Scum: A Manifesto at Fringe

Scantily Glad Theatre from Saskatchewan Canada presented, Scum: A Manifesto which is a two woman show that takes a look inside the mind of Valerie Solanas, the mother of radical feminism and the woman who shot Andy Warhol. The premise is simple, Men are Scum who should be eliminated from the earth. Being male, I suppose I agree. Since these woman turned from men they needed to turn to each other for physical intimacy. They never quite pulled it off.

The Andy Warhol connection was visualized by a projection of Marylin Monroe‘s silkscreen print on the back wall of the theater. I imagine the corn Flakes boxes were synonymous with Warhol’s use of common day commercial items in his art. He was better known for soup cans one which did appear on a t-shirt. There were lots of on stage costume changes. One woman had street smarts and Valerie’s accent but she was sure any creative idea she had would be stolen. The other woman was a true radical wanting to kill all men. They were cut from the same bolt of cloth. Scenes revolved around everyday event like brushing their teeth and getting dressed. A bottle of booze was handed out to a woman in the audience and she ultimately finished it off by the end of the show.

I didn’t quite know what to make of the show since “my kind” being male and an artist, was under attack. There were a few funny moments and I laughed uncomfortably since I might be finished off at any moment.

Anyone Can Learn to Airbrush at Blast Studios

On June 6th, I went to a Danny Rock, Stencils workshop at Blast Studios, ( 922 state rd 436, Casselberry, Florida). Blast Studios boasts, “Color and Creativity Collide with Canvas and Wine”. Danny has used stencils to decorate several Utility Boxes around Orlando. He have a brief history of the use of stencils in graffiti and art. When the British graffiti artist Banksy spray painted his work around NYC, industrious inner city youths covered the art and would only let people see if they payed a viewing price. People always find a way to profit from someone else s creation.

Scott Pantke and his wife Nicole owns Blast Studios and they kept me company at the wine bar as Danny taught the class. Scott was commissioned to do a mural in a hair salon, and rather than do all the painting himself, he taught others how to use the airbrush. He enjoyed teaching others and seeing how excited they became. That is how Blast Studios began. One entire wall of the studio is covered with a partly abstract and partly figurative mural. People are invited to make their own contributions, and then Scott goes over certain areas picking out the shapes of characters inside the chaos. It is much like seeing sheep in the clouds.

Three students showed up for the Stencil Workshop. Danny demonstrated the filters to use in Photoshop or any cheap image editing program to create the bold black and white image needed to create the stencil. A very sharp exacto blade was then used to cut away the negative shapes that would eventually be spray painted. Each student created their own stencil and got to transfer it to canvas. In honor of Andy Warhol they all worked on Marilyn Monroe. Each person painted a bold pattern on their canvas before applying the stencil. This is where each artist’s individuality shown through. Spraying the stencil itself was a rather quick and painless process. The trick is to keep the stencil pressed tight up against the canvas if you want a hard edge. If the stencil is loose, the edges would be soft, which also could be a good effect.

Danny Rock is teaching classes at Blast about every other week. Check the Blast calendar to see if there is a class for you or a friend. This place is also great for a date night.

Emotions Dance Rehearsal

Emotions Dance Company is rehearsing for the premiere of “Art Evolution“, a collaborative arts experience. Larissa Humiston the Emotions founder and choreographer invited me to be a part of the experience.  At first I thought I would do a series of sketches of the rehearsals but it is a long drive to the dance studio, and I try to reserve Sundays as family time.

Art Evolution is inspired by the famous works of well-known artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Vincent Van Gogh, Degas and more. Audiences will experience live contemporary dance by Emotions Dance Company, including a piece created by special guest choreographer, Genevieve Bernard of Voci, and spoken word poetry by artists such as Jessie Bradley, Mark Harriott and more.

I love the idea that the dance is inspired by famous paintings so I’ve started a series of paintings that show the dancers as part of the paintings. For instance the dancers gestures are evocative of the spiraling night sky in Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Video reference of the rehearsals is giving me the luxury of picking gestures that work best for my paintings. In all there will be ten paintings I need to complete that will be displayed at the Shakespeare theater during the show. I’ll likely make affordable gift cards from the series of paintings as well.

 This contemporary dance, visual art, and spoken word collaboration will
be performed twice: Friday, June 13 and Saturday, June 14, 2014, at 8
p.m. at The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center’s Mandell Theatre (812 E. Rollins
St. Orlando).

Pre-sale tickets for the performance are $18 for General Admission and
$14 for Students/Seniors and will be on sale starting May 1 and will be
available through June 5. After that, tickets can be purchased at the
door for $20 General Admission or $15 for Students/Seniors.

Myth & Magic

Terry invited me to a fundraising event called “Stand up to Bullying” at Ted Maines and Jeff Miller’s gorgeous condo in downtown Orlando. It was raining hard and the traffic to get downtown was horrible. I took a new course every time the traffic came to a dead stop but was still very late ti the event. The event was packed full of beautiful people. I swear half the crown had to be models. The condo has some amazing art, like a diamond studded portrait of Marilyn Monroe, a gold platted AK 47 machine gun lamp, a Robert Rauchenburg and some Andy Warhol prints. The living room table was covered with jewelry and people crowded around to try things on. Terry decided to buy a gorgeous ring with interlaces strands of metal and plenty of stones. Stand up to Bullying aims to educate students that bullying isn’t cool. There  will always be bully’s and victims, but the 98% of students who aren’t bullys or victims need to know how they can help stop the trend rather than watching as a bystander. Since there wasn’t enough time, I didn’t sketch the event. Instead, I decided to walk over to Third Thursday to sketch there.

I quickly walked through Gallery at Avalon Island and City Arts Factory, but they would only be open till 9pm so again I didn’t have enough time.Galleries in this sleepy little town sure hut down early, but the bars remain open till 2am for the drunks. So I ended up in NV Lounge which is great hideaway from the madness of the other nightclubs in Downtown Orlando since 2005. Tr3 Harris had curated a show titled “ Myth and Magic”.  “Benjamin Ezra Cremer and Toni L Taylor encompass Myth and Magic in all
their artwork. Toni Taylor’s beautiful artwork brings out the myths and
mysteries of Ancient Egypt as well as the spirit and magic of Native
America. Goddess imagery is represented powerfully in her collection.

Ben Cremer has the Aztec flare incorporating the myths and magic of that
society into his artwork.The powers of mysterious and supernatural
forces have come together to create an amazing showing, that create a legendary story.

Toni Taylor and Ben Cremer’s artwork taps into the collective
consciousness of the human race and serves to help create new mythology
for our modern times.” said Tr3.

 I have been a long time fan of Toni’s work. Born in Mount Vernon NY, she wants to touch parts of the viewer’s soul, by taking a
mental, emotional and spiritual aspect and placing it into her
creations. She wants people to tap into the ability to dream their
dreams and stimulate their own imaginations. Her highly polished oil paintings are incredibly sensual and lyrical. One of my favorites, called “Tantrika” shows a nude woman’s backside as she lifts her large curly dreads. A  jeweled pendant is delicately chained around her hips to hang in the small of her back. Krishna’s multiple arms radiate around her. Mark your calendar. This show is open through December 15th. I suggest you go to get a drink and soak up the magic.

 As I left NV, the bartender wanted to see my sketch. I noticed a man stood nearby staring into a Lawyers empty offices. What on earth was he looking at? When I walked past him, he turned began to follow me. I had dressed up for the Stand Up to Bullying event. My dress shoes clomped loudly on the wet pavement. I had no doubt that he stood near the bar with the intent to shake down any lone stray mark. If I took my usual route back to the car, I would be exposed on a deserted empty block with no businesses. My umbrella would make a poor excuse for a weapon. I cut across the street towards a crowded and loud sports bar. I stopped in front of the bar for  a moment and watched my stalker slow to a stop across the street. He studied me.  At the street corner we stood opposite each other till the light changed. I decided the best thing to do was to walk straight towards him in the intersection rather than turn my back to him. If there was to be a confrontation, we would have it in the middle of the street in front of a crowded bar. I studied his face as we crossed each other in the intersection so I could sketch him if needed for police. I kept a quick pace on the long walk back too the car, but he had stopped following.

Orlando Museum of Art

On September 8th, I went to the Orlando Museum of Art (2416 North Mills Ave
Orlando, Fl
) to see Tall Tales and Huge Hearts: Raúl Colón a show of Children’s book illustrations.  Raúl Colón,is a popular award-winning
artist who has illustrated more than 30 books for children. Colón
created the art for a number of acclaimed picture books, including Doña Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart by Pat Mora, which won the prestigious Pura Belpré Medal; My Mama Had A Dancing Heart by Libba Moore Gray; and José! Born to Dance: The Story of José Limon by Susanna Reich, winner of the Tomas Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award. Raul’s illustrations are, tightly rendered using watercolor and colored pencils. He then
rakes the image giving each image a swirling surreal feel. The artwork was hung low on the wall so kids could see his work at eye level. Arranged chronologically, it was interesting to see his style evolve from early watercolors to the much tighter later work. Mark your Calendar! This show in on view through November 3rd. During the first weekend of every month Bank of America and Merrill Lynch card holders receive free gallery admission. Otherwise, admission for adults is $8.

Also on display was the Contemporary American Graphics Collection which includes more than 150 original, signed and numbered
lithographs, etchings, silk-screen prints and woodcuts by America’s
foremost artists. It is one of the most comprehensive 20th-century
contemporary print collections in Florida. The works vary from realism
to abstraction, reflecting a variety of techniques and styles that
emerged from the revolution in fine art printing that has occurred in
the last 55 years. Artists represented in this collection include Andy
Warhol
, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Bryan Hunt, Lesley Dill,
Katherine Bowling, and many other American masters. One piece that particularly impressed me was a huge portrait of Leslie done by Chuck Close using just his finger prints.

Stand Up and Shop

Terry was invited to a fundraiser called, “An Evening of Shopping” at The Sanctuary Downtown, (100 South Eola Drive). The Sanctuary is the new building that now houses The Abbey and the Broadway Across America offices. The rest of the building is a luxury condominium. I arrived a little before Terry and took the elivator to the 5th floor. A phalanx of pretty boys were standing in the hall. To their left was an open public area with an open bar. l searched some more to find the apartment.

The apartment which is the home of Ted Maines and Jeffery Miller, was absolutely gorgeous with a fabulous collection of original modern art. There was a glass machine gun sculpture, while Warhols and ironic pieces by Ed Ruscha and Jane Hammond decorated the walls. As a collection, the work has a dark under current yet was inherantly humorous. People crowded around a large table which had expensive David Yurman watches and jewelry. The David Yurman team was lead by Jada Marzolf-Beekman. Funds raised from sales would benefit the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center’s program called, Upstanders: Stand Up to Bullying. 

The Upstanders: Stand Up to Bullying program is designed to help children understand the dynamics of bullying. The education begins with a moving presentation of a parent whose child committed suicide in response to bullying.  Parallel presentations in the evening help parents and other community members find out how they can be part of the solution. The pledge neatly sums up how we all can help. “I will stand up to bullying. I wont be a bully. I won’t let anyone bully me. I won’t let anyone bully someone else. I have a responsibility to stop bullying in my school and in my community.”