Lake Eola Farmers Market Portable Band-shell

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I had already done 2 sketches of the Lake Eola Farmer’s Market but it still was not time to check into my Air B&B in Thornton Park. I had no choice but to do another sketch. I heard a musician, and walked towards the sound of music. This portable stage had been set up by the City of Orlando on the Lake Eola south east lawn. A musician was performing with no audience. By the time I got the sketchbook out and had blocked in the stage, the musician left. I shifted my focus to the family eating at the picnic table in the foreground. A mom sat down on the grass with her stroller.

Doing 3 sketches to document a single day in the life of the Lake Eola Farmers Market seemed obsessive,  but it was nice to settle in for a day and just keep sketching. This was a perfect way to spend my Easter Sunday. In the distance the Greek church bells chimed, which helped slow my pulse.

Check in at the Air B&B was at about 3 PM. The place was on the third floor, and it felt luxurious after a day of camping out on the grass. The balcony looked back at Lake Eola though trees blocked any clear view and the view the opposite way was towards the Falcon Bar and Gallery. I would stay at an Air B&B for about a week at a time and then would need to find another place. I wanted to stay at the place near the Falcon a second week but unfortunately, it was booked up. I had to move on.

I grew accustomed to living near Lake Eola and my search of a home or rental was always centered around the lake access. I found a beautiful old rental home two blocks north of Lake Eola and since moving there I have started a series of 49 paintings of views around the lake. I was doing sunrise paintings by getting up at 7 AM, but now that I was approaching the west side of the lake, I found that I would be staring straight into the sun if I were to get up and paint each morning, I did one nocturne which was a fun challenge and will I likely start doing sunset paintings with the sunset at my back. The goal is to hang all these paintings together so a viewer will feel like they are walking around the lake.

Easter at Lake Eola

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I had to check out of an Air B&B at 10AM in Thornton Park Florida, and the check-in at the next Air B&B which was near the Falcon Bar and Gallery wasn’t until 3PM, so I found myself rather homeless for the day. I decided to take a walk to Lake Eola and just relax on the lawn and sketch. The weekly weekend farmers market was happening, so there were plenty of merchant tents set up. I didn’t feel the need to document any particular tent, so I found a shady spot under a Live Oak tree and sketched the historic home that sits on the south east corner of the park.

Many other people has the same idea as I did and they relaxed with their babies and dogs, just soaking up the daylight. People came and went in the time I was working on the sketch. There were so many beautiful people enjoying a beautiful day. I was felling like a tumbleweed, not sure if I should stay or if I should go. The one thing keeping me in Orlando Florida was the prospect of sketching the Fringe Festival in May. I had been invited to document the festival with sketches and the idea of sketching as many plays as is humanly possible was enticing. Several instances of people ordering work and not paying for it and having my work lifted offline and used to sell tickets to shows have disillusioned me to the pace of the deep south.

While sketching on the lawn, I felt myself slow down and relax into the day. I might feel uncertain about my future, but I felt certain about what I was meant to be doing in the moment. Life never holds still but by sketching I could capture a moment and feel grounded to a place. I wondered about the single people I saw. They seemed comfortable checking their phones or relaxing with their pets. I am always on edge needing to create in order to feel whole. Some day I might find someone who likes to share such quiet moments between the rush of keeping up with the demands of life.

Falcon

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The first Air B&B I stayed in while I was trying to figure out where to settle in Orlando was in Thornton Park. The place I stayed in was o the third floor and looked down Washington Street towards Lake Eola. When I looked the opposite way I could see Falcon bar and Gallery a block away. While walking around the neighborhood, I decided to stop at Cavo’s Bar and Kitchen across the street so I could get a sketch of the Falcon Bar and Gallery. The mural on the side of the building had been done years a go and the paint was starting to fade. The image of a woman hugging a swan seemed iconic at the time.

Today all the swans in Lake Eola have been corralled and moved out of downtown. The swans had developed bird flu and many died. Were the swans to pass the flue to humans there would be the possibility of another pandemic. The swans had clipped wings and therefor could not fly away. It was easy therefor to corral the swans with dozens of kayaks.

There were instanced where police found that swans had been kidnapped. The captured swans were recovered for a backyard of a local home. The birds also suffered from constant harassment and attacks by dogs which ere walked around Lake Eola. The birds were taken to a facility approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Central Florida. There, they were welcomed by other swans that were also removed from the park. The era of the Lake Eola swans had passed. The swan paddle boats remain as a reminder of the city’s past.

Pulse Remembrance Ceremony

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June 12, 2026 marked 10 years since the brutal murder of 49 people who were dancing and celebrating life at the Pulse Nightclub. The week after that massacre, I put out a Facebook invite asking artists to meet at the Falcon Bar and Gallery in Thornton Park to do 49 portraits in one night. Sixteen artists answered the call. 49 portraits were completed that night. I did four portraits so on average that is about how many each artist could have completed. Some artists lovingly completed one portrait while others did more.

The portraits were used for a play about Pulse created by David Lee called O-Town: Voices from Orlando. The play was a collection of monologues taken from firsthand accounts of survivors, first responders and volunteers. The 49 portraits hung as a backdrop for each performance. When the play’s run was complete, I was given all the portraits which I placed in my archives in the studio. They stayed there for 10 years.

With the 10-year anniversary approaching I decided that the portraits should hang around Lake Eola for the day. The shooting at Pulse began about 2am on June 12, 2016, so I decided that the portraits should go up around Lake Eola starting at 2:02am. Hannah Miller volunteered to help me in mounting the portraits to trees. I am so happy she came to help because it made the task so much more pleasurable. I feared the portraits might be torn down or vandalized considering signs of hope and acceptance are often covered over or violently opposed in today’s America. We proceeded anyway.

A lake staffer walking by let us know that it would be his task to take all the portraits down first thing in the morning. News 13 had set up a little outdoor studio on the south side of the lake. He asked if the portraits were related to what the news station was doing and we didn’t say they were not related we just said they were a memorial. As we got ready to hang the last portrait of Cory James Connell a reporter came over to ask us a few questions. The reporter, who was off camera, was choked up, which I certainly didn’t expect.

In the evening of the 10-year anniversary, I went to the United Methodist Church in downtown Orlando for a Pulse Remembrance Ceremony. I had my large clear portfolio case which I planned to use to collect the 49 portraits afterwards. I had a pair of scissors to cut mounting strings, which I hoped would not be seen as a weapon. There were police officers all around the church. Everyone was given a candle, but I refused since I knew I would be sketching. The program featured a reading of the 49 names, the church bell being rung 49 times, a performance by the Orlando Gay Chorus a poem read by poet laureate Camera Gaither and words for several family of the victims. When Miranda Bebe, the sister of Jason Benjamin Josaphat asked for action to remove high powered assault rifles from the streets there was overwhelming acceptance, but Orlando is a bubble in a deep red state that worships the blood letting in the name of gun rights. Prayers might be offered, but never solutions.

The Orlando Gay Chorus sang, “We all Have a Pulse” which absolutely floored me. I stopped sketching to let the music wash over me. It was a stellar performance and the highlight of my day. After the ceremony, which was heartwarming and overwhelming, I walked back to Lake Eola. When I got to the lake,  a huge rainbow arched from shore to shore. A fine rain was soaking the portraits and I decided they had to be collected.

Collecting the portraits was easier than putting them up. Some had been dismounted by the wind and people had re-tied them back on the trees. One portrait was missing and I chose to think someone collected it to give the family. Honestly if they had all been collected and given to family, I would be happy.

I let all the artists know via a Facebook invite that their work was hanging at Lake Eola for the one day.  I considered waiting until midnight, but I doubt I could have stayed awake that late since I had been awake all of the previous night hanging the portraits. As I was taking them down, a police man approached and asked my name. He must have thought I was stealing the portraits. Police had been informed that they must make sure the portraits remained hanging. I thought the portraits would immediately be taken down and considered vandalism, but Orlando embraced them.

Like the Queen of the Night blooms, these portraits appeared for a brief moment and then were gone.

Democratic Debate Round 1

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Since Pam and I don’t have a TV, we decided to go out to a Democratic Debate Watch Party. I found one at the Barley and Vine but when we drove by, we found the place deserted. Instead we drove over to Thornton Park to watch at the Falcon Bar and Gallery (819 E Washington St, Orlando, FL 32801). Planned Parenthood was hosting the watch party which meant a slice of free pizza if we surrendered all our personal information. Heck, I have given away more than that for a slice of pizza.

A small baby Trump balloon was floating above the bar so I immediately started sketching. We had a solid 45 minutes to kill before the debate really got under way. A friendly wide eyed pug kept sniffing around and standing on his hind legs hoping to get some of our pizza. Once the debate started the place got really packed.

Half of the Democratic party contenders would face off during the debate. With 10 candidates behind the podiums I honestly only recognized Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar. Amy had worked the news stations as the Warren report went public and I respected her views. In the bar there was one guy that clapped for every candidate and their opinions. Beto O’Rourke responded to one of the initial questions in Spanish and the bar loved that the captions paused since there was no interpreter.

When candidates were asked, “What is the greatest threat to American security?”  The loud clapper in the bar shouted out, “Donald Trump!” Folks laughed and then moments later a candidate gave the same response. It was exciting to watch the debate with a crowd. The enthusiastic hope that something new might follow the controversies and wasted energy of politics these past two years was contagious. Beto O’Rourke said Congress should immediately begin impeachment
proceedings against President Donald Trump in response to special
counsel Robert Mueller’s findings. If congress doesn’t impeach then he would press charges after Trump leaves office. Bill De Blasio said that Russia is the biggest threat to America “because they are trying to undermine our Democracy and they have been doing a pretty damn good job.”

Amy Klobuchar took a strong stance against Trump saying, “This president is literally every single day 10 minutes away from going to war, one tweet away from going to war. I don’t think we should conduct foreign policy in our bathrobes at 5 in the morning.” The two baby Trump balloons floated face up to the bar ceiling looking very much like the drowned father and daughter photo that has been all over the news.