David Amram returned to Orlando to be a part of, “The Turning Point, a Symposium on Jack Kerouac in Florida.” This multi day event took place at different locations around Orlando like, The Grand Bohemian, the Kerouac House, and as pictured here , the White House. The wite house was built by the music director for Circue Sole and he opens his living room each month so people can listen to talented musicians for free.
David played piano as authors got up on stage and read from excerpts from Jack Kerouac books. The performances ere part jazz and part smooth unexpected improvisation that flowed with the words lifting the spoken words to a heightened meaning. A drawing hung on the wall behind Dave as he performed playing a Peruvian wooden flute. Jack though always vibrant seems to always have a sad searching gaze. I had to keep drawing Kerouac even thought he was located behind the spot where Amram was standing. I enjoyed watching the painter on stage as she worked on a painting of Kerouac for the duration of the set.
I feel Kerouac would have likes this event. He would have jumped up on stage with the rest of the authors and shouted his words out to the waiting audience slipping his syntax to the slippery beat.
Sidewalk Art
Heritage Park Square in front of the Orlando County Regional History Center was the site of a daylong sidewalk chalk artist festival. I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired this day, but I had to push past that and just get lost in the work. The park in front of the History Center had a large circular sidewalk and artists were assigned designated areas where they could create their sidewalk creations. I found a spot under a shady pine tree and settled in to get a quick sketch done. The artists I was sketching seemed to all be from the same high school. I believe the art teacher was to my right since once in a while a student would walk up to him and ask a question about their project. The kids were in constant motion wandering back and forth comparing chalk creations before settling in and putting some chalk on their own work. The piece right in front of me was rather nice, being a sketch of a girl half veiled with a colorful shawl.
When my sketch was finished I wandered around the rest of the park and ran into Bob Kodzis, Anna McCambridge and her mom Vicki. Anna was working on a bunny rabbit, while her mom had a human figure with rather intriguing firework type effects. Bob went with a crowd-pleasing black and white dog that looked like the dog from “The Little Rascals.”
After this event I walked down the street to the library to participate in Brian Feldman’s 67 Books project.
The Spore Project – Doug Rhodehamel
On May 1st, Doug Rhodehamel’s “Spore Project” began. Doug is asking people from all around the world to create paper bag mushrooms and plant them around their communities. He wants people to send in photos of their creations along with a name, location and number of mushrooms made. I had been trying to catch a sketch of Doug at work and finally got my chance when I found myself at a booth space right next to him at the Outsider Art Fair at Frames Forever and Art Gallery in Winter Park. Doug sat creating mushrooms at a fast and steady pace. As he worked, he explained to me the premise behind the Spore Project. Doug feels that the project will help promote awareness for the support for art education and creativity in day to day life. The project promotes self expression, resourcefulness and creativity by pointing out how a simple everyday item like a paper bag can be turned into something new and unexpected.
As Doug said, “Art is essential: it promotes intelligence and creativity, and it’s a great expressive outlet that inspires people toward new perspectives on life, which we all need and need frequently. Creativity is needed in every aspect of life. It teaches us to think differently and allows us to consider other options.The idea behind the paper bag mushroom grew innocently out of lunch in high school. While sitting around waiting for the meal break to end, I squished my lunch bag into a mushroom and gave it to my friend. this became a daily routine. years later I figured out a way to stick them in the ground. I then began placing them in my friends’ lawns while they were at work. it was meant as a joke, but other people loved them and asked me to cover their yards with mushrooms as well. I began making hundreds, then thousands. I did them for festivals, art shows, parties and just for fun. I began getting calls from teachers asking if I could come show their classrooms the art of making paper bag mushrooms. even companies and corporations began to get involved. this is where the SPORE Project began.”
So spread the word and go make some mushrooms. It’s easy and fun.
Crealde Welcome Garden Mosaic
At the last minute I decided to go to Crealde in Winter Park for a Sunday morning sketch class. When I got to the school I saw this mosaic being created and I stopped in my tracks and wanted to draw. I had come to draw from a model however, so I went into the studio and started to set up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the mosaic being created right outside the door. The model was a beautiful young girl but I finally decided to pack up my supplies and I went outside to sketch the artist at work. Her name is Lynn Tomlinson. She worked non stop for well over two hours. She would use the snippers to snip tiles and then slather on the fixative or cement and set the tile in place. The whole design was already drawn out and much of her attention on this day was devoted to placing bright yellow and orange tiles around the school name. Lynn said that she had designed the mural along with Nicki Pierson.
The Crealde Welcome Garden Mosaic is being created to celebrate Crealde’s 35th anniversary. All the funds for the mural’s creation came from grassroots fund raising. The mosaic has been in the works for many months now. Artists have been pressing tiles as a way to raise money for the project. An individual could press a tile for just $20 and a business could sponsor a tile for $100. These sponsored tiles are the green oval shapes in the sketch. The mosaic is taking shape quickly thanks to the many volunteers and artists who have worked together collaborating at every step in the process. I have no doubt that the next time I stop out for a sketch class, this mosaic will be finished. Besides the mosaic, recent renovations to the campus were funded by a recent $100,000 grant from the Orange County Cultural Affairs Council for a campus facelift, including a new entry that extends into an attractive patio area and beautiful landscaping bought out to the front of the property. All these changes are a huge milestone for Crealde.
Fab Fringe Fundraiser
Beth Marshall suggested I stop down to the Fab Fringe Fundraiser that was held at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. I had to attend a Bella Fleck concert later that night so I knew my time to sketch was limited. I arrived straight from downtown where I dropped off several of my prints to a client. I was a bit early and I decided to sketch, Carla Davis, the woman who sells the tickets to the event. Pricilla who had attended the Fringe eight times, was at the next table selling Fringe tee shirts and buttons. Within minutes the first Fringe button was sold kicking off this years Fringe festivities. There were three or four photographers buzzing about the event and every one of them wanted to get pictures of me at work. I am getting used to the mild distractions of the sounds of shutters clicking as I sketch. When I finished this sketch I wandered into the Patrons room where tables lined the walls of the circular room with various auction items waiting for bids. I took the business cards of any artists whose work interested me, so I might contact them and see if they were interested in allowing me to visit their studios to sketch.
Tisse Mallon found me and said I had to experience “Theater in a box”. Theater in a box was a small fabric box just big enough to seat two people. A woman had just entered the theater so Tisse suggested I get some food and come back. I loaded my plate and then Tisse told me the theater was waiting. I ducked down and entered the totally dark cave sitting in the empty seat. Jeff Wirth who was sitting opposite me turned on a small pen light which was dangling from the ceiling. As my eyes adjusted, he looked around nervously wringing his hands. Finally he said, “I don’t know how we will get out of here alive.” Slowly our precarious situation was discussed. We were lost on a cave spelunking expedition. This improve drama required that I join in the drama offering my feeble attempts to comfort Jeff, and find a way back to the surface. We had left no trail and there were hundreds of passageways and turns. Outside our dark shelter, I could hear the crowd gathering to enter the theater, but that just reminded me of how desperate the situation was. I realized suddenly that I had bought the Fringe food into the enclosure so I reminded Jeff that at least we had some food. He pointed out that it would not last long. My only way to put a positive spin on the situation was through humor. Then the thought dawned on me, park rangers would certainly send a search team after us when we did not check back in at the end of the day. I also told Jeff that they most likely would have search dogs who would be able to sniff out the food. Jeff took two small pinches off of my roll on the plate. He gave me one pinch of bread. We toasted by tapping the two crumbs together as he said, “here is to survival”.
Scranton PA – Drawing Social
In the evening I arrived at the Afa Gallery where the Drawing Social was to be held. I helped Angelica put out some chairs and slowly artists began to arrive. The sketch shows Jason Smeltzer playing an instrument called the Theremin. You would have heard this instrument in any 1950’s science fiction film it had a haunting otherworldly sound. Chris Gratz is playing the piano. When Ted walked over to me and introduced me to the group of artists, Chris started playing an accompaniment and the introduction turned into something of a show tune. I joined in adding lyrics as they popped into my head. This was a fun start to the evening.
The point of the Drawing Social is that musicians are bought to the artists who have a front row seat to sketch at will. It is a fantastic idea that results in plenty of lively and spontaneous sketches. In the second half of the Social, Steve Kurilla showed up and set up his drum set. I never worked him into my sketch since he sat directly in front of me and would have blocked out some areas that were already established in my sketch. Steve began his performance playing the triangle and walking around the room. On the drums Steve threw himself into the performance like a man obsessed. As the energy built he would let symbols and cow bells fall to the floor. A musical earthquake. All this energy affected every line as it was thrown down. This was art inspiring art at it’s best.
During a break I walked around and looked at what other artists were working on. Ted can be seen in the sketch right behind Chris working away with his ink dropper. Everyone went out for dinner after the Social. There was plenty of laughter and ted continued drawing on his place mat catching the artists seated around him. I had decided that I would drive south as far as I could to make my way back home. As I got up to pay my bill, Angelica shouted out something complimentary and everyone clapped. I said my good byes and was soon back on the road. I wanted to get south of Washington DC to avoid any morning traffic and so I drove till 5AM. I finally pulled off the highway exhausted and found a quiet suburban street and parked my truck in front of someones home. I unfurled my sleeping bag and curled up in the back of the truck. I woke up several hours later and then drove the rest of the day till I got to Orlando that night.
Scranton PA – Mini Crawl
When I was in Honesdale, I checked my Facebook page at my sister in laws house and got a message from Ted Michalowvski. Ted is an amazing artist who like me is constantly observing and sketching life around him. He invited me to an art opening at Marywood University. It was about a forty five minute drive to Scranton and the final mile or so I called Ted and he talked me in to a friends house where they were having some wine before the opening. Teds friend is an art collector and had several of Teds drawings in a back room. Ted pointed out that he uses an eye dropper to drip paint on the drawings instead of using a pen. This is what gives his line work such unexpected vitality. At the opening Ted introduced me around to a bunch of people. He really knows how to work a room. By then end of the evening he had introduced me to several of his students (He teaches drawing) and they all convinced me that I should stay in Scranton for one more day to experience what Ted Calls a “Drawing Social”. I had studied pictures of past socials from Ted’s Facebook page and this was an idea that I want to bring to Orlando so I decided to stay.
The next day we met for a mini sketch crawl at Border’s. Ted scouted out several comfortable leather chairs and then went to talk to someone. As I got out my art supplies, a large man shuffled over and sat in Ted’s seat sitting on his sketch pad. I pipped in and said the seat was being saved for a friend. The man then moved over to the other chair ted was hoping to save and once again sat on the art supplies. At this point Ted was back and he grabbed his art supplies. Kelsey Winterbottom, a student of Ted’s joined us as did Angelica Cordero. I let Angelica use my tablet PC since I wasn’t using it and she took to it like a fish to water. She did a sketch of Kelsey and then e-mailed it to herself. Dominique Kozuck joined us later but she never did sketch.
I couldn’t resist sketching the rather rotund, crumples and rude man that had taken the seat next to Ted. My view of him was straight on and thus rather flat, but I rather enjoyed sketching him since he was clueless to everyone around him. He actually fell asleep behind the magazine he was holding so he stayed nice and still for the longest time. You can see Teds sketch pad over to the right in my sketch. Ted was just as infatuated with this man and was glad to get a sketch of him.
Once we finished the first sketch, Ted and I agreed to have a sketch off where we sketched each other at the same time. Ted’s sketch is wonderfully expressive. He did a very rough watercolor to start and then used the eye dropper to lay down some thick lines. I worked faster than usual trying to catch Ted’s frenetic energy as he worked. Kelsey at the same time began to sketch us both as we faced off and worked. There was plenty of creative energy flowing.
Someone that Ted knew, a few seats away got a cell phone call and he started laughing. This man had a booming laugh and soon Ted started to imitate him. Kelsey angelica and myself then followed suite with out own bellowing laughs. The laughter was infectious and soon other people in the coffee shop were joining in. By the time I stopped laughing, I was in tears. A few minutes later the man laughed into his cell phone and the echoing laughter resounded once again.
Soon it was time to head out to the Drawing Social. Ted left first since he had some planning to do and then I followed Dominique and Angelica so I could find the place…
FRESH – Creation
Much of FRESH is all about the process of creating art. In this sketch, Christie Miga is on her knees as she creates a drip painting during the event. All of the paints are diluted just the right amount so they can flow and blend into each other freely. At times Cristie used gravity to let the paint flow and other times she would lay the painting flat and blow the paint into areas of the canvas where she wanted it to spread. She had the painting done within an hour and at the end of the night it was auctioned off. I had to work extra fast to catch Christie since she was in constant motion. The FRESH performance space also had other areas where guests could play and interact. For instance there was a small Zen dirt garden where people could rake the dirt and arrange delicate stones and sticks in any way they likes. I created a big Z and then with some twine wrote orro so the garden had the mark of Zorro. I have a pet Cockatoo named Zorro so I leave his mark whenever I can.
Besides the drip painting, we all helped create a mural each night by using an overhead projector hung from the ceiling. I was asked to make a hand shadow puppet and then Evan Miga traced the shadow I made onto the large sheets of white paper hung on the wall. He asked me to finish it up, so I added an eye and other details to bring it to life.
After each evening’s performance, the real fun would start. The music would build and then all the dancers would come out and dance. I joined them every night and it was always fun. Once in a while we could get an audience member out on the dance floor and then things really got large. It turns out Evan is quite a dancing fool and on occasion he would jump up on the dirt mound and play king of the mountain while dancing. On the final night, Evan pulled Jessica Mariko, the troupe’s founder and choreographer, up onto the mound and they had a blast while everyone else clapped. Being on the floor and sketching every night I was no longer just reporting on the event, I was a part of the event itself. This was a creative and inspiring environment and it is a shame it is only in town around Valentine’s Day. Every day should be Valentine’s day.
Florida Super Balloon Jam
Paula Large gave me a tip on an Event called a Balloon Jam that was taking place at the Courtyard Orlando Lake Buena Vista in the Marriott Village down by Disney. The event got started at 7 AM, so I rose bright and early to get there. As usual, I got a bit lost looking for the place and when I arrived there were a handful of people setting up tables and putting out brochures. I sat quietly, and waited, to let things get underway. People sat around and talked and I didn’t see a single balloon, so I started to get nervous since I had to get to another event later that day to sketch. Finally a group gathered some chairs and sat around in a circle. They started inflating balloons with an automated inflating device and things got going. Other small groups formed and they taught each other how to make unexpected and strange balloon creatures. The room began to fill with the sounds of balloon squeaks and plenty of conversation.
I spoke with Paul Belanger, one of the organizers of the event, and he explained how balloon twisting has become something of an international phenomenon. He traveled to China and wanted to start an event called a balloon fashion show. People tried to explain to him that the Chinese didn’t like balloons but that didn’t discourage him. He organized the show anyway and now similar events are sprouting up all over China. He unfortunately does not make any money off of these knockoff shows.
One conversation cropped up when a twister asked everyone, “What was the biggest tip you ever got for twisting a balloon?” Answers varied from $20, to a bottle of wine to an airplane ticket. It was agreed that the ticket was the best tip. As I was sketching this group twisting their little bears and snakes, I noticed in the corner of the room something big being built. Instead of using the thin long balloons, they were using fat chunky balloons and chaining them together to form large cylinder shapes. The Great Wandini, Sheree Brown-Rosner, explained that they wanted to use these fatter balloons so the manufacturer would continue making that line of balloons. All the balloons were bright yellow, and for the duration of the sketch, I never figured out what they were building. It wasn’t until I saw a youtube video taken at the event that I discovered what they were up to. Twisting balloons is a whole subculture I was never aware of. Balloon Jams are certainly a fun bizarre experience. I hope I get to experience a jam again when they are in town. Next time I would want to show up later after hundreds of balloon sculptures litter the floor.
Grandma Party
Stardust Video and Coffee was the host to the annual Grandma Party. The streets around Stardust were crammed full of parked cars. I had never seen such a crowd at the venue. The Grandma Party started several years ago as a place for local fashion designers, bookbinders, painters, knitters, silversmiths, vintage dealers, bakers and print makers to showcase and sell their work. Everything found here was hand crafted and original. There was a stage set up for local musicians to perform as well but they were not playing when I arrived. I wandered around and bumped into a few friends as I searched for my sketch of the day. Anna McCambridge’s mom, Vicki was celebrating her birthday and she blew out a candle on a cupcake to celebrate.
I ultimately became infatuated with Alchemy, an outdoor hair cutting booth. The seats were always full as women and men rotated in to have their hair cut. It was a challenge to capture the hair stylists who were in constant motion but it was worth the effort.
When I finished this sketch I went to the stage to listen to the music. At the end of the final number a girl dresses in a red and white overalls stood next to the stage and threw confetti when the song ended. Although titled the Grandma Party, most of the crowd was hip and young. These were Orlando’s true bohemians and they knew how to party.