Welcome to Matteson: First Pass

Posted on by Thor

Welcome to Matteson by Inda Craig-Gavlán, featured two couples having dinner. One couple needed to look high healed and the other needed to look lower middle class. This was a challenge which would rely on clothing to set them apart. In this first pass at painting the poster I relied on warm colors for the wealthy couple and yellows for the less wealthy couple. Having everyone toasting seemed to be the most natural gesture to get them all to interact.

Matteston is a suburb of Chicago Illinois. The less wealthy couple had just moved to Matteson from the Cabrini-Green public housing projects in Chicago. Cabrini-Green had a reputation for being overrun with gangs and crime. Cabrini Green was being torn down and residents were relocated. This couple was relocated to Matteson. They were excited to move to this quiet suburb, but they missed the sense of community they had found in Cabrini.

The buildings I put in the sketch were from a typical Chicago neighborhood. I had just screened my film COVID Dystopia in Chicago and fell in love with the old brownstone neighborhoods. The trouble was that Cabrini-Green looks nothing like this. The housing complex is more like the rows of housing developments that went up in the big cities after World War II. They are not very picturesque. The idea of replacing the brownstones with a suburban home made the most sense, yet most suburban homes are rather bland. Maybe I could just paint a dining room, but again I wanted something that was not so ordinary.

Snow fills the night sky. I then put in a circular yellow arch behind the buildings. This was meant to reference a snow globe and it helped silhouette the upper spires against the night sky. It was just a way to add a spark of more color. The buildings would have to go and that circular arch would morph into a much larger feature in the next pass at the poster.

Welcome to Matteson ran at the Orlando Shakes through March 29, 2025.

Chicago Spider

Posted on by Thor

The view from the hotel room was of one of Chicago‘s many draw bridges. If you are sketching then it is imperative tat you draw a drawbridge.

What drew my attention far more however was a large spider dangling just outside the glass. He or she was busy starting to spin a web.

I have been to Chicago twice. Once was for a vacation and culture and the other was to screen my film COVID Dystopia at the Chicago Reels International Film Festival where my film won an award for the best animated film at the festival. Chicago has always felt welcoming to me. Right now I am searching for a place to settle and call home. Perhaps Chicago deserves serious consideration.

The Bean

Posted on by Thor

No trip to Chicago is complete without seeing The Bean or Cloud Gate.

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of Grainger Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop Community area of Chicago. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed “The Bean” because of its shape, a name Kapoor later grew fond of.

The Bean’s reflective surface was inspired by liquid mercury. The surface reflects the surrounding architecture and makes the crowds gathering at its base look like ants. The sculpture is a selfie magnet and pigeons have taken a liking to roosting on top of the sculpture. Their droppings are only mildly invasive as are the droppings of the tourists and art lovers. No pencil was left behind in the making of this sketch.

Chicago Chamber Concert 2

Posted on by Thor

This is a rare case where I decided to get a second sketch after moving closer to the performers. The venue was packed, so I must have made a conscious decision to not include the backs of audience members heads.

It was a real breath of fresh air being in Chicago. I had not really connected yer with the Orlando Arts scene and was quite frankly starved for culture. My search for culture is what drives many of my sketches.

This week I have started to discover Central Florida’s Film making community and I have felt an absolute rush at the possibilities of sketching on a live set. Life rushes by at a breakneck pace but the pace on a set is glacial with take after retake. It is well suited for sketching. Of course watching the film making process leaves me thinking I should perhaps start another film. When the moment strikes, I will know.

Since my move to Yalaha, Florida, I have been swamped with illustration and teaching work. I haven’t had a whole like of time to get out with my sketchbook and discover what Yalaha has to offer inn terms of sketching opportunities.

Chicago Chamber Concert

Posted on by Thor

While in Chicago I went to a free Chamber Music Recital. I wish I could remember the name of this gorgeous venue. If anyone is from Chicago and recognizes the place please let me know.

I rather enjoy painting these looks back in time. The sketches are solid and I just find paintings I like online that seem to be in line with the look I am seeking. Because I am making up the colors, I am not getting bogged down as much in random color choices like, what color was that guys shirt. The choices made are bolder and far reaching. Since I am working digital, the colors are more vibrant that if I had completed the sketch using watercolor. The looks are very different but the techniques are still the same.

That reminds me, my fountain pen has stopped working. It has become impossible to fill with ink. I worked on it this morning, soaking it in the kitchen sink. I discovered the barrel of the ink cartridge has ruptured. I discovered this bu getting my hands completely soaked in black ink. My patch work solution so far was to use black electrical tape to wrap around the rupture. I know that is a temporary solution so I also ordered a new fountain pen and brush pen online. Amazon thinks I am a criminal and will not let me order until I submit multiple bank documents. So, instead I ordered direct from a Saint Louis art store. Why Saint Louis, well they just happened to have the pen I wanted.

A Corot

Posted on by Thor

A trip to Chicago isn’t complete without going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I did quite a few sketches of sculptures and paintings that I loved. Each sketch built up my muscle memory and helped me celebrate the long history of art.

With each painting I would stand as close as possible to study the brush strokes. I was asked to stand back several times by security guards who live for being sure artists don’t get too close to art.

Of course with the environmentalists trowing paint on the paintings these days I understand the importance of allowing some social distancing when experiencing art. This Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot painting titled, Reading Interrupted, wasn’t even behind bullet proof glass like the privileged Mona Lisa.

Chicago: Architecture Boat Tour

Posted on by Thor

The Chicago River runs west from Lake Michigan right through the heart of Chicago and then splits north and south. Boat tours leave from the River Walk and allow great views of the cities architecture.

Plastic lawn chairs were set up on the deck for passengers to relax and enjoy the view. There are plenty of bridges that cross the river to keep traffic flowing in the city.

This is definitely a worthwhile experience if you find yourself in Chicago.

Chicago: Checks Cashed

Posted on by Thor

This is a view from a hotel window looking down on the streets of Chicago. This was a good trip with plenty of time spent exploring the Chicago Institute of the Arts. I did plenty of quick sketch studies of paintings and sculptures but I will not share those here.

Flashy Jaguar car ads and plenty of flesh always spruce up any old city facade.

The Checks Cashed sign is on a much squatter building. This was an escape from Florida so it felt great to walk the street of a bustling city again and explore public transportation.

To quickly add paint to the sketch, I looked at an Edward Hopper painting and used it for the color theme. All the muted colors tie in well together.

Orlando International Airport Delayed Flight

Posted on by Thor

My flight to Chicago was delayed which brought me some time to sketch. This was a get away trip, long before COVID Dystopia won an award as the Best Short Animated Film at the Chicago International Reel Shorts Film Festival. This trip was strictly for sight seeing and hitting the museums and culture.

The sketch was done before I started my daily sketching routine. Lines are in pencil and more carefree. Right now I am searching for a pen that is responsive as I need. The pen I am using now might decide to stop putting down a line mid stroke which results in my staring down at the page in anticipation of the next fail rather than looking at the subject. The pen I am using now also tends to always run out as I am working on a sketch. It never fully reloads when I attempt to refill it each morning.

I am looking at old unpublished sketchbooks and playing with color since I am locked down teaching each afternoon and evening. It is kind of nice just making up the colors and values. The more of these I do the better I will get at coming up with my own color schemes on the fly.

Lollapalooza

Posted on by Thor

Lollapalooza was a four day concert event in Chicago which wrapped up on August 1, 2021. An estimated 100,000 people attended.

Leading up to the festival, Chicago’s COVID-19 daily case rate was quintuple what it was a month ago. It does not take a seasoned epidemiologist to see that this will be a super spreader event. You can be sure that there will be a sharp increase in cases of COVID-19 in Chicago and the surrounding area in two weeks time.

Concert goers had to show proof of vaccination or a COVID test that was negative to attend. Videos posted showed staff barely checking vaccination cards on entry. The Delta variant is proving quite successful at breaking through and infecting fully vaccinated individuals. When a vaccinated person get the virus they may be asymptomatic or just show symptoms of a common cold. Their airways however can carry as much of the virus as an unvaccinated person and they can easily spread the virus to 8 or 9 other people. The ancestral strains of COVID -19 only spread to 2 or 3 other people

A study from Israel shows that the Pfizer vaccine is showing decreasing efficacy over time. The study found that there was only a 41% symptomatic protection against getting infected. The original protection against symptomatic infection when the shots were first given was 90%. Dr. John Campbell from England speculates that the timing between vaccine doses accounts for this reduction in efficacy. Israel had 3 weeks between shots. The UK had 8 weeks or more between shots and the efficacy is over twice as high. In the United States we have 3 weeks between doses just as in Israel. It is fair to assume that vaccinated individuals in the United States have an increasing chance of infection over time but remain safe from severe disease and death.

In May 2021 Lollapalooza festival goers were told they needed to show a negative COVID-19 test taken 24 hours or less before entering, that number was increased to 72 hours, allowing a much longer window to theoretically contract the virus before the festival. Earlier this month, the Verknipt festival in the Netherlands admitted unvaccinated attendees as long as they had a negative test taken within 40 hours of entering. The festival was later linked to 1,000 COVID-19 cases among its 20,000 attendees. So if that math holds up Lollapalooza may result in 5000 or more infections. Now lets say those 5000 people spread the virus to 8 friends and family. That would be 40,000 people infected.

At the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Miami two weekends ago. Tens of thousands of people showed up daily to the festival, which did not require masks, vaccinations or negative tests. Last week, the rapper Dess Dior and the actor Alexa Leighton, among others, announced on social media that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Their infections coincided with a larger spike in Florida at large, in which COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have risen dramatically.

Lollapalooza was an outdoor event but the hundreds of thousands of people were packed in like sardines. Delta has also proven effective at spreading better outdoors. It has spread at soccer matches. Basically anyone who went to Lollapalooza who was not vaccinated is at a very high risk of getting infected and having severe symptoms. When I saw photos of the crowds I just could not believe what I was seeing. This was absolute insanity and Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot seemed to think it was a great idea.

Post script: As of September 6, 2021, according to Chicago City officials there are 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 associated with the Lollapalooza concerts.