Mozart

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I went to Rollins College Knowles Chapel to watch a rehearsal of Mozart’s Grand Mass in C minor. The music starts softly at first and then builds in intensity. I imagined a small ship lost at sea caught in a tempest, the waves swelling and the ship tossed about like a cork. A refrain of hope, a ray of light, wove it’s way through the music

I sat in the nose bleed section since I didn’t want the tablet’s glowing screen to distract anyone in the audience. Even the balcony became packed. This Bach Festival rehearsal was open to the public and free to attend. A couple in front of me cuddled the entire performance.

When the chorus joined in, the music became heavenly. At one point a trains whistle sounded repeatedly in the distance. Amazingly the sound fit in perfectly with the performance. The conductor, John V. Sinclair, commented on the accompaniment and the orchestra, chorus and audience laughed. This was different than most performances in that the audience was asked to remain silent. As a working rehearsal, the conductor offered notes and suggestions to the performers. By remaining silent the audience had a chance to learn more about how the conductor viewed the music. When there was a break in the rehearsal, most of the audience left. I remained and continued to play and experiment with color.

RIFF

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As part of Arts Fest, DRIP dance company unveiled a work in progress for an upcoming show titled RIFF, at the Cameo Theater (1013 East Colonial Drive). Dubbed, a Night of Music, The DRlP performance was preceded by four bands. The first band on the line up featured Britt Daley with her unique brand of electro pop. Next up was Telethon, then The Pauses and Peter Baldwin. Between acts and beers I spoke with Andy Matchett. I had heard of him a number of times and he let me know that I had sketched his wife and child once when I did a sketch at Dawn Schreiner’s “Doodles” opening at Seven Sisters Coffee house. I was fascinated by some club kids who filmed every moment of their experience, voguing in front of their iPhone cameras. I suppose I am not much different as moments of my daily experience are documented with a sketch.

Andy Matchett & the Minks performance was a perfect match to the DRIP experience. The act began with a colorful whirlwind of confetti which was kept alive with fans and hair driers by members of the audience. I already had finished two sketches so I resigned myself to enjoy the experience by dancing and laughing. For the final songs a huge parachute was unfurled over the audience and Andy jumped off the stage to perform in the heart of the maelstrom. This was pure unbridled childlike fun and I’m glad I put my pen down long enough to simply experience it. Now Andy Matchett & the Minks is on my radar and I will follow them until I do a definitive sketch.

The RIFF dance performance happened in a hallway that was created by hanging a huge bolt of clear plastic from the ceiling. Jessica Mariko, Drips founder, CEO and Creative Director announced that the plastic had arrived only moments before the opening of the show thus the dancers would be performing within its limitations for the first time. Nikki Serra choreographed the Hallway piece.At one end of this plastic hall was a fan and buckets of colored salts were waiting for the performers. I knew the dance performance was less than five minutes long so I resisted the urge to sketch. The dancers entered the space and performed a sensual dance that involved tossing the colored salt in the air and showering themselves in pure color. The RIFF band performed the equally sensual music composed by David Traver.

Christmas in the Park

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A free concert in Winter Park’s Central Park was the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit. It was a very cold night for Orlando. I arrived maybe half an hour early and already the great lawn was packed with families who had come out with picnic baskets, blankets, wine and even fine china and candles for the occasion. I felt a bit unprepared with just a sketchbook, pen and some watercolors. After I set up my stool on the sidelines, Ken Sperduso walked up and said hello. Ken was a former Disney colleague and a wonderful painter. I hadn’t seen Ken in ages, it was a pleasant surprise. His whole family was camped out not far behind me. Ken said he recognized me from behind because of the sketchbook in my lap.

Large shadow box containers were arranged on stage and around the lawn, housing original Tiffany stained glass windows which were created for a church in NYC in the early 1900’s. At the start of the concert they all were illuminated from behind. The instant they blazed brightly, the crowd burst forth with applause. It is rewarding to hear people applaud for visual art. These amazing works had iridescent colors that only Tiffany could perfect in molten glass. This display was made possible thanks to the Morse Museum which houses the world’s largest collection of Tiffany’s work.

The concert featured the Bach Festival Choir and Brass Ensemble. As I sketched, I pulled my hands up into the sleeves of my sweatshirt to try and keep them warm. Periodically I had to blow into my cupped hands for added warmth. It felt like Christmas time. When I finished the sketch I walked around in the crowd for a while looking for a possible second sketch. I walked under a streetlamp so I could see the colors I had just painted for the first time. Mr. and Mrs. Claus were handing out candy to children. They were dressed in vintage 1900’s red wool and white fur outfits. They looked warm as they calmly posed for family photos. I considered a sketch but my fingers were cold, and the jolly couple were constantly on the move. The Park Avenue store windows glowed warm and inviting. With all the families huddling close together for warmth and the angelic voices of the children on stage singing, I started feeling out of place, alone, with only my obsessive compulsion to sketch as company. As I turned away and walked down Park Avenue towards my truck, I pulled the sweatshirt hood up over my head and felt instantly warmer. The children’s voices were still harmonizing behind me and I let the warmth spread as I walked briskly back toward home.

College Park Jazz Fest.

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Terry and I drove to College Park where about five blocks of Edgewater Drive were blocked off to make way for two stages for Jazz Fest. Restaurants had tables set out on the street and walkways. Some large tables had been purchased by corporate sponsors. We walked south down the length of the festival. Lawn chairs picnic baskets and bottles of wine were everywhere. Every block people would try and sell orange arm bands. The event was free, but I guess they hoped to get donations with pier pressure and guilt. I planned to meet Summer Rodman at some point since she wanted me to donate a print of a sketch I did at a Kerouac event for a book being printed about Jack’s life in Orlando.

My first order of business was to find some food. A street vendor was offering potato salad and two hot dogs for $5. We found a spot to sit on some steps close to the stage. As soon as I finished eating, I started looking for a vantage point to sketch from. As we wandered in the ever thickening crowd, we bumped into Summer. She didn’t have the release forms we had talked about, but she pointed to an empty corporate table and said she had bought the table and no one was using it. She suggested we sit there. That is when I started this sketch. Terry wandered to look in a ( few stores and when she came back she read a magazine. The music acts were, Miss Jacqueline Jones, The Roadblock Blues Band and The Les Be More Band. Shak Nasty played at the stage at the opposite end of the festival but we never saw his set.

It was a nice cool night with a crisp full moon. The whole event reminded me a bit of the free concerts Terry and I used to attend in New York City’s Central Park. I missed these kind of events which really make me feel like I am part of a thriving community.

The Eagles

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The Eagles were Terry’s all time favorite band from her college years. When she found out they would be performing as the first concert in the new Amway Center, she had to get tickets. I heard the tickets were not cheap. I met Terry at her office and then we walked over to Hamburger Mary’s for some dinner. The place was packed for Bingo Night. By the time we finished eating, there was a line of people out the door waiting to get tables. People eyed any open seats with annoyance and anticipation. We walked from Church Street Station to the Amway Center. The city splurged and installed blue spotlights to illuminate the I-4 underpass. A veteran in a camouflage uniform was selling tiny American flags. A man was shouting with his raised fist clenched in a peace sign indicating he needed two tickets.

At the entrance to the Arena I pulled out the computer printed tickets Terry had given to me earlier in the evening. We rode the escalator up to our level. There was a huge crowd around the Eagles T-shirts and merchandise. We had to walk down several staircases to get to our seats. I was shocked at how close our seats were to the stage. We arrived about an hour early which gave me plenty of time to sketch the stage as people filed into the immense space. The lighting changed constantly from blue to red. A lighting tech climbed a rope ladder to get to the suspended walkway hundreds of feet high. The crowd cheered for him and he paused and waved making everyone cheer louder.

Finally the band began to play and the cheering and whistling became deafening. When they performed “Peaceful Easy Feeling“, Terry leaned over and said, “This was my favorite song in college.” I looked over and saw that she had tears in her eyes. She dried he eyes grabbed my arm and put her head on my shoulder.When the band played “The Best of my Love”, people started raising their lighters and iPhones. Terry said there was an application for the iPhone that looks like a lighter. She quickly downloaded the application and soon there was the image of a closed lighter on the screen. Laughing, we both tried tapping the screen with our fingers trying to open the virtual lighter. We finally discovered the flicking finger gestures needed and she raised the lighter just as the song was ending.

The next day, I was asked, “If you were an abstract painter, how would you imagine the renewed affection that you and Terry are sharing.” My first response was, “I am not an abstract painter.” We laughed. Then I painted the scene he was looking for, “When the Eagles played ‘Desperado‘ the whole arena was lit dark and blue, the lyrics intoned ‘why don’t you come to your senses? Come down from your fences, open the gate.’ Then as the song rang out, ‘You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late’, the lighting pivoted out towards the audience lighting them in warm yellows and oranges. Couples held each other swaying side to side and Terry and I hugged in a long embrace.” Terry was there as I described the scene and she misted up as did the person who asked for the description. The warmth in the arena is the sketch I should have caught.

Yow Dance Gala

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The third annual Yow Dance Gala was held at Tim’s Wine Market (1223 North Orange Avenue on Lake Ivanhoe). I agreed to donate a print for the silent auction so I had to get to the event early to drop it off. After dropping off the print, Terry and I went to Ethos which is a vegan restaurant. I had never been here before so I was excited to try it out.I ordered Brochette which had tomato’s and I am assuming tofu in place of cheese. It was delicious. Terry was adventurous and got a vegan burger which must have been made from a compressed been mixture. I tried a taste and it was also great. When we returned to Tim’s, the place was packed. I got a taste of white wine and wandered around. Tyler Reed who greeted us at the door made me feel like a million bucks since she follows the blog and is a fan.
Erik Yow then invited guests across the street to watch a dance performance . David Mooney explained to me that cement floors are not conducive to the classic dances that the company performs. It was decided therefore to dance in the grass at Lake Ivanhoe . The crowd gathered in a line in the grass and I immediately started sketching . Eric then encouraged everyone to push forward which meant I had to moue as well since I was sketching the audience. As the sun set behind them over the lake, the dance began. There is something lyrical and poetic seeing them perform in such a beautiful setting. A family that I had noticed eating at Ethos wandered over to see the performance. As guests wandered back to the Wine Market, I told the family about the Gala and dance company. I then sat alone for a half hour or s0 adding color t0 my sketch and enjoying the sunset. The clouds lit up a bright orange and the sky faded to violet. I watched the street light flicker on and added these warm tones to the sketch. For me the poetry of the dance lingered as the night crept in. I returned to Tim’s Wine Market and viewing it from across the street , the large bay windows were filled with the warmth of the crowd bathed in orange light get against the darkened street. Instead of sketching, I went inside.

Improv Full House

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Of all the theatrical events I have sketched, I have never seen a sold out house. When I entered the Winter Park Playhouse on the second night of the festival, Brian Feldman seated in the front row said to me, “Get up on stage and sketch, this is the audience we should have had.” He was referring to “Thomas Thorspecken Sketches the Audience” where we only filled at most a quarter of the seats. Tonight every seat was taken. I watched “The Arm” improv group from Atlanta. I was there to spend time with Terry since she had left early the night before without seeing a show. She recognized some of the the scene structure since we lived in NYC. We laughed the whole show, even when one comedian during a fast-paced routine stood center stage and blurted out, “I got nothing.” He laughed, was pushed aside and someone else took over.
We decided to stay for the next performance which was “Some Like it Improvised” from Austin, Texas. This act consisted of the duo of Roy Janik and Kaci Beeler. I wanted to sketch this go around, so I asked Mark Baratelli about sketching the audience from the sound and lighting booth. Mark pointed out Cody Bush, the tech, and so I followed him up to the booth. We walked through the dressing room past a couple in 1930s period clothes. In the back room there was a rickety ladder made of two-by-fours that ascended into a hole cut in the ceiling. It was a tight squeeze with my backpack of art supplies. It was dark up there so I pulled out my book light. The audience poured in as I sketched lightly in pencil. Every seat was filled. People finally had to sit in the center aisle.
Roy and Kaci were amazing. They performed one long improv show that involved them being bootleggers after the prohibition. Kaci would change characters on a dime. Some of the remarks made were so absurd it is amazing they kept their forward momentum. Since probably half the audience were improv comedians, it felt like the room was rooting for them. This was like watching a feature film being improvised on the fly. A stunning performance.
I knew I only had about 45 minutes to sketch so I rushed. After the show everyone crowded into the lobby. Brian Feldman was talking to Terry. He pulled me aside and said, “You should have been sketching the performers. Kaci is a sketch artist just like you.” He insisted I walk up to Kaci and ask her if she was an artist. I did so while Mark filmed the meeting on his digital camera. It turns out Kaci sketches set designs besides being an improv actress. She has a girlish charm while on stage, and can be the femme fatale as well as a comic. After this show, Terry was tired and wanted to go home. For once I joined her, since I had my sketch and an amazing success story.

Thomas Thorspecken Sketches the Audience

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This staged performance, where I sketched an audience at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, would never have happened if friends I had met over the last year and a half of sketching had not stepped in to help. Aradhana Tiwari invited me to take over the theater for one night and Brian Feldman had the vision for this show close to a year ago. The staging consisted of me sitting in a lone spotlight facing the audience and doing what I do every day – sketch. One video camera shot the sketch I was working on and projected the image on the theater wall behind me, while another camera, operated by Brian, shot footage of the audience just as in a baseball or football game. This would be the first time my work process was ever projected bigger than life for an audience to scrutinize. At leastthree video cameras were recording the proceedings the whole time. This has to be the most documented event I have ever been a part of. The program gave the audience plenty to read and a blank page to sketch if they so liked.

73 of my sketches were hung around the theater clothesline style using fishing line, electrical tape and alligator clips. Ron and Maisy Marrs arrived early and worked tirelessly for over an hour and a half before curtain call. Tommy Wingo handled all the technical aspects of the two video cameras and all the wiring. Evan Miga lent us his digital projector and operated the video camera pointed at my sketch during the whole performance.

At first I envisioned music from “The Illusionist” soundtrack playing the whole time I sketched, but Aradhana and Brian both felt it had too dark and brooding a mood. We agreed to play some Bach performed by Yo-Yo Ma when people entered the theater and looked around at the art. The music was silenced and Brian Feldman walked out into the spotlight to offer an introduction. He mentioned how he and I met over a year ago at the Kerouac House for a performance of his called “txt.” Since that night I have documented over 25 of his performances. When the audience applauded, I walked on stage and took my seat. I couldn’t see a thing with the spotlight in my face, so I grabbed a baseball cap out of my backpack. I was a bit nervous to start and dropped a pen. I had difficulty seeing since the house lights were at half. I called out to the lighting booth, asking if she could raise the lights a bit. When I could see, the sketch started to progress. At first the room was silent, but soon people forgot about the cameras and artist recording the proceedings and the mood lightened. Ashley Gonzalez, Tommy Wingo’s fiance, walked right up on the stage and stood looking over my left shoulder. She whispered the one question I cannot stand into my ear, “Are you an artist?” I laughed and asked, “Did Terry put you up top this?” Clearly she had.

About one hour into the performance, just as I was about to finish up the pen line work, a large group of audience members decided to get up and move to the opposite side of the space so they could be in the sketch a second time. I shouted out “Anarchists!” I placed them the best I could in the new location. Then the watercolors came out and I started to work faster.

People talked and mingled. At times people joked with me and the artist and model exchange became playful. An artist named James Barone wore a kilt and sat in the front row with his wife who held an umbrella. He drew a robotic version of me sketching. Maisy drew all over her questionnaire. What was amazing about this audience as a whole was how much talent was gathered in one room. There were visual artists, authors, poets, dancers, comedians, directors and photographers all mingling in a shared creative experience. It turned out to be a fun way to meet new people while sharing my art. Life as theater, theater as life.

Brian Waits

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Brian Feldman had a dream. He shared it with me months ago at a Toast to Elizabeth Maupin at the Repertory Theater in Orlando Loch Haven Park. He told me that he wanted to sit opposite Marina Abramovic, the world’s greatest living performance artist, who was having a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) called “The Artist is Present.” On top of it all, Brian wanted me to join him on the quest knowing I would get a great sketch. The MoMA exhibition consisted of Marina sitting in the center of the atrium with spectators having the ability to sit opposite her and look into her eyes for as long as they could last, as an exercise in being present in the moment with another person. Brian wanted to camp out overnight outside the museum on the final day of the exhibit to be first in line to sit opposite Marina and then he hoped to sit opposite her for seven straight hours. Brian raised money to get himself to NYC through donations at his parallel performance “The Staring Contest.” One person was generous enough to actually give Brian their Delta Sky Miles. The dream was now a reality. Marina had been performing “The Artist is Present” for two and a half straight months and Brian was determined to be there on the final day, May 31st.

The day started with surprises. Upon his arrival to MoMA, Brian found out that they were allowing people to sit opposite Marina for only 10 minutes. Though disappointed, he kept moving forward rather than turning back. Though he camped outside the museum, there were 29 people who were in front of him in a line that inched forward in agonizingly slow increments. There was no guarantee that Brian would even get the chance he had planned and trained for over many months.The exhibit drew people from all over and there were many who waited patiently along with Brian for their chance to be present with Marina. Photographer Marco Anelli took photos of every person who sat opposite Marina. Shortly after the exhibit opened, a young woman in a one piece dress approached Marina and before she sat down, whipped the dress up over her head and stood naked for a split second in the center of the crowded room. Guards rushed around her and shielded the audience from getting a clear view of the woman. Crying, she was led away. As the pandemonium died down, he glanced over at me and raised his hands and shoulders in a gesture that said, “What the …?” Brian regained his focus and waited for his chance to face Marina.

Yow Dance

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Shortly after getting back from Pennsylvania, I went to a performance by Yow Dance at Seminole State College of Florida. Yow dance is Orlando’s “Traditional modern dance company”, which sets it apart from the other dance companies in the area. The company tends to gravitate more towards dance elements that were seen in the early 20th century when Modern Dance was first founded as a rebellion against traditional ballet. Eric Yow pulls his inspiration from this era in his choreography, which often will echo the influence of the founding pioneers of Modern Dance, such as Martha Graham and Paul Taylor. He also looks to one of his favorite choreographers of present day, Mark Morris. The style of Yow Dance has been described as “classical” and “traditional” in comparison to other companies.
Throughout his career, Eric has performed with various companies around the country. Including; the Martha Graham Ensemble, David Hochoy’s Dance Kaleidoscope and Pascal Rioult. He takes stock in what he has learned and melds it with the stories he is compelled to tell through dance.
Seminole State College of Florida’s presentation of Spring Into Dance was a very special opportunity for Eric to showcase his work with Yow Dance. Seven pieces were showcased during this run of performances. They included the premieres of Summer Suite and Tango of Ember, along with a personal and moving solo performed by Eric, himself, entitled, The Fisherman. And though Yow Dance is only in the middle of its second season, audience favorites have emerged from previous performances. Compromising Raven and Tabula Rasa are back after receiving rave reviews during Yow Dance! and the Thang Dao Contemporary Dance Festival in New York City. Other new works will be performed as well that will depict Eric’s light-hearted and humorous side.
While sketching this performance, I noticed a dancer collapse in the wings. A stage hand went over to her to see if she was OK. As other dancers exited the stage they clustered around the fallen dancer to offer their support. No one in the audience could see this scene unfold, but I was up in a balcony seat which looked straight into the wings. I got an e-mail from David Mooney that night informing me that, although there was some concern, the dancer was alright.
The performances were at times light hearted and sometimes lyrical and mystical. I stopped sketching to watch the dance I had seen rehearsed several weeks ago. With the addition of strong orange lighting against the dark stage, the scene became mesmerizing. I feel so privileged to watch a performance like this develop over time.