Stockholm Syndrome

Posted on by Thor

COVID-19 is here to stay. Any chance of defeating the virus has long since passed. Airlines spread it around the world and countries no longer are making any attempts at mitigating it’s spread. The virus has won and humans are it’s fuel. Just as humans lust for fossil fuels, the virus loves each helpless host it infects.

I haven’t dropped my mitigation measures. I continue to filter the air I breath with a HEPA filter in the studio and anytime I am out in public, I wear an N-95 mask. Since COVID is airborne and can spread much further than 6 feet, I tend to maintain 22 feet of social distancing if unmasked outside. Basically if I hear to see someone the mask goes on. My thought is that if the artist Banksy can hide his identity all these years, I can certainly always be masked anytime I am seen in public.

Most of the country however has lovingly embraced the virus. I seldom see anyone masked anymore. For the past two semesters all my students have been unmasked. I hold the classes outdoors for their protection and mine. Only a few times have we worked indoors. In those cases I keep the door open and spread the mask less students out as much as I can. Those students only ever see my eyes.

Once infected, people seem to experience Stockholm Syndrome where they love their captor and drop all attempts to protect themselves and others. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Stockholm Syndrome as “the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize with his or her captor.” Once infected people lovingly promote the spread of the virus by hosting superspreader events in indoor spaces. Feeling invincible, since they survived the initial infection, they return to indoor bars, theaters, gyms, and restaurants. Huge indoor concerts are being held except when the performers become ill and have to cancel.  For the infected their new lover is a fast and wreck less return to normal.

This love affair is only in the best interest of the virus. It continues to spread as asymptotically among friends and family. One in five of these lovers develop long COVID and the quality of their life is sometimes forever destroyed. More and more people are not returning to the work force because they can not get out of bed. As a conservative estimate, about 16.3 million have long COVID so far. About 4 million people are out of work due to Long COVID. That number will continue to grow at the country promotes mass infection. According to one study Long COVID could cost the United States 3.7 trillion dollars a year. Improving ventilation in all buildings and educating the public about ways to avoid infection would cost a whole lot less.

Orlando Arts Collecive

Posted on by Thor

The Orlando Arts Collective is a diverse group of artists who enjoy supporting, sharing, communicating, and collaborating with other fellow artists. OAC members are painters, sculptors, photographers, and mixed-media artists.

Members conduct workshops, run critique seminars, curate art shows, participate in other community shows and events, and go on art related field trips together. The group encourages members to participate in art activities, shows and other groups throughout the community, and to share their experiences. Having adventures is one of the hallmarks of the OAC.

They are an IRS-501(c) 3 not-for-profit group, which allows them to conduct classes and work with charities. This also means they have a Board of Directors and annual dues. Even though they have a board they are not a board-centered group. All decisions are determined by a majority of their members. The annual membership is $30.00, which helps to pay for group shows, classes, and guest speakers. Extra fees may be required for participation in gallery shows. The members have shown and participated in various art venues in and around Orlando, such as City Arts Orlando, Mega Con, Third Thursdays, Dandelion Cafe, Pom Poms, and FAVO.

The Orlando Art Collective meets on the second Thursday of each month between 6:30-8:30 pm.

I stopped in to a meeting and sketched while members were learning new techniques in a printing workshop. Everything was provided and there were some unique results.  At the end of the table one artist apologized because he had evicted me from a painting workshop at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens one year because I was sketching as I listened. I laughed and said there were no hard feelings.

Also on the table were ceramic tile hearts which were for a mural that is now up on the side of Lamp Shade Fair which is a 65-year-old business on 1336 N. Mills Avenue, Orlando, Fl. The ceramic hearts were created by artists from around the world and will be arranged into a rainbow coming from the open hand of a Banksy-inspired silhouette of a young girl blowing a kiss.

Anyone Can Learn to Airbrush at Blast Studios

Posted on by Thor

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.