United Arts Grant Panel

Posted on by Thor

The Enzian Theater hosted the United Arts Grant Applications panel meeting for the 2011 Professional Development Grants. 29 Artists and 10 Arts Administrators were to be awarded a total of $33,579. Individual artists could be awarded up to $1000 towards their professional development. The meeting was open to the public.Artists applying for grants were each given a minute to give a brief update on their project and then panelists could ask questions soften adjusting their scores based on the artists response. I didn’t pay close attention to how the scoring was done. I know there was a total of 20 points available and different criteria were considered, like feasibility, assurance that the grant will encourage the artist to grow and assurance that the project will promote and strengthen the Orlando artist community. Attending the meeting was a great way to find out what artistic projects are being produced. I also had the added incentive that I applied for a grant this year.

After the morning session was over and my first sketch was done, I had lunch with performance artist Brian Feldman. He told me all about the 11 different performances he is planning for the Orlando Fringe Festival this year. I tried to figure out how to document so many performances by sketching. Sketching while walking is a new skill set I might have to develop.

The Visual Arts part of the meeting began with a slide show of all the artwork that had been submitted. I cringed when I saw some of my sketches blow up on the large move screen. I had selected sketches at random. A sketch of a haunted house made me think, ” Why did I send that sketch? Does it say anything about Orlando culture?” There was some amazing work and I hope to catch up with some of the artists during the year. Katherine Mathisen had wonderful ceramic busts of Shamans, Gregorii had bright self illuminated fractal art that was stunning. When R V. got up and started showing a stack of his Pinocchio paintings, he expressed that he always felt like he was behind, never ahead. He runs a gallery that has an international graffiti festival each year. I have to get there this year to draw. Anyway, I learned more about the Orlando Arts scene in an hour than I did over the past year.

Here are sample comments and questions about my grant application.
Quality and Integrity: One of a kind project!
Benefit: The applicant’s contribution to the community has already been outstanding. This can only increase the value of our city.
Quality and Integrity: This makes me feel or think of the artist as the “Norman Rockwell” of our time. Have you identified the venue? When may we expect to see this gallery open?
Quality and Integrity: The best!
Feasibility: No doubt is feasible since you have already been working on this project.
Benefit: Sharing your work is a benefit in itself.
Feasibility: I’m interested in knowing at which venue(s) these will be exhibited.

I thought I would be nervous when it came time for me to discuss me project. Anytime I discuss AADW however I become animated, fueled by the fact that I believe that what I am doing has valve to the Orlando community. I got to tell the panel about a new project called LifeSketch where I team up with local authors who conduct interviews while I sketch. Many Artists in the room were checking the tally sheets to be sure that they had the required score. When I sat down, Rick Jones, I an abstract painter, informed me that I had a perfect score. I had managed to navigate the daunting process and have fun the whole time. Very soon Analog Artist Digital World will be funded in part, thanks to a grant from United Arts. When the meeting was over, I was giddy. I called Terry and we went out for a fabulous Mediterranean dinner.

James Bond New Year’s Dress to Kill

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At home I helped Terry apply the last of her golden makeup. Her entire face, neck and hands were covered in golden theatrical paint and she wore a golden one piece dress and carried a golden hand bag. I simply wore a warm golden suit and tie. When we arrived at the Enzian Theater, I picked up our tickets and we went up to the bar to order our complimentary drinks. The drinks consisted of Bond themed names from, 007 Classic, a Vodka Dry Vermouth with olives to the more exotic drinks like, Diamonds are Forever. I ordered a Miss Moneypenny which was a champagne topped with apple pie liqueur. Very tasty. Terry without a doubt was the best dressed, Bond Themed woman at the party. I had to draw her, although it is hard to capture all the glittering gold in a sketch. Matters were complicated by the fact that people kept walking up to Terry and asking to have their picture taken with her. Apparently Myth Busters had debunked the idea that a woman could die from being painted head to toe in gold paint. Every woman was indeed dressed to kill with high heels and plenty of leg.

When it got really crowded outside we went inside to look around. There was a DJ mixing the music and on the movie screen strippers were pole dancing and crawling on all fours. We thought we might get a beer inside but the bar was packed and so we went back outside. A photographer asked to take Terry’s photo on one of the red velvet couches. I started my second sketch out in the Eden Bar. The bartenders were in constant twirling motion. They performed an amazing ballet of mixing, shaking and pouring. The bartender I sketched was wearing a Russian spy’s Siberian winter wardrobe with a fur hat and a tightly cinched waste. I waited for some time trying to get a bartenders attention with no luck. Terry took my place and within a minute she was served drinks. It is hard to miss a golden woman ordering drinks.

With 15 minutes remaining till midnight we made our way to the dance floor. The big screen flashed brightly with various pornographic images. Breasts, hands, gyrating hips, tongues and nipples. At first the images were live action closeups and then fast paced animation took it’s place. When the animation repeated, I managed to tear my eyes from the screen to focus on the dance floor. There was plenty of smooching and dancing, a wild Bacchanal. Balloons were batted around above peoples heads the shadow playing on the movie screen. When the countdown began at around 30 seconds, the screen switched over to a live feed of Times Square. Above the dance floor a huge net held hundreds of balloons waiting to drop on the packed dance floor. Ten, nine, eight… Everyone shouted along and then the ball dropped and everyone shouted and cheered dancing with our arms raised. Couples embraced and kissed. I kissed Terry carefully but ended up with golden lips and a golden nose. The balloons above us never fell. Terry found a red feather boa on the dance floor and wrapped it around her neck.

When we got off the dance floor Terry told me she was starving. We drove down 17-92 till we found a Taco Bell where we ordered some tacos to ring in the New Year. Only the drive through window was open so we ordered and then parked in the parking lot eating in my truck. A humble ending to an amazing night.

Tweet Up at the Enzian

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The Enzian Theater along with Bess Auer of Central Florida Top 5 Blog, hosted an event called a tweet up. When I got to the Enzian I scanned the bar which was half full and then noticed two large boards set up outside. One had a computer screen projected on it with tweets neatly stacked and scrolling down as more tweets were added. The other board had peoples twitter names written in dry erase markers. There were also name tags to I wrote Analog Artist Digital World on mjne. Later Mark Baratelli pointed out that my twitter name was only Analog Artist. I had to go fill out another name tag. Then he pointed out that I should have put an @ sign in front of my twitter name. I went back for yet another name tag. How do people know all this stuff?
I finally settled myself and started sketching. The fellow to the right in the forground noticed me sketching. I wasn’t looking at him but he said, “Look at me.” in a hipnotic tone as he held an orange juice bottle up to his face and stroked it lovingly. I laughed out loud and then got right back to work. The sun had set and dusk was making the scene darker by the minute.
Apparently during the whole event people were tweeting rather than engaging in the usual party conversations. Every tweet went up on the screen if people put the proper hash tag on the tweet, whatever that means. Then I found out that prozes were being offered and I desperately tried to figure out how to get to twitter on my new cell phone. Passwords kept getting in the way and I didn’t tweet once. People won $25 gift certificates as I struggled to try and get in the running.
I ordered 2 Orange Blossom Pilsners which were absolutely delicious. They helped take away some of the sting of defeat.

Florida Film Festival – No Grits No Glory

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Friday evening the Florida Film Festival kicked off with a fabulous party called “No Grits, No Glory“. When I drove into the Enzian parking lot, an attendant stopped me and made sure I wasn’t there to see the film that was slated for that night. He told me there had been a mistake in one of the ads and he wanted to be sure I was coming to the party. I immediately sat down and started to sketch the marquee which invited guests to the 19th annual Florida Film Festival. A reporter and cameraman set up on the steps and stood around for sometime, perhaps waiting for a live feed. The reporter then delivered his lines quickly and they both drove off in the Channel 6 news van. Lance Turner, a photographer approached me and asked if I would be doing many sketches at the festival and I explained that I intended to sketch as much as possible this year. He then took several pictures as I worked and disappeared into the growing crowd. Later in the evening, Brian Feldman told me that he had personally placed the lettering on the Enzian marquee as practice for an upcoming performance. I later saw him being interviewed by Orlando Live about his 67 Books project.
When I finished my first sketch, I went inside and sat up front near the stage to watch this amazing brother and sister singing team of Thomas and Olivia Wynn. They harmonized beautifully and the songs resonated deeply, leaving me feeling sad and uplifted. Listening to them sing was the highlight of the evening for me and the music made sketching a breeze. This brother and sister team was later joined by the drummer and several guitar players. The group is known as Thomas Wynn and the Believers. I was tapping my foot and swaying side to side the whole time. I became a believer.
The theme for the evening’s food was southern and I tried a few samples, but I didn’t want to waste to much time eating when there might be another sketch to be made. A server warned me that the pork was hot and boy was it! I chased it down with some shrimp which soothed my screaming taste buds. I then wandered outside and was shocked at how crowded the Eden Bar had gotten. I wandered elbow to elbow in the crowd for a while but decided after trying some desserts that I didn’t have another sketch in me. I couldn’t find a place to rest my eyes in this ever-changing sea of people. I decided to head home and rest. The Florida Film Festival is like a sketch artists marathon and I have to pace myself.

United Arts Professional Development Grants

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I assumed that attending the United Arts Professional Development Grants Panel meeting, at the Enzian Theater, would be a boring experience. Sketching this process was quite the opposite. I arrived a bit late, and embarrassed, sat at the table closest to the entry door. I agonized for a moment thinking maybe I should move up closer to the panel table to get a better view. Then I noticed that Aradhana Tiwari and Zac Alfson were sitting at the table in front of me, and Beth Marshall, Dewey Chaffee and Douglas McGeoch were seated at the table to my right. I was surrounded by friends and decided an overall view of the room full of artists was the correct vantage point for my sketch.
After I started blocking in the sketch, one of the first orders of business was Michael Poley talking about how he wanted to produce a half hour documentary about an artist who explores Orlando, sketching every aspect of the arts scene. Several panelists didn’t know what he meant by sketches, were these theatrical sketches, poems or moments in time? Some panelists who knew of my work started praising what I am doing. This was something akin to sitting in on my own eulogy. None of the panelists knew I was in the room sketching. I finally decided to march up to the panel and hand over my most recent sketchbook as people’s exhibit A. Michael said this stunt helped him gain some points, and I certainly hope he gets the $1000 grant: which, if he does, will still have him investing over four thousand dollars of his own money into the project. This is humbling. I hope my sketches and stories do not let him down.
Artists who were submitting applications for grants had to defend their positions, often being asked how the grant money would help them grow as artists rather than focusing on the techniques of their craft. Dewey Chaffee has just taken a huge plunge by not renewing his contract to work at Disney. He certainly could use the boost a grant would offer now, but the panel seemed convinced that his character Wayburn Sassy was fully developed with no room for growth. One panelist seemed to think Wayburn just offers shock value, but Dewey explained that the character gives people a way to laugh at bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Orlando, in my mind, certainly needs Wayburn Sassy.
When Hannah Miller was asked to discuss her puppetry show called “Thunder Hag“, one of the panelists leaned back too far and broke their chair. There was an awkward pause, and Hannah asked if he was alright. Aradhana Tiwari put in a grant to study Viewpoints with the SITI Company and its artistic director Anne Bogart in NYC. Aradhana walked up to the panel and sat as close as possible. She was poised, confident and eloquent. She discussed “Project F” at some length and from the panelists responses, it sounds like she is sure to get the grant. As one panelist remarked,”You are up and coming, go to New York and make it happen.”
After the panel discussion broke for lunch, a small group of artists remained standing around the snack table, eating the free pretzels. For me, this was lunch before I went to the next location to sketch. Brian Feldman remarked, “All the real artists in the room are still here.” It was fun joking around with these artists, all of them friends, and discovering how they felt about the process. For some, it was like facing the Spanish Inquisition, but there was also comedy and unlimited human potential to be discovered in the room that day.

“Dressed to Kill” New Years Eve at the Enzian

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This is officially my first sketch of 2010. I had four other parties I was considering for New Year’s Eve, but Brian Feldman and Tisse Mallon told me about this $5 James Bond themed party at the Enzian Theater. At $5 admission, it may have been the best deal in town. Approaching the theater, I could feel the electric excitement of the crowd. Terry and I had to park several blocks away because the lot was overflowing. At the Eden Bar outside, people were packed shoulder to shoulder. One man in a black jacket had a huge scar down the side of his face and he was petting a white rabbit. This villain explained that the rabbit was much more sinister than the cat used in the Bond movie, From Russia with Love. Beautiful women were everywhere, dressed in gorgeous gowns. Groups were voguing for the cameras. There was a red carpet to the theater entrance. A movie screen was set up outside and crowds were seated at the tables watching. Gunfire ricochets could be heard from every angle.
I found Brian, Tisse and Mark Baratelli almost immediately. It turns out Mark had scored a table thanks to his Blog, The Daily City.com, so we tried to get in. Everybody but Mark was turned away at the door since we did not have wristbands. So we stood in the line for wristbands. The line never seemed to move. Terry proactively sought out the General Manager of the Enzian and got us wristbands.
We squeezed past the bouncer and found Mark’s table. There were only two chairs at the table and four of us, so I hiked back to my truck and got my portable chair. Once seated, I scanned the crowd and started sketching. Faces were lit everywhere by the warm loving glow of iPhones and other portable devices. The music was so loud that you really could’t talk, so I imagine people might have been texting one another even as they were seated at the same table.
After the ball dropped, Terry and I got on the dance floor. We got caught up in a line dance to a song I had never heard before. The music roared “To the left, to the left, to the right, to the right, turn yourself around, turn yourself around!” It involved a few chorus line kicks and shuffling left and right. We caught on pretty quick, although the crowd itself was never very organized. The smooth slippery beat was addictive. Dancers batted blue and white balloons around the dance floor. The strobe lights tended to blind me so I usually danced with my back to the stage.
We left the Enzian and then headed over to Matt McGrath’s house. His place had a group of actors and actresses all shoulder to shoulder at the backyard bar. Leander Suleiman, an actress I had sketched before, was there and I introduced her to Terry. We all toasted with champagne when New Year’s came around for Chicago.
Matt and I chatted for a while and I found out he is going to be a producer for a possible Orlando Fringe show called “Project F.” The show is fourth on the waiting list to get into the Fringe, but he’s excited about the project, and we discussed it for quite a while. Other than talking to Matt and Leander, I didn’t socialize much. I was winding down. Matt claimed that his party would be going strong till 11:45 AM, but I didn’t have the ambition to keep partying. We returned home happy and pleasantly exhausted.