Rogers Building Celebration.

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I was hired to document a celebration at Avalon Island Gallery for Mr. Ford Kiene, chairman of City Beverages, who just donated the historic Rogers building to the City of Orlando under
the condition it be used for the arts for the next 20 years. I worked a bit larger that I usually do in an 18 by 24 inch sketch pad. Earlier in the day I purchased a frame and cut a white mat on which people could share their thoughts and well wishes for Mr. Kiene. At the end of the evening, I framed this sketch in the mat and it was presented to him as thanks.

This celebration was well attended which made the sketch a challenge. When Mayor Buddy Dyer took to the podium, I was faced with a wall of backs. I stood on tip toe to get the sketch of him and Mr. Ford at the microphone. The mayor pointed out that it is rare for the city to receive such a donation. Built in 1886 by Englishman Gordon Rogers and investors, the iconic green tin sided building,
which sits at the corner of Magnolia and Pine, will officially be
renamed  the Rogers Kiene Building. When Mr. Kiene took to the microphone, he described the painstaking work that went into preserving the 1886 floor boards.

The building is now managed by the Downtown Arts District (DAD) but their management agreement only runs through June 30, 2018. Barbara Hartley, the DAD executive director said that the building will remain a hub for the arts. Patrick Greene, who oversees the gallery, hosts monthly cutting edge music sessions in the venue between the hanging of art shows. This, “Inbetween Series” brings experimental contemporary music to downtown. It is unclear if the venue will keep producing such edgy programs after June. I have sketched so often in this venue over the years, that I could easily compile a retrospective book that documents the arts events held here. Just sketching every day, I have seen far too many arts venues fall to the wayside. Hopefully the building will continue to further our city’s efforts to expand our arts and culture scene.

Trash 2 Trends: a Recycled Runway Show.

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Trash 2 Trends was held at Ports of Call at Sea World. The program for the event had two pages of photos of Sea World staff rescuing sea turtles and dolphins. The pages proclaimed that 29,000 animals had been rescued. The entrance to the parks parking lot still sports fiberglass killer whales leaping in the misty light. Tilikum the killer whale this killed his trainer recently died of bacterial pneumonia. The killer whale lived in isolation having spent most of his life in captivity. In the open ocean killer whales swim thousands of miles in the endless expanse of the oceans. At Sea World they can only swim in circles in the tight constraints of the enclosures.

The hosts for the evening were Doug Ba’aser, Scott Maxwell and Miss Sammy. Miss Sammy wore a home made dress made from silver egg cartons and plenty of shot glasses. Doug took off his suit while he was on stage, Saying that he didn’t us n to get it dirty since he would have to return it the next day. He wasn’t kidding. Money raised at the fundraiser went to Keep Orlando Beautiful. Founded in 1987, KOB is a non profit organization that offers a variety of much needed community improvement services. They strive to create a healthier, safer, more livable and sustainable community environment.

Judges, seated at the end of the runway were, Commissioner Patty Sheehan, Barbara Hartley, Maxine Earhart, and Marcy Singhaus. In all 34 unique recycled dresses strutted down the runway. The judges pick for the best dress, was Far East Headlines – Read and Wear created by Sharon Huang. The intricate and opulent dress made the model look like a peacock. Love Conquers Hate by Meaghan Moreno won as the audience choice for the best use of materials. The audience choice votes were cast with dollar bills.  Love conquers hate had the stately mode wearing large white angel wings. The tips of the wings had thin hints of the colors of the rainbow. The 49 feathers each had the names of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Her golden crown was illuminated and the lower skirt also glowed.

After the Tone set the tone at TONE.

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Art in Odd Places: TONE / Orlando  has taken over Downtown Orlando on
Magnolia Avenue between Anderson and Washington Streets from September 17-20th. It is a public and visual performance art Festival that presents art in unexpected places. I went downtown on September 17th to see Brian Feldman, a performance artist from Washington D.C. who used to hail from Orlando. I saw him running to and from his car getting the elements for his simple set, a small table with red legs supporting a tiny potted plant, a phone message book, and an old rotary phone. The title of his performance piece was “… after the tone.”

The premise of his performance is that people seldom leave voice messages anymore. Instead, they might leave a text or a message on any number of social media options. I am a case in point. I seldom notice if my phone rings and there are 44 unanswered voice messages that I need to get to. I tend to respond immediately to texts or Facebook messages, however. With so many ways to communicate, I sometimes lose track of which method was used if I need to go back and reread a message. Voice messages may indeed become extinct. 

Joe Rosier was the first patron to approach Brian’s table. Brian asked him to name someone who would be least likely to pick up their phone. Brian then wrote down Joe’s message on a phone message book. Then Brian asked what tone of voice he should use to deliver the voice message. If the person picked up the phone, Brian would immediately hang up. Sure enough, on the first call, the person picked up and Brian hung up. Joe kind of cheated by calling back and asking the person to not pick up. On the second try, Brian delivered a voice message of endearment in a sultry voice.

A young woman approached Brian who knew nothing about his performance or even who he was. She agreed to leave a message with an ex-boyfriend. Her message was fascinating. She wanted him to know that, “You’ll get your $50 and you were never a good boyfriend, what makes you think you’d be a good friend?” Brian’s angered mafia voice tone sent the message with perfection. Another young woman asked Brian to deliver a voice message to congratulate a friend who just landed a new job in Chicago. Brian did his best to deliver the message in a hardy Chicago accent. He practiced, saying “Duh Bears” several times. The message ended with, “Oh, and you’re hot”.

Another artist, Klimchak, guy rode by on a bicycle wearing a flame patterned cape playing a theremin with strong speakers to belt out the sci-fi vibes. It rained for a few minutes and I ran for cover across the street to hide under the arched doorways of the History Cente, leaping over 6 Spanish Moss nests which had bars of Tone soap in them. Three nests were empty. Barbara Hartley later explained that the artist, Dina Mack, had purchased many bars of soap and the missing nests would be refilled each night. Michael Heidmann offered me his umbrella so that I could finish my sketch. Thankfully, the rain stopped long enough for me to finish. I’m so glad Orlando is small enough for this kind of neighborly gesture.

The Greek Orthodox Church around the corner had a food share earlier in the evening. That meant that some people walking past Brian’s performance piece were more concerned with finding a place to sleep rather than art. Across the street and up the block a bit, a man lay down on his back among the landscaping outside the History Center. Later on a fire engine and an ambulance showed up with their sirens and blinking lights. The man was placed on a stretcher and whisked away on the ambulance. Brian felt terrible that he hadn’t called the ambulance. With 50 or so art projects going on, I thought the man might have been a performance artist or maybe he was a homeless man taking a nap before police told him to move along. Being from NYC I’m kind of used to seeing people asleep on sidewalks. Never faint or collapse in a city setting. No one will notice.

After sketching Brian, I went to see an artist who was sealed inside a Plexiglas box. He was sketching his view from inside the box using day glow markers. Four large black lights illuminated him. Yellow plumbing elbows were all around the AT&T building and one of them had a matching elbow with a fist sticking out of it. On the corner of Washington and Magnolia, a 6 foot high board had an American flag and a gun range human silhouette with a target made with flowers. A black hand made from plywood reached up towards the cloudy sky. In the History Center Park, Halee Sommer showed me a storage pod that was set up as a darkroom where anyone could enter to learn how to develop black and white prints from negatives. My older brothers used to develop film in the basement and the smell of the chemicals brought memories flooding back. Amazingly, I only saw a fraction of the art on display. The Tone themed art continued all the way down to the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. As I walked back to my car, I passed a man asleep in an entryway to the AT&T building and kept on walking. Be sure to get downtown and experience TONE for yourself.

Marilyn Monroe zombie leaves a sweet musty smell in City Arts Factory.

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I had to drop off some cards for Barbara Hartley at City Arts Factory (29 S Orange Ave, Orlando, FL). The place according to the website is usually closed on Monday but on this Indigenous People’s Day it was open because artists were dropping off their work for the Day of the Dead show happening in October.

While I was chatting with Tr3 Mark Harris at the front desk, Paul Joachim walked in. Paul sculpts life sized chocolate sculptures.  Paul had dropped off a life sized Marilyn Monroe zombie sculpture and he wanted to touch up he paint job. The sign next to her read, “Do not touch. Do not eat.” Which is very ironic since there were plenty of open bite wounds causing her to bleed red syrup. An exposed bone was visible on her left shin. Denna Beena told Paul that every guy who viewed the sculpture thought she might be having her period. Paul had considered making a small card to put under her dress that said,Hard Rock “You should be ashamed of yourself.” He thought better of it.

Paul had done a clean sculpt of Marilyn and then he added the gouges, blood and pasty purple skin tone. When he was working on her face he had to walk a fine line, making her look like Marilyn but dead. A huge bite out of her right cheek exposed her jaw bone and she was missing some teeth. There was an amazing synergy between Marilyn’s mouth and Andrew Spear‘s mural behind her. Both pieces of art treated the female sumptuous lips and teeth with loving detail.

Paul told me that the drive to City Arts Factory with the sculpture in the back of the truck was harrowing. Orlando’s cobble stone streets sent her dancing and shimmying in the back of the truck, Thankfully she didn’t topple over. After this show , Paul hopes that Hard Rock Cafe might inherit Marilyn for next year’s Halloween season. Halloween Horror Nights might be another home for her. I was surprised to find out that chocolate keeps rather well. It gets harder with age.

Mark Your Calendar! CityArts Dia de los Muertos and Monster Factory Exhibit is opening tonight, October 16th 6-11pm.  Phantasmagoria will be there to entertain and amaze and there will be a Day of the Dead Parade with larger than life sized skeletons. The show will remain up through November 14th.

Loft 55 Gallery and Boutique

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Via Facebook, I got an invitation from Ashlie Lawson a partner and director of marketing at Loft 55 Gallery and Boutique (55 West Church Street, suite 114, Orlando, Florida) to paint live on Wednesday nights. For $10 artists can set up outside the gallery which is in the breezeway between Urban Flats and 7-11 in front of the fountain. All local artists are welcome to join the resident artists every Wednesday night to paint live. It is the perfect time, (7pm to 10pm) and day to take advantage of Wind Down
Wednesdays at Urban Flats which is a very crowded outdoor happy hour only a few steps away from the gallery. The live painting event is a great opportunity for artists to gain exposure and build up their presence in the arts community. If anything is sold, then the gallery gets a 20% commission for gallery efforts. If you bring another artist, the gallery offers commission discounts.

On Wednesday August 28th, I went to the gallery to sketch. Ashley referred to Loft 55 as a micro-gallery. Apparently these are all the rage in NYC and Chicago. The space is only about three feet deep, just enough room for you to stand back a little bit from each painting. It is all store front and the work is easily viewed without going inside. A large pyramid shaped fountain trickles in front of the entrance. I started sketching immediately and I waited patiently for the other artists to set up and start to work. Artists who painted that evening included Danny Rock, Leroy Santos, Robert Moore and Darrell Johnson. I spoke to Darrell for sometime about his art. He uses intricate ink line work and watercolor washes so we had much in common.

On display in the Gallery were paintings that revolved around the theme of autism. Artists were given three months to create a
painting of their meaning of autism. 100% of all sales went to The Academy of Autism. This sort of selfless giving sets Loft 55 apart as it makes a difference in the Orlando community. Since all the resident artists donated their artwork, Ashley showed her appreciation by inviting them for the judging and ceremony of the “Artist for Autism Challenge” on
August 29, 2013.  There were some appetizers and a few refreshments. All
art work was judged the night of the ceremony by three local
advocates of the Orlando Arts and Culture community, Barbara Hartley the Director at City Arts Factory, Ashlie Rolfe, Showcase Director at RAW Artist and Samuel Rivera  Owner and Curator of Loft 55 Gallery and Boutique. The first place piece was a collaboration between Travis Smith and Ralph Verano. The second place piece was by Peter Van Flores III. All of the art from the “Art for a Social Change Project” will be exhibited at the Academy for Autism once it leaves Loft 55.

Ashley is an artist herself and she was a constant whirlwind of activity as I sketched. She sold several paintings, spoke to every artist and was returning art to an artist from a previous exhibit.  She set up fans outside the gallery to keep the artists comfortable in the twilight heat. She was working on small square paintings that were abstractions of flowers against a light blue sky that worked together as a triptych. All the artists bring different sensibilities to the gallery. Beautiful women in high heels clomped past the gallery to the downtown clubs. Other less fashionable locals used the water fountain I was sitting next to, or tried to use the bathroom which was unfortunately locked.


Mark Your Calendar! If you would like to join Ashlie Lawson and her resident artists on any Wednesday night, contact her by email: info@Loft55galleryandboutique.com or by phone: 321-298-3806. Downtown is buzzing with creativity, be a part of the hip art scene.