Casselberry House

Posted on by Thor

The Florida Painters Group had their annual exhibition at the Casselberry House (125 Quail Pond Circle in Casselberry, Fl) in June. The show included paintings from 15 artists, who are mostly landscape painters. I went to the opening reception to see the work.

Show participants were: Ann Gale Holstein, Robert Ross, Carol Platt, Cathy Hempel, Cori Garret, Diane Walters, Gary Rupp, Gary Sisco, Karen Minnigan, Kim Ashby, Laura Bates, Lynn Tolar, Lynne Polley, Mary Martin, Orit Reuben, Rosa Bujali and Seemi Usmani.

The paintings that most caught my eye were by Robert Ross. He did a painting inside the  Capen House. This historic Winter Park home was slated for demolition, but locals are raising funds to save the house and float it across the lake Osceola to the Albin Polasek Museum where it would be lovingly preserved.

After viewing the paintings I decided to sketch Louis Alfredo playing guitar. He was quite good and several people actually danced as he played. For the most part however people shouted at one another in the crowded space and didn’t notice the incredible talent in the corner.

Cami Smith who is an industry outreach liaison at Full Sail introduced herself. When she found out I had worked at Disney Feature Animation, she asked me if I knew Aaron Blaise. Of course I knew Aaron who had co-directed “Brother Bear“. He had taken a research trip to Alaska for that film and his sketchbook from that trip was absolutely inspiring. Aaron had gone on to work at Digital Domain in South Florida but that company went bankrupt before they could finish an animated film about an elephant. I heard Aaron was returning to Orlando. Cami informed me that he is hoping to produce a Computer Animated film called “Art Story” about a boy and his grandfather who travel into the worlds of famous paintings. She showed me the Kickstarter page and Aaron has successfully raised the $350,000 needed to further develop the story. I like the story’s message, “Life is a blank canvas, now go paint your masterpiece.”

Bill Plympton

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Bill Plympton came to Full Sail Live to talk to students about his experiences as an independent animation film maker. He was an illustrator in NYC in the late 70s and early 80s. He drew a face of an average looking business man on the 18 by 24 inch pad on stage. That was the character of his first animated film called “Your Face.” When he went to a screening for that film he was amazed when the whole audience started laughing. That moment changed his life. He drew satirical and funny illustrations but he never felt the audiences immediate reaction. “Your Face” was nominated for an Oscar and suddenly Plympton was on the map.

Bill stopped illustrating and was committed to animation full time.  When he started out there wasn’t much animation going on at the big studios. As a small boy his dream was to be a Disney Animator. In the 80’s Disney started rebuilding its animation department. They called Bill saying the would like to talk to him. A Disney lawyer showed up at his studio. Bill was offered one million dollars if he would work for Disney Feature Animation. Bill was ecstatic, thin was a dream come true. He began negotiating for the job. As he put it Disney isn’t about good cop, bad cop when it comes to negotiating. It is more like, bad cop and anti Christ. Bill asked if he could work on his little films on the weekends. He was told, “Sure, but Disney will own it.” What about script ideas? “Disney owns it.” What if I have a dream?” “Disney owns it.” He realized he would have no control over what he would work on. What if he ended up having to work on TV animation like Duck Tales? In the end he turned down the offer to continue producing independent films.

Bill showed several of his short films along with work from a feature film that is in the pipe line. He showed “Waiting for Her Sailor” which was just 30 seconds and was hilarious. He is now working on a film that is about a whale that falls in love with a human guy. The guy likes fashion models, so the whale becomes a model. He is working on a feature film called “Cheatin” which is about a very attractive couple that meet and fall in love. Since they are so attractive others get jealous and try to break them up. They become paranoid and try to kill each other.

Bill drew constantly during his presentation. He said he sometimes wakes up at night so excited about a project that he has to do a few more drawings before he can get back to sleep. When working on a film, he can produce up to 100 drawings a day. Some consider him a masochist, he considers himself a hedonist since he loves his work.

Flash Spooktacular Spoken Word #2

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I went to Urban ReThink, (625 E Central Blvd, Orlando), on October 9th, for readings by local authors.This edition of There Will Be Words featured eight writers reading horror stories or ghost stories that are 500 words or less. The event is held on the second Thursday of every month starting at 7PM.  Jesse Bradley was the moderator so I sketched him since he stepped up to the mic between readings. 500 words fly by mighty fast when you are sketching. Authors included, Karen Best,
Teege Braune,
Arnie Ellis,
Brendan Earl,
Whitney Hamrick,
Sam Lamura,
Rafael Lancelotta, and
Michael Pierre. John Hurst, a former Disney Feature Animation colleague, entered the event wearing a knitted beard and mustache. Walked up to a redheaded man with a beard and cap. They looked like twins. Everyone laughed as they posed for pictures together.

A small iPhone was on a tripod recording the authors. Some stories were funny while others were downright gory. One author imagined what it was like to be eaten alive. In this agonizing moment, he hoped they wouldn’t ruin his looks making it hard for him to pick up zombie chicks. One of the more horrifically truthful stories was written a half hour before the event. The author went back into his family history to talk about an uncle who was murdered by a male lover. There was little consequence for the crime. Handmade, limited edition chapbooks featuring prose from each
night’s readings are sold on site for $5 to support the event and its
authors. Burrow Press will soon be selling 5 box sets of the There Will Be
Words’ first year of chapbooks, all copies signed by the authors, as a
fundraiser for future book projects.  After the event, John invited me out with his red headed buddy for some Mexican food. My sketch was done, and I felt I should get home, so I thanked him for inviting me, and then slipped away into the night.