Sunday Art Market

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Every Sunday, Blank Space (201 East Central Blvd) hosts an Art Market. The market is open between noon and 5pm. The Lake Eola Farmers Market is happening at the same time so I believe they hope to attract the resulting foot traffic. When I stopped in, 11 artists, most of them women, had their work on display. After inspecting all the art I finally decided to focus on the dark quirky work of Kassandra Kharis for my sketch. She had two circular tables shoved together with a deep red tablecloth draped over as a unifying backdrop. She had shadow boxes filled with found objects with blood red hearts being the unifying theme. Time pieces, springs, stilettos, money and spattered blood set the mood in these Goth images. The lost and found hearts were all punctured, broken, ripped apart and scared. The work had the intimacy of doll house miniatures with bold splashes of the grotesque.

Tracy Lulu Brown seated next to Kassandra had a landscape painting on her easel. She had a box full of painting supplies and a Jack Skelington bag. I kept hoping she would work on the canvas but she didn’t. I sketched her quickly as she opened a paper bag. The walls were covered with delicate photos of flowers and intricate calligraphy. There was a constant stream of people who would stop and talk to the artists.

Carl Knickerbocker Film Screenings

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Urban ReThink hosted a screening of two Carl Knickerbocker animated puppet short films as well as “The Painting Lesson”, a live action film that is loosely based on Carl’s art and life. I really liked “The Painting Lesson.” In this film an artist who really looks like Carl was painting in a night club to make ends meet when he meets an alpha business woman who asks him for a painting lesson. One thing leads to another and they end up sleeping together. She has a dream about Carl’s blue and green dogs. The animated dogs circle each other sniffing butts. She is rude to him from that point on. They fight. He paints her pooch green and in the end she creates a huge angry mural on the street in front of his home. He realized this is the best painting she had ever done. She didn’t need lessons from him anymore. The media embraced her. I absolutely love this film. It is a shame it was never distributed.

“A Dog Goes from Here to There” was a short animated piece that Carl wrote and directed. His vibrant Urban Primitive paintings are bought to life to illustrate a whimsical poem written for children. Carl’s most recent film, “SP #2” is surreal and non-linear. He just recently finished the production and is now sending it out to film festivals.

The Sketchbook Project

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The Sketchbook Project has been traveling the country hitting large cities everywhere. Now it is in Orlando for two more days. I went on Friday, the first day to see what the buzz was about. I submitted a sketchbook and it is part of this national tour. In all there are over 10,000 sketchbooks from artists from around the world. The mobile sketchbook library is being housed at Full Sail Live which is a brand new state of the art performance space on the Full Sail campus. When I arrived, Mark Baratelli and Brian Feldman were in the lobby. The first order of business was to get a library card, so I got in line to pick up my card.

Inside there are about 10 to 15 bookcases full of sketchbooks. My first impulse would be to thumb through multiple sketchbooks until I found one that caught my eye. Unfortunately you can’t walk among the stacks and choose the books yourself. The Project staff have to find the sketchbook for you. You can pick sketchbooks by the artist’s name or by geographic region or by the theme. I remember my theme was “Faces in a crowd.” I asked for two sketchbooks with that theme. One had over rendered pencil drawings of people’s faces from family photos. It had little appeal. The second book was covered in foil and had entire pages boldly painted with gouache. It was bold and interesting. Maisy and Ron Marrs showed up so I shadowed them for a bit so I could glance at Maisy’s sketchbook. Her work was fun and whimsical and there was a sketch of me in there which was an unexpected surprise.

I started sketching the long line of people waiting to check out sketchbooks. I spoke with Megan Everhart who was waiting to pick up her 2012 sketchbook. She had driven five hours down here from South Carolina to experience the Sketchbook Project first hand. Her work is abstract and she also does murals. Her iPhone had died so she couldn’t continue to shoot photos. I offered her my charger but I couldn’t find the wall plug piece. It was somewhere in my bag, but I couldn’t locate it among all the art supplies. She had a five hour drive back north so she headed out early. A former Disney colleague, Rusty Stoll was checking out sketchbooks, but after four books he was disappointed in the lack of draftsmanship. I saw Tracy Burke with her parents checking out the work. I kept bumping into people I knew, like Bess Auer of “Central Florida Top 5.”

All afternoon I checked out sketchbooks and I was enthralled by the wide variety of the work. At 6pm the founders of the Sketchbook Project, StevePeterman and Shane Zucker took to the stage. They were college buddies and the seed of this project started small. They at first only envisioned 100 sketchbooks would ever be submitted. Over time they had to adjust as the numbers escalated. There are 10,000 sketchbooks now being housed at Full Sail Live. It would be impossible to view every sketchbook even if you spent all three days checking out books as fast as you could view them. The sheer volume of art is staggering. Once again the power of the Internet is making art available to the masses. You have to experience the Sketchbook Project to believe it. It is open today (7/30) and Sunday (7/31) from Noon to 5pm. Don’t miss it! Listen to what others had to say…

“This event was incredible!! If you missed it today, check out Sketchbook Project this weekend while you can!!
– Tracy Burke

“The Sketchbook Project was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to for art! International artists and their sketchbooks and the excitement of being able to share it with everyone!”
– Maisy May Marrs

“Just got back from the 2011 Sketchbook project at Full Sail. It was awesome, so many books to look at. If you have a chance to go and check it this weekend Sat and Sun. 12-5pm. Check out Thomas Thorspecken, Peter Soutullo, Maisy Marrs and some other Florida Natives books while you are there. This is taking place here in Orlando, is free and its at Full Sail Live behind the Mickey D’s on 436 and University.”
– Chris Tobar

Blank Canvas at OMA

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On the first Thursday of every month the Orlando Museum of Art opens it’s front gallery for local artists. It is an evening of art, food, drink and entertainment. This evening featured ten artists who would begin with a blank canvas offering patrons a chance to see their creative process. Walking the room, there were several painters, a print maker, jewelry maker and a sculptor working in the center of the room with a model. The model was all legs in a bikini. I circled around the sculptor and his model several times but I couldn’t find a place to plant myself so I moved on.

The print maker was using leaves and other natural found objects to begin her multi layered prints. A painter blocking in a traditional portrait didn’t appeal to me. A young woman strummed her guitar. I finally settled myself next to a jewelry maker to sketch this group of artists working on three large space themed canvases. The closest canvas depicted a satellite circling Earth. The painter let a little boy put down some bold strokes of blue on the painting. The planets on the central painting began as faintly fogged in orbs on a dark canvas. As I sketched the planets were painted in thick impasto.

Denise Lebenstein a friend from college days was in town and she leaned against the wall behind me. I hadn’t seen her in 20 plus years. I interrupted the sketch to give her a hug. I told he I’d seek her out when I was finished with the sketch. She checked out the museum with her friend Patti while I worked. Joe Rosier took a break from selling drink tickets and he shook my hand. Laughing, he wanted to know why I wasn’t sketching the beautiful model in the middle of the room. A puppeteer from Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater introduced herself. She said she saw me sketching a performance of Aladdin’s Magic Lamp. I don’t remember ever sketching that show. As she spoke, I kept wracking my brain, confused.

As I finished up, Denise stopped back to check on my progress. I put away my sketchbook and ventured out into the rain with her and Patti to get some Vietnamese food at Viet Garden. We had fun recollecting memories about our times in art school in NYC. It’s odd how selective memories can be. She remembered that we once went to a Broadway show on New Year’s eve. Watching the play we could hear the crowds gathering in Times Square. The play over, we ventured out into the massive crowd. We tore up our programs and used them as confetti at midnight when the ball dropped. I had totally forgotten about that night. Neither of us could recall the play.

White House Concert

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Satuko Fujii Ma-do, an experimental jazz quartet from Japan performed at the White House at an unusually early 3pm show. The White House concerts are free, being hosted by Benoit Glaser and his beautiful family. The concert space was designed by Benoit and it is acoustically exceptional. Benoit is the music director for Cirque du Soleil.

When I entered, I immediately wandered up the spiral staircase to the top floor where I filled my watercolor brushes with water in the bathroom. I found a seat right up against the railing overlooking the stage. I love this “god’s eye” view. Robin Maria-Pedrero was the visual artist who worked next to the stage. Robin’s canvas developed quickly as she brushed in large bold blocks of color. Under these colors was some masking agents which she rubbed off revealing hidden shapes and forms. Her bright multi layered work was a good match to the abstract experimental sounds of Satuko Fujii Ma-do.

The music was often dissonant and disjointed. The trumpet was used to create squealing wet sounds that caused some audience members to laugh uncomfortably. It was fun to sketch to and the rising swell and thrust of each piece inspired the lines I was dashing off on the page. Terry showed up late and her friend Wendy Wallenberg was there to joke around with us as we stood around the snack table after the concert. Wendy took over the hostess duties by straightening up and rearranging everything on the table.

I spoke with Robin the visual artist after the performance. She explained how she likes to find recognizable forms in the abstract brushwork she first puts down. She pointed to a canvas on the wall and said the rabbits were such a revelation to her. I didn’t see the rabbits at first and I was surprised when their tiny forms jumped out at me.

Meeting Mr. Mennello

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I went to the Mennello Museum to do a few more sketches for the mural. Genevieve and her husband Seth Kubersky posed for me in the museum. When I arrived at the museum there was plenty of activity. There were several large trucks in the parking lot and a mobile crane was moving around behind the museum. Seated inside the museum at the large bay windows in the Cunningham gallery, Mr. Menello watched as a large sculpture was being positioned over a cylinder shaped concrete podium. The artist, John Robert Wolfe was kneeling and trying to position the base of the sculpture on some small base support pads. One man held a rope to keep the large sculpture from spinning while the crane lowered it down gently. The process took several hours with a crew of five or so men. This bright primary colored sculpture moved in the breeze like a Calder mobile. It is an abstract representation of Mr. Mennello. He explained that the companion piece which represents Mr. Mennello’s wife is in the front yard of his home.

Mr. Menello joked and talked as I was sketching Genevieve and Seth. Seth used his cell phone to check into the Mennello on Four Square. He was surprised that my wife was the Mayor of the Museum. Mr. Mennello inspected the overall plan for the mural and he decided he wanted to be sketched. Unfortunately Genevieve had arranged for me to sketch several children that afternoon for the mural so I didn’t have time to sketch him right then and there. He would have been cutting in line. Isabelle, a young artist who helped me on the first day I started the mural, was next to pose. She stood with a dynamic line of action from her head right down to her toes. She looked just like Dega’s “Little Dancer.” The sketch I did of her was effortless. Her sketches which I saw that first day were nice. We chatted about art as I sketched. Her mom and younger brother watched all the activity around the sculpture being installed outside. Isabelle enjoys drawing animals and I insisted that she start taking life drawing classes.

The next day I sketched Mr. Mennello in his home. He has a wonderful art collection. It was a humbling experience beginning my sketch. Behind Mr. Mennello was a blue glass sculpture of a woman looking upward with her mouth open. On a thin glass table was a sculpted bust of a young Grace Kelly as a princess. A little jumping bean of a dog bounded into the room insisting I play ball with her. As I left I walked past the companion piece to the sculpture just installed at the Mennello Museum. Titled “Grand Dame” it abstractly and colorfully represents Mrs. Mennello. Her playful forms will dance in the breeze for eternity.

Shut Up & Play Sketch Marathon

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Music was being performed constantly for 12 hours at 11/12 Lounge. Artist, Dawn Schreiner had to move her easel and art supplies off stage two as all the musical equipment was changed out. The next band brought in another drum set so there was plenty of activity on the stage. I was still adding watercolor washes to a sketch as all the sound equipment was being carted away. Lynn Halter Birdsall told me to inform Dawn that she could set up on the stage across the room since the other artist was done with his painting. When I sketched the Forefathers, she was at her new post. With all the activity, I abandoned inking in my drawings and just scribbled away with my pencil. I started to love the freedom the blunt pencil offered.

The Forefathers performed in the red glow of stage one. Their music had a mystic lyricism. Jupiter Groove on stage two was the last act that I sketched. Their driving riffs had elements of Progressive Fusion and Jazz. The seemingly improvisational performance influenced every line I drew. I kept beat with the flow of every line. I had arranged to get Terry into the concert. She finally texted me saying she was on her way. After my sketch was done I contemplated getting a beer and relaxing a bit. But Jeremy Birdsall was on stage playing keyboard and guitar at the same time. He was jamming with two other musicians he had just met. They improvised with absolute joy and abandon. I stood at a table and swayed to the beat. People at the bar were clapping and shouting encouragement. The place was buzzing and vibrant. I just soaked it in.

When Terry arrived she wanted to immediately go out to get a bite to eat. I left on my wrist band figuring I could return to the festival which continued until 2am. After dinner at Dexter’s we went to Karen Russell’s opening at Mother Falcon. Quite a few of her pieces were sold. Terry talked to Karen about possibly getting a tattoo. We went home. It was a good day.

Cocktails & Cosmos

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Terry had purchased tickets to Cocktails and Cosmos at the Orlando Science Center. After we got our arm bands we wandered into the main room on the second floor. Terry made a bee-line to a table that offered clothing for sale and I was immediately intrigued by a mural that was in progress. A guitarist played all night near the mural as guests took red plastic cups of paint and brushed their chosen color onto the canvas. The canvas had two guitars painted in vibrant warm colors and an all seeing eye dead center. The company that organized this community painting was Harmonious Universe. The company’s motto is “Be it Share it.” They say the motto is alive in the moment. So whatever “it” is to you, then that is what you are to “be.” To fully “be it” you must “share it.” I identify with the motto since each sketch is incomplete until I share it’s story.

There was a fashion show which featured men and women’s fashions from the 60’s to the present. Peter Murphy introduced the show by telling everyone in the audience to put their hands in the air. He then said hug your neighbor to your left. I was at the end of the row so I had no one to hug but Nikki Mier gave me a warm hug. It was a fun and lively show with each model walking in character from demure 60’s flower child to surly rock and rollers. I spoke to Nikki between fashion decades and it turns out she is a store manager for Fairvilla Megastore. I informed her that I once planned to sketch in this adult mega store when a porn star was in town offering autographs. I chickened out or didn’t consider it blog worthy at the time. Nikki and Wendy Wallenberg were texting important information throughout the fashion show. I asked if her store contributed items for the fashion show. Unfortunately they didn’t, but some of the fashion items in her store are similar. She suggested I sketch Fairvilla before Halloween because the store gets crowded with people trying on costumes. I enjoyed telling her about how I earned money to get myself through college by working as the art director for Oui magazine. I was perhaps the only virgin to ever art direct a Men’s magazine. I never discussed this darker side of my career when I worked for Disney.

Carl Knickerbocker was at the event and he wanted to see the iMax movie “The Ultimate Wave Tahiti.” I joined him downstairs as the women chatted upstairs. Jelly fish sculptures made from found objects were suspended from the ceiling. They were the work of local artist Doug Rhodehamel. I bet they glow in black light but unfortunately only florescent lights were on. The movie in the three story high theater was mind blowing. I got dizzy a few times as helicopter shots flew over the ocean. I was constantly twisting my neck trying to see everything in my peripheral vision.

Terry, Wendy and a group of women kept laughing as staff rushed around folding chairs and putting away tables. We were the last to leave. I felt like I was watching an episode of Sex in the City. I snapped a photo of them in front of the mural that everyone at the party had helped paint. I take that back, Carl and I never lifted a brush.

Shut Up & Play Instrumental Music Festival

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Shut Up & Play was an all day music festival held at 11/12 Lounge (843 Lee Road Orlando). There were three stages with music being performed non-stop. As one group broke down their equipment on one stage musicians would be set up and ready to go at the stage on the opposite end of the room. People seated in the center of the room only had to rotate their chairs. The first performer I saw was Dominic Gaudious who had an amazing branching Didgeridoo which had a deep mesmerizing tone that complimented his guitar playing. I had seen him perform once before at Downtown Disney. Bruce Bentner was the artist on stage. He used a projector to transfer the Shut Up & play poster onto canvas. He used black light paints to give the painting some added punch.

Lindy Romez, a fabulous trumpet player was seated right in front of me as I sketched. She and her Sol Y Mar band jumped on the stage once Dominic was finished with his performance. I had sketched Lindy Romez & Sol Y Mar once before at the White House.

Across the room Decoy Beat performed. Jeremy Birdsall who organized the whole event was on guitar. Jeremy was a consummate performer, arching his body to the flow of the music. He was fun to sketch. When he introduced the group he thanked his wife Lynn Halter Birdsall who had worked so hard to make the event possible. There was plenty of applause. I glanced over at Lynn who was busy getting a band checked in. Lynn had given me a slick Shut Up and Play lanyard that proudly announced that I was an artist. It was such an awesome design that I wouldn’t mind wearing it all the time. If anyone were to ask if I were an artist, I could just point to the lanyard. Come to think of it, mo one ever asked if I was an artist at this event.

Dawn Schreiner was the artist hard at work as Decoy Beat played. She finished a quick portrait she had started of Martin Luthar King by adding radiating lines around his head. Then she started a whimsical piece with a turn of the century couple and birds. I loved the way she boldly drew in the faces with a brush. Her lines danced.

Gallery at Avalon Island

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On the Third Thursday of every month the downtown galleries have openings for new art on display. I tried to sketch the gorgeous architecture of the Gallery at Avalon Island once before but it was winter and I couldn’t finish the drawing with my cold hands. The green building is covered with intricate metalwork. The Rogers building was built in 1886 by architect William Mullins. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

As I sketched the sun slipped to the horizon creating a golden glow. When I finished I went inside to look at the art. On display were photo real paintings by Doug Bloodworth. Many of the slick glossy paintings were done with airbrush. Classic black and white movies seemed to be the predominant theme. If I had a home theater I wanted to decorate, then I suppose they would do the trick.

Terry Olson saw me working and said hello. He was off to see the Red Chairs which were being displayed in City Arts Factory. I had watched Genevieve Bernard as she decorated the Mennello Museum Red Chair with hundreds of red and gold buttons. There was a bustling crowd inspecting red chairs which were decorated by each of the arts organizations in town. Terry wanted me to join her for an Orlando Philharmonic event so I didn’t stick around to do another sketch. I quickly glanced at the artwork at Blank Space as I walked back to my truck.