Pop Up Art Sale in Winter Park

Posted on by Thor

Winter Park has adopted an ordinance that makes it illegal to create art on the merchant side of Park Avenue. If you were found creating or performing on Park Avenue, an artist could face a $500 fine and or 30 days in jail. Winter Park’s Central Park, however, is considered exempt from the ordinance. It allows freedom of expression. Every day a religious group has brochures on display in the park, presumably to convert passengers getting off the Sun Rail. I decided to test the ordinance by setting up a small art pop up shop on the Central Park lawn. I used a red sheet as the base for the shop, and put out a few square and circular canvases and matted prints of Analog Artist Digital World sketches. I didn’t put out any price tags, so that sales were considered a donation. One sketchbook was put out for anyone to flip through, but no one touched it.



Several artists joined me and sketched while sitting on brick planters. The art was officially in the park, since it was on the grass. The artists, myself included, however, were on the sidewalk and thus might be breaking the law by sketching. I never noticed a police officer that day. It was a perfect day for an art sale. I only sold one drawing that day, which was a figure drawing.



An old man and his caretaker sat on the park bench next to the art pop up shop. The old man smiled at all the young ladies who passed by and he asked how they were. He was good for business, he slowed people down, who then looked at the art. Late in the day, I decided to test the ordinance a bit further. I put several dollar bills in my baseball cap and layed it on the carpet. Within minutes, a golf cart pulled up and a park sanitation worker got out. He frowned at the hat with several bills in it and said I wasn’t allowed to exhibit art in the park. I politely explained that it wasn’t his job to make that call. He decided to let the situation slide, and he drove off in the cart to collect more garbage. He didn’t point out that sketching was illegal, his sole concern was the hat with money in it. I put the hat back on my head to avoid escalating the situation. I was sure the sanitation worker would think twice, and come back. He never did.

I will keep testing this ordinance that limits freedom of expression. On April 4th, I am hosting ODD 22 the Illegal Edition. ODD stands for Orlando Drink and Draw. This sketch outing, will be at The Wine Room on Park Avenue (270 S Park Ave, Winter Park, Florida 32789). We hope to sit at an outdoor table at the Wine Room and quietly sketch while sipping wine. This will be civilized civil disobedience.

Artists
are lumped in with performers which means to engage in any of the
following activities: acting; singing; playing musical instruments;
puppetry; pantomiming, miming; performing
or demonstrating magic or acts of illusion; dancing; juggling; or the
public display of and composition or creation of crafts, sculpture,
artistry, writings, or compositions, including the application of brush,
pastel, crayon, pencil, or other similar objects applied to paper,
cardboard, canvas, cloth or to other similar medium. 

Prohibited
public area means the pedestrian accessed public areas of the Central
Business and Hannibal Square Districts along Park Avenue from Fairbanks
Avenue to Swoope Avenue, and along New England Avenue from Park Avenue
to Pennsylvania Avenue including the area within fifty (50) feet of the
public right-of-way of Park Avenue and New England Avenue on the public
lanes, streets, thoroughfares and ways, including the Winter Park train
station and the public property at what is known as the Winter Park
Farmer’s Market and the Winter Park Historical Association located at
200 West New England Avenue.

So, if you find this anti-art ordinance to be ridiculous, stop out with a sketchbook and pencil, and let’s break the law. If anyone wants a digital “Winter Park Illegal Art” logo for their sketch, just let me know.

The 58th Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival.

Posted on by Thor

Mark your calendar, the 58th Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival will be in Central Park and along Park Avenue in Winter Park, FL on March 17, 18 and 19th between 9am and 5pm. It offers a wide variety of fine art from
225 artists from across the country, a Children’s Workshop Village, Leon
Theodore Schools Exhibit, and live entertainment throughout the weekend. 

This sketch was done at last year’s festival. There is a new law in Winter Park that makes it illegal to create art on Park Avenue and Hannibal Square. Anyone found guilty must face 30 days in jail, and a $500 fine. Central Park is considered exempt from the law, allowing for freedom of expression. Artists can create in the Park but only in the Park. Because of that law, I decided to sketch the police who were serving and protecting at the Art Festival. It was a fairly relaxing day for them and none of them flinched because I was sketching. Hopefully this means this absurd law will go unenforced forever. Perhaps it will never be enforced like the Florida state constitution that allows for freedom of speech, a trial by jury, and pregnant pigs to not be confined in cages. Pregnant pigs roam free, but artists are banished.

I did this sketch while waiting for a Winter Park friend who wanted to see the festival. The friend never showed. When the sketch was done, I reached for my cell phone to text and find out what was wrong. My darn phone was dead. Should I stick around or go back to my car and charge the phone? I decided to walk to the car which was parked about 1 mile away since parking is a nightmare during the art festival. When I got back to my car, I discovered that the charging chord which was wrapped in multiple layers of black electrical tape had finally decided it’s charging days were over. Wires must have severed and it was dead. Rather than hike back, I decided to call it a day. I didn’t feel like returning to a stretch of road that outlaws the creation of art. Winter Park is no longer home and the Winter Park friend is no longer a friend.

A Funeral for the Arts in Winter Park.

Posted on by Thor

On December 14, 2015, the City of Winter Park passed an Ordinance that essentially states that it is illegal to do anything creative on Park Avenue, New England Avenue and Hannibal Square. Merchants felt that the presence of artists was a conflict with their commercial interests. Apparently one band set up and used a car battery to power their amplifiers. Rather than write an ordinance to ban amplified music the town simply copied an ordinance from Saint Augustine that bans all art. Of course Winter Park sells itself as a town that has a great museum and a few remaining galleries. They like some art, but they don’t want to see it created in their view.

Paul Felker, affectionately known as the Park Avenue Poet used to sit on a public bench on the commercial side of Park Avenue. He uses a 1938 Remington Deluxe Noiseless typewriter to write poems given any prompt. Since the ordinance was written, police now hassle the poet and tell him that he must go to the “First Amendment Zone” which is Central Park. Of course there is far less traffic in Central Park, so Paul writes fewer poems. Donations Paul relieved for his poems were being used to help put him through college. What some find quaint and endearing, the city finds criminal.

Paul organized a Funeral for the Arts in Central Park on January 29, 2016. Angel Jones from Melborne helped make artists around the state aware of the funeral. The funeral was to take place from 10am to 5pm. I arrived at 10am to find the park empty except for a news crew from Chanel 13. I chatted with news anchor Jerry Hume for a bit, and then we walked the length of the Park to look for black clad mourners. When we didn’t find any, I decided to sketch the peacock fountain, in the rose garden. Winter Park seems to worship this colorful bird. A more appropriate bird now would be a black Raven. As I was finishing up my sketch Jerry let me know the mourners had gathered a block away.

I found a Ian Twitch Reents all in black with his face painted white along with a red nose and aviator goggles. He was standing in his mile high rock and roll boots beside a five foot long black coffin lid. A woman noticed him and asked me to shoot a photo of them together. She might never realize she was posing next to a coffin. Paul had run to Old Navy to get a pair of black pants. He didn’t want to buy the pants in over priced Winter Park. When he got back he painted R.I.P. on the lid. Since there were only two protesters, I decided to meet a former co-worker, from my first job at Zip Mail in Tenafly New Jersey from over 30 years ago. She was seeing a free film at the Morse Museum called “Beauty in Art“.  It seemed a fitting subject since art was now banned on the streets of Winter Park. After the film and lunch, we returned to the protest.

Paul had called the police to let them know that he would be setting up in the forbidden zone to write some poems. TV news crews filmed the walk across the street, but police kept their distance, knowing that issuing a citation on TV wouldn’t look good. The penalty for creating in the Forbidden Zones is 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. After sometime Paul passed back over to the park side of the street. To date no citations have been issued. About six artists had joined the protest. I sketched Paul hard at work at his typewriter for the first time. Angel was dressed in a gorgeous black Victoria dress with a lace veil. Curtis Meyer was improvising  beat box poetry on the fly. I had heard that poets planned to walk up and down Park Avenue reciting poetry into their cell phones. Ray Brazen performed with a guitar that had no strings, allowing him to perform “The Sound of Silence“.

A man walked up to Paul and shouted, “What’s in it for me?” He kept repeating this question like an angry toddler. Paul calmly explained his poetry. Perhaps the man had been drinking to heavily at a Park Avenue cafe, then again, perhaps he was just like the city commissioners and merchants who are always looked for the bottom line in their lust for profit in their small town lives. “What is in it for me?” As if a quest for beauty and understanding is not something that can be comprehended. Was art put on this earth just to annoy this white bread Winter Park Scrooge? How many others are out there whose grey dark matter can’t comprehend color, joy and passion. I feel sorry for his loss.

Winter Park welcomes Dogs and bans Artists.

Posted on by Thor

On December 14, 2015 the City of Winter Park passed an ordinance that makes it illegal for artists to “perform” on Park Avenue, New England Avenue and Hannibal Square.  “Perform” is broadly defined as, ,”acting, singing, playing musical instruments, pantomime, mime, magic, dancing, artistry or the sale of visual art and wares.” The broad definition is because a city can’t discriminate based on content. Any artist caught performing could face 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. To protect our first amendment rights, the city designated Winter Park’s Central Park as a “First Amendment Zone.” This will make the annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art festival happening this coming March, a perfectly legal money maker for the City and Park Avenue merchants. If I try and sketch that festival from the opposite side of Park Avenue however, I could go to jail. It could be argued that taking a cell phone photo could be considered “artistry” or even witchery so keep those phones in your pockets people.

The ordinance, “finds that the existence of street performers … would interfere with
the public health, safety and welfare of the pedestrian traffic … [by]
attracting audiences which congest the prohibited public area” and would
“adversely affect the city’s interests in the aesthetics in a city with
a unique historic downtown district.” To think that a visual artist might attract an audience that could block traffic is ridiculous. Most people don’t even notice an artist at work. I’m also surprised they think artists are a public health hazard and ruin a city’s aesthetics.

The ordinance was modeled after a similar ordinance in Saint Augustine which bans street performers and artists. That ordinance is being contested in court. That ruling is still pending. Winter Park merchants decided they need the ordinance because of some rather loud street performers. One band allegedly used a car battery to power amplifiers that blasted the music so loud that nearby merchants couldn’t hear their own store muzak or thoughts. Rather than come up with an ordinance to ban amplified music or restrict noise above a certain decibel level, the city decided to ban all artists. Visual artists are not street performers. They are no more intrusive than a person reading a book, or an iPad. This is something that city officials and law makers do not seem to understand.

On January 5th, I was invited by a Winter Park merchant to sketch and report on the opening of their new men’s department store. I got to the store a bit early and peaked inside to find the place rather empty. It looked like a boring sketch opportunity.  Instead I strolled up Park Avenue with every intent to break the law. I stopped in front of Bank of America and decided to sketch a group of men having a bottle of wine outside the Wine Room. The scene reminded me of a cafe painted by Van Gogh in Provence. Thank god police didn’t catch him in the act. Flames flickered up in the vertical space heaters at Luma. For once it was cool enough out so that I wouldn’t sweat as I sketched. One person walking by joked that my sketch wasn’t complete, since I didn’t include the bank’s ATM. Another person wanted to shoot a photo of me at work. I allowed it, but now realize that the photo could be incriminating evidence in a court of law.

It turns out, that an old friend, was one of the men at the table. He was seated facing away from me, so I didn’t notice him at first. When he got up to leave he noticed me sketching and came over to say hello. He joked that most of the men at the table were deviants, but little did he know that he was speaking to a hardened criminal practicing his dark and mysterious craft. I love the warm glow of Park Avenue at night, but I was lucky that I wasn’t caught as I tried to capture it. Winter Park is now a place that doesn’t welcome artists, so I will simply no longer consider it one of my sketching destinations, unless there are protests against this insane new ordinance. After finishing a sketch, I usually order a drink or food, but this night I slipped away like a criminal into the night.

Cigarz on the Avenue attracts regulars.

Posted on by Thor

Cigarz on the Avenue, 333 S Park Ave, Winter Park, FL, seems to always have customers outside smoking a thick one. Sometimes I go to Winter Park just to enjoy a stroll down Park Avenue. Terry might crinkle her nose and complain any time we walk near smokers. I on the other hand seem to have lost all of my sense of smell. Anytime I return from a vacation, I notice a smell of mold when I get to Orlando. I’m likely allergic to Orlando. Having lost the sense of smell however can be a blessing however since it allowed me to relax outside the Cigar Store and sketch the regular patrons who likely relax every afternoon at this spot. I can say this because a woman stopped to admire my drawing and she named the two gentlemen and told me they could be found at this spot everyday.

The Cigar store wooden Indian seemed to have lost the spear or stogie he once held. He must search for it every night, but his feet are strapped to a dolly which might inhibit his movement. Then again he might get around better by kneeling down and using his hands to roll himself around the shop. I thought that a wooden Indian wasn’t exactly a politically correct way to attract customers. But what do I know, 

Because of the general illiteracy of the populace, early store owners used descriptive emblems or figures to advertise their shops’ wares; for example, barber poles advertise barber shops. American Indians and tobacco had always been associated because American Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans, and the depiction of native people on smoke-shop signs was almost
inevitable. As early as the 17th century, European tobacconists used
figures of American Indians to advertise their shops.

Because European carvers had never seen a Native American, these
early cigar-store “Indians” looked more like black slaves with feathered
headdresses and other fanciful, exotic features. These carvings were
called “Black Boys” or “Virginians” in the trade. Eventually, the
European cigar-store figure began to take on a more “authentic” yet
highly stylized native visage, and by the time the smoke-shop figure
arrived in the Americas in the late 18th century, it had become thoroughly “Indian.” People within the Native American community often view such likenesses as a caricature or as depictions that perpetuate stereotypes, drawing an analogy to the African-American lawn jockey, which I’ve heard is quite popular in Winter Park as well.

Winter Park Art in Chambers is to feature the daily sketches of Thor.

Posted on by Thor

The City Park Public Art Advisory Board invites you to attend a free artist reception for the sketches of Thomas (Thor) Thorspecken from analogartistdigitalworld.com. Refreshments will be provided. Mark your Calendar! The opening reception is Wednesday May 6th from 5:30pm to 7pm at the Commission Chambers and Chapman Room in Winter Park City Hall 401 South Park Avenue Winter Park, FL 32789 second floor. Stop on out and say hi. The show will hang through August 1st.

For anyone who wants to keep the Art Party going, I will be going to the British Invasion Body Painting Show right afterwards to sketch. That event is at the Majestic Event Center, 801 North John Young Parkway, Orlando, FL. Doors officially open at 8pm. Watch talented body painters transform models into living works of art right before your eyes while getting a chance to interact with the artists and the “art.” Some of Orlando’s top entertainers will also be performing on stage throughout the evening. Enjoy the bar specials and browse the artists vending tables.
Entry is $10 presale or $15 at the door.
Get your tickets at www.BASEOrlando.com

The Winter Park boat tour allows you to peak into the backyards of the rich.

Posted on by Thor

My very distant cousin, Cornelia Thorspecken and her daughter Nini Thorspecken. They are related through my great, great great grandfather, Dr Augustus Thorspecken who sailed to America back in 1854. One of his brothers stayed in Germany and that is who Cornelia and Nini are descendants of. Besides visiting theme parks, Terry and I wanted to suggest a few outings that would give them a taste of real Florida. I joined my cousins on a boat tour of the Winter Park chain of lakes.

Our pontoon boat captain was quite a character. He wore bright yellow suspenders that looked like tape measures. He had stayed in Germany for quite a while after the war and he quizzed my cousins to see if Germany was still the same. His on going monologue was well rehearsed but, I wasn’t that interested in which basketball star owned which lake front mansion. Passing between lakes the boat would glide under small bridges and we all had to duck our heads down.

We met Terry on Park Avenue and strolled along, window shopping. Nini recognized a perfume from the Provence region of France. She wanted to go to a Taco Bell for lunch so her tastes were varied and we were glad to comply. My entire family had rented out a four bedroom timeshare north of Disney and only a short ride from our house, so every night we went there for diner and wine. It was a fun filled week long family reunion.

On another excursion, Terry and I took our German cousins to a wildlife preserve north of Wekiva Springs. On the hike we spotted plenty of birds and I was happy that I got to point out several alligators in the water right off the trail. Cornelia said that she was glad to get a  chance to experience Florida the way it was a hundred years ago.

Shin Sushi

Posted on by Thor

On Friday February 28th, I went to meet Julie Anderson at Shin Sushi (803 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL) to discuss the Orlando Sentinel‘s new “HypeOrlando Blogs.” This can be found on the Sentinel website on the “Home” tab at the top of the page. Several months ago, Terry and I bumped into Julie and her husband Lars at an outdoor cafe in Winter Park. Over drinks, Julie first described the “Hype” concept. A newspaper in Chicago first developed the idea where a large group of bloggers all contribute to the same blog site. None of the contributors is paid, so the newspaper online site gets plenty of creative content for free.

In return, “Hype” contributors would get, a daily newsletter from an experienced blogger
on how to build audience (Search engine optimization, optimizing
Facebook, writing headlines that make people click, etc.)

Offline blogger community meetups. 

Free platform and technical setup.

Ongoing technical support.

Monthly incentives and contests for writing and audience-building.

I got to the Sushi restaurant a bit early since I had just done an interview with Seth Kubersky a few blocks away for a write up in the Orlando Weekly. The head waiter at Shin Sushi told me I would have to wait an hour before I could get inside. I had hoped to sketch the interior and fill the sketch with patrons as they arrived for the lunch hour. Oh, well, it was a nice day outside, so I sat across the street and sketched the barren exterior. As I was finishing my sketch, I saw Julie approach the restaurant and go inside. I packed up the supplies and rushed across the street. The restaurant was bustling now. I ordered some sushi combo which turned out to be much more food than expected.

HypeOrlando in it’s first weeks had about 30 contributors. Julie hopes to push those numbers up into the hundreds. My impression is that “Hype” is a great opportunity for beginning bloggers. All the layouts for the blogs are identical making it hard to tell one blog from another. The one established “Hype” blogger that I recognized was  Kristen Manieri who runs Great Dates Orlando. Over lunch, Julie pushed for the idea of having me channel all my future content over to the “HypeOrlando” site. This seemed like an extreme notion which would likely result in my loosing many readers in the transition. I can’t imagine giving up a site that I’ve built up over 5 years. Kristen still maintains her original site while occasionally contributing to “Hype”. The fact that I post creative content every day means that I would have to write a new article any time I wanted to contribute to “Hype.” I would have to add an 8th day to my work week! I asked about just posting an article on “Hype” that already ran or simultaneously ran on Analog Artist Digital World. Julie said that the Google search engine would label any re-purposed article as spam thus all content would have to be new.

I fired of a long list of concerns. I didn’t like having to give up a large header on the new site. Apparently the “Chicago Now”  site learned that letting contributors create their own headers resulted in some very bad and amateurish designs. The “Hype” site limits each contributor to a one inch square avatar. It results in trying to create a recognizable brand on the size of a postage stamp. I was also concerned that there is no right click copyright protections making it easy for Sentinel Surfers to copy any sketches I post to the site. This is an ongoing concern since even the Downtown Arts District and the City of Winter Park do not realize that it is wrong to copy and republish work without permission. The Internet is a lawless Wild West for theft and ripping. The fact that City organizations have no clue about copyright makes it appear that Orlando is a second rate city. Terry seems to feel there is no advantage to posting on “Hype”. Even the name seems to imply vacuous content with little substance. I’m still weighing the options. I might even cut back submissions to Analog Artist Digital World to 6 days a week and submit one article a week to “Hype”. I’ve been making adjustments to try and allow for more family time and contributing free content to “Hype” could be a step backwards. I was surprised and pleased that Julie paid for lunch.

Let me know what you think. Should I stay the course and keep AADW a daily, or should I also contribute to the “Hype”? Leave me a message below. One last note. Something I ate at Shin Sushi didn’t agree with me and I had the runs all afternoon. Not a good sign.