter Park home and fancy jewelry.

Investors were promised incredible returns on their crypto currency investments. At first the funds brought in by new investors helped pay for the returns expected by early investors. But then the returns on investments stopped coming. Shallow excuses replaced returns on investments. One client invested well over a million dollars which vanished.

In the hallway leading to the courtroom, I saw Delgado dressed in a tight designer suit that made it look like it could not contain his chest. Funds were raised from doctors, educators, firefighters and blue collar workers, many of whom lost their life savings. At least 328 million dollars  was pocketed rather than invested. The vast majority of the money is gone at this stage. There were about 2000 victims and only 50 million made its way back to investors. That left over 250 million that may never be recovered for the investors.

Much of this court case was a discussion about where those funds might be and if Delgado was a flight risk. Despite his designer suit, he was wearing an ankle monitor and his lawyers stressed that he has been cooperating. Delgado had transferred funds to a bank in Dubai and since the United States and Israel had attacked Iran, Dubai was under missile  attack from Iran. Freezing the Dubai finds would require a pause in the hostilities.

The judge didn’t want to be responsible for policing the many luxury cars and accounts that needed to be seized. The prosecutors and defense had to come to an agreement on how the frozen assets could be held until the court case. Luxury cars included a 2024 Rolls Royce Ghost, a 2024 Lamborghini Hurricán,  2023 Ferrari GTS, some diamond encrusted Rolex watches, some Tiffany and Company diamond gold and titanium necklaces and cufflinks. Prosecutors pointed out that all these items were evidence of money laundering since they were purchased by Delgado’s corporate account. The hope is that these luxury items would not be sold by Delgado in an attempt to flee the country.

Milk District Christmas Market

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I was giving serious consideration to buying a property on Forest Avenue in the Audubon Park district of Orlando. After walking the home and taking measurements, I decided to then walk the neighborhood. Several blocks away was North Bumby Avenue. I walked towards the Plaza Live Theater. Within a block I ran into this Christmas market set up in a parking lot. I decided to just sit down and sketch. This is exactly the type of event I tend to seek out and sketch anyway.

It had rained recently and there was a big puddle in front of me. On sale were vintage records and various arts and crafts. This neighborhood where the home was located felt right. A short walk from the front yard and I was already finding sketch able subjects. The Plaza Live down the street was having a Krampus event and I was excited to get there to sketch as well.

The home I was looking at had a wild and overgrown front and back lawn area. There was no grass, which I like. It had all native plants including bamboo which grows like wildfire. The house is a small 1 bathroom and two bedroom place. I had already drawn out a map of the rooms to see if I could fit my art studio furniture into the place. It was a tight fit. A huge live oak tree cut off much of the light that could make its way through the studio windows. Looking back the place was kind of dark. I could have controlled the light with natural electric lights but that would have run up the electric bill.

After spending $700 on an inspection, I decided the place wasn’t for me. Termites had infested the carport and they made their way up into the roof rafters. Though the roof hadn’t leaked yet it was structurally unsound. Rats had also taken up residence in the insulation in the attic. I figured that I would have to invest well over $100,000 to put on a new roof and it is also possible that interior walls were infested. What I would have been buying was a pile of cinder blocks. It would be a long time before I could move in. This was far more work than I wanted to get my studio set up. It is a good fit for a contractor who wants to flip the place.

Right now I am in between residences. I need a roommate situation or rental so I can stay in Orlando through the end of May since I plan to sketch the Orlando International Fringe Festival which runs from May 12 to the 27th . I am paying top dollar to stay in an AirBnB next week in downtown Orlando but that is very expensive. Apartments often want an 8 month commitment for the lease. I want to drive north in June to look at the possibility of setting up a studio in New York State. If anyone knows about short-term rentals in Orlando Florida, please let me know. I am living out of a backpack and scrambling to find a place. My studio and art supplies are packed away in a storage container and my Prius has my backpack a few groceries and my bicycle. I can view this as a problem or an adventure. I hope it is an adventure.

UCF Finals 3

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The third master’s student I sketched was Anna Vic Webb at the UCF Art Gallery (12400 Aquarius Agora Dr, Orlando, FL) . Anna was wearing a COVID mask which I highly respect because we might be done with COVID but COVID is not done with us. The United States might have declared the pandemic to be over and stopped tracking it’s spread but the virus is still spreading world wide. Trump lost an election due to his failed response to the virus so he would do anything to convince people that it never existed.

Most of the paintings @anna.vic.webb exhibited had a vibrant green glow. Her colors literally attack with their vibrancy. My favorite painting was the one to the right with two women standing in a room with fish eye perspective. In the masters program the students work side by side in small cubicles. They discuss art and learn from each other as well as the professors. There was some controversy with this presentation because a student claimed Anna’s work was derivative or based on another student’s work. I believe the accusation had to do with the quality of light being portrayed. I personally considered the accusation to be baseless. Anna’s work is highly unique and vibrant. Every artist is inspired by the work of others. Once the artists leave the pressure cooker of the masters program then they will be creating away from this environment of accusations and power plays. Those who continue to create for a lifetime will be inspired by many artists and environments, becoming a melting pot of influences. Artists need a thick skin and such false accusations  will help any artist ignore critics. The goal is to just keep creating regardless of what people say.

I recall that Stella Arbelaez had painted her bare feet standing in the mud. Another student painted bare feet and was also accused of being derivative of Stella’s painting by a professor. But does Stella have a copyright on bare feet? Of course not. People have been painting bare feet since the days of cave paintings. Stella let the artist know that she didn’t consider the painting in question to be derivative. Artists need to support one another, not be accusing one another, especially with AI being a digital medium built on being derivative.

School shooting paintings by Mya Osborne are visible on the left side of the sketch. “No light up shoes” refers to the sneakers which children wear which light up. Those can not be worn in school since they would bake a very visible target for a school shooter. “Faith without deeds is Death” Refers to the politicians who always offer their prayers after each school shooting while doing nothing to curb access to high powered weapons that are used the shootings. The empty words just promote more school shootings.

On the right side of the sketch is the Boeing B-29 Superfortress by @ally.artistic. The plane was still in the process of it’s creation. When complete it would be a candy coated fortress in bright pinks and jewels, contrasting its deadly mission.

UCF Finals 2

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At the UCF Finals at the UCF Art Gallery (12400 Aquarius Agora Dr. Visual Arts Building 140 Orlando, FL) each masters art student would speak about their work in turn. Once a presentation was finished, another artist would present in front of their work and everyone would move their folding chairs to the new location.

In this sketch an artist is presenting her digital painting on a large screen TV on the back wall. Her work has a classical feel tying into ancient myths. I was impressed with her highly polished work and her explanation of where her work was going. Since I am often working digitally I appreciated her accomplishments in the medium. To me the medium isn’t as important as the message and her message resonates. When it came time for questions from the audience, a professor cut into her work hard saying it looked to much like other polished digital art. There was a clear bias against the use of the digital medium. No other artist was presenting work that was digital. To me, this bias seemed unfounded and the artist defended her work with absolute grace. Her defense proves that she has a message that will resonate in the future.

The B-29 Super-fortress is also visible in the sketch. I decided to have it visible in each sketch I did.

Colorful soft sculptures cover one wall. These are done by Abigail (@artby.AMF) a female artist whose work was largely about women’s reproductive issues. The multi media work glows with bright pinks and reds. For some women the egg does not make the journey down the Fallopian tubes each month. This would result in the woman not having a period for that month. The eggs just congregate in the ovary like pearls. I say that since some of her soft form sculptures have pearls sewn onto the ovaries. The conversation was fascinating and her work helps bring to light issues that even many doctors are unfamiliar with.

In the center of the room were painting that are about the all too common school shootings which happen in America. A large dark painting showed school children evacuating the school. None of the paintings show the grisly details of the shooting but they intend to keep the issue in the forefront of people’s minds. The question arose about where the work should be shown. One person suggested the work should be shown guerilla style on the streets rather than in galleries or museums. I know work has been shown in U-Hauls or driven around billboard style on the side of trucks.

Since I have sketched so many of the survivors and family of those shot at the Pulse Nightclub massacre, I identified with the work. The rest of the world is shocked at how crazy America is to allow children to be shooting children. In America the insane  solution seems to be more guns.  In March 2013, a former UCF student, James Seevakumaran, planned a mass shooting in a campus dorm, which was thwarted, resulting in his suicide.

 

UCF Finals

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I went to the UCF Masters Finals presentations at the UCF Art Gallery (12400 Aquarius Agora Dr. Visual Arts Building, 140 Orlando, FL  32816-1342). Here Masters degree students display their work in the main gallery and get a chance to explain their process and meaning behind their work. The public is invited to sit in the gallery and hear each student describe their work in turn. Each presentation is kept short and to the point.

In the foreground of this sketch is the work of Ally Artistic. One piece resembles an opulent and exotic flaming crown. It is laser cut and then the negative spaces are filled with colorful clear resins that look like stained glass. Her work is often bright opulent and regal. A second piece of hers is a sculpted airplane. She described the physicality of carving the body of the B-29 plane which was an entirely new process for her. The masters program encourages student to work large and to experiment with new processes.

The B-29 Bomber was used primarily by the United States during World War II. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat. One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 billion cost of design and production far exceeding the $1.9 billion cost of the Manhattan Project, which made the atomic bomb. The B-29 program was the the most expensive of the war.

Back in World War II America set up concentration camps for Japanese American citizens. Detaining American citizens seems to be an ongoing theme of American politics as ICE detention facilities are being set up all across America.

The body of the plane was sculpted with a large flat foam piece cut to shape the profile. From that half moon shaped pieces were added to create the 3D shape. Thin cardboard strip from things like cereal boxes were added to create a mesh to fill out the form. The whole thing was covered with silica and then coated with a hard resin. What was on display at this Masters Finals was the base before final coats were added. The wings would ultimately get a wild painting of pink wavy patterns covered with what looks like wedding cake icing and mini candies. Written along one of these wavy line was the saying, “Bite the hand that drops the bomb.”. A small disk said, “Perfectly moist.” Another said, “Floss sugar.”  For such a threatening military plane it looked delicious. The final piece had  a bite taken out of a wing.

Florida Film Festival Poster Second Pass

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It was pointed out to me that I got the dates wrong for the Florida Film Festival. The festival actually ran from April 10 to 19, 2026. When I was throwing together the comp, I just lifted type from previous posters to get the impression of what the final poster might look like.

From several Airbnb’s and hotels in Germany I made revisions to the Florida Film Festival poster. First the soldier from my first pass of the poster had to be replaced because America is a country which embraces peace rather than war.

Since racial diversity was called for, I added a Chinese man, and an Indian woman. I didn’t know how many races to add, so I tested the water and waited to see if more was needed. Many of the distant audience was still just blocked in without detail. The festival asked to add details that are unique to the Enzian Theater. I sketched inside the Enzian when renovations were being done, so I was familiar with the look of the interior. I have never sketched the theater looking back from the stage. I searched Google images to see what the back wall of the theater looks like. I held off on polishing the painting to a final look since I was certain that more changes were to come. Working digitally is ideal for changes. Each character in the audience was drawn and painted on their own layer. If a character had to be removed, I could do that with the touch of a button.

For the rest of my trip through Europe, I heard nothing about the need for more Florida Film Festival poster changes. My assumption is that another concept was approved for the festival poster and promotional materials. The concept I was working on was a mine field of possible problems with hundreds of possible revisions and refinements. The poster concept I had been assigned must have been been rejected.

My attention shifted back to a full time dedication of documenting a time in 1945 when America defeated fascism at the end of WWII.