Pre-Pandemic: The Lucky Lure

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The Lucky Lure is a dog-friendly open-air bar with a long, always changing list of beers and live music nights. The Orlando Urban Sketchers group had a meet up in Ivanhoe Village and I decided to sketch inside the Lucky Lure while sipping a beer. Most artists were sketching a block north at an intersection outside but this spot had everything I needed. Today, masks are required.

On the street the lure has wooden shudders which fold open and are secured to the ceiling.  This allows anyone walking by to see into the essentially open air bar which is an advantage in the pandemic.

When all the urban sketchers had finished their work we met outside the Lucky Lure to compare sketches. The wide variety of styles are always an inspiration.

A large apartment complex called The Yards has been erected behind The Lucky Lure which displaced a number of railroad warehouse artists studios and The Venue which was one of my favorite edgy local theaters. As Orlando builds vertical it is doing it by displacing a once quirky arts neighborhood.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for November 23 and 24, 2019

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Saturday November 23, 2019

2pm to 5pm Free. Sketch Crawl at Ivanhoe. Washburn Imports, 1800 N. Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804. Come sketch with us along the historic stretch
of Orange Ave near Lake Ivanhoe once known as Antique Row. This area
offers glimpses of Orlando’s past with it’s 1900-era shop buildings
built along a railroad and also offers glimpses of the future with
construction of new high-rise apartments across from beautiful Lake
Ivanhoe. Unique shops, restaurants and bars line the stretch of this
easily walkable area.

Schedule:

Sketch crawl along Orange Ave from Washburn Imports towards Virginia
Dr. If you miss the meet up at 2pm, you will find us sketching along
this 3 block stretch.
Sketchbook Throwdown: 4:30pm at The Lucky Lure, 1427 N. Orange Ave, Orlando, FL.

Parking -lot on corner of Orange and New Hampshire across from Washburn
Imports, street parking along Orange Ave, NE Ivanhoe, Alden Rd, and a
small lot at Gaston Edwards Park at Lake Ivanhoe. Be aware, parking may
be time limited.

Tip: You may find yourself wanting to stay a bit
longer as Virginia Drive Jingle Eve begins at 5pm. Along Virginia Drive
there will be shopping, Christmas events, music, fireworks, and food.
After the meetup, a few of us may walk to this area to get food/drink
and sketch some more.

All drawing levels and skills are welcome.

Bring your sketchbook and sketching supplies of your choice. As this
event is OUTDOORS be prepared with drinking water, a hat, portable
chair/stool, and appropriate clothes for the weather.

5pm to ? Free. 2019 Jingle Eve.  Ivanhoe Village North Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32804.
12 Wines of Christmas, Santa’s Village, live music, food trucks,
vendors and more! Last year we had over 3,000 visitors on this night to
remember.

5pm too 7pm Free. McRae Studios Open House to Feature Guest Artists Victor Bokas and Matthew Cornell. McRae Art Studios 1000 Arlington Street in Orlando. On-site parking is available. McRae Art Studios’ 2019 Holiday Open Housewill serve up art works by its 22 members and former McRae members Victor Bokasand Matthew Cornell. The annual event at McRae (mcraeartstudios.com)
gives artcollectors and gift-givers a unique opportunity to browse
artist studios, visitwith the artists and purchase original art.
Hundreds of original art works willbe available including paintings,
pastels, drawings, photographs, mixed media,sculpture, jewelry and
ceramics. The open house is free and open to the public.

Sunday November 24, 2019

10am to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

11am to Noon $5 Yoga. Lake Eola near red gazebo.

Noon to 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Brian Hayes. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. Members
of the public are invited to visit our historic home museum on a Sunday
afternoon to listen to live music and take a tour of our historic home
museum and the James Gamble Rogers II Studio by trained docents.

Emily’s Tattoo

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Emily Arnold used to be the assistant curator at the Orange County Regional History Center. She decided to get a tattoo on her right bicep of a gorgeous bird. Since she is an artist she was very discerning about who should create the tattoo. She decided that Steve Roberts of The East Tattoos was the man for the job. One of Steve’s major influences is the work of John James Audubon which made him the perfect artist for the job. Her boyfriend who also worked at the History Center kept her company through the long agonizing process.

The East is an appointment-only private tattoo studio located just north of Downtown Orlando in Ivanhoe Village. Overlooking beautiful Lake Ivanhoe, The East offers a completely personalized experience in a relaxed and comfortable space. Each of the artists work independently; scheduling our own appointments, setting our own prices and corresponding with our own clients.

Two of the tattoo artists from The East stopped by as I was working on a mural on Ivanhoe Park  Brewing. They asked how I planned to do the line work on the mural, and I explained that I was debating about using Krink markers or acrylic paint applied with a brush. One of the artists did graffiti and he said the Krink markers fade quickly over time. He had first hand experience from work he had done in the past. Because of that conversation I abandoned the Krink brand and have been doing the line work with a brush. 

Since getting the tattoo, Emily and her boyfriend both left Orlando. The arts in Orlando left their mark.

Jingle Eve offers gift options in Ivanhoe Village.

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Jingle Eve happen every December in Ivanhoe Village. All the shops on Virginia Avenue are open late and Mark Baratelli‘s Food Truck Bazaar supplies the food. I had to pick up a painting from Bare Foot Spa which is on Virginia so I got a sketch and an errand done with one trip. Artist John Glassman Gardner discussed a project he started in which he pays artists to fill a page in a sketchbook. I offered to fill a page, but the sketchbook is still making the rounds in some artists studio.You might notice that even in December, Orlandoens dress in T Shirts, shorts and sandals. You gotta love that.

I didn’t buy anything on this sketch outing but I discovered a glass shop that had all the tools and supplies needed to create stained glass windows. Bare Foot Spa (801 Virginia Dr, Orlando, Florida) always has exhibits of local artists in the front room. An exhibit curated by Parker Sketch will be opening this Saturday September 9th from 6pm to 9pm. The show is titled Television and it features art of television personalities, art of televisions, art of anything related to televisions. Here you will see classic television shows, cartoon characters, Atari, the evening news, and more. This show features 30 pieces of art by 17 different artists. I submitted one sketch done of Brian Feldman on the evening that all the analog signals were switched off. He had one analog TV for each station and one by one the sets switched to static. On that day if you had an analog TV, it became a relic and you had to go out and buy a digital TV. I wonder how much TV sales spiked around the country on that day. Anyway, stop on out to the opening if you are in Ivanhoe Village that day and say hi.

Proposed Mural for the Ivanhoe Village Offices

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Scottie Campbell the Executive Director of the Ivanhoe Village District asked me to consider doing a mural on the facade of the Fringe and Ivanhoe Village offices. The building was painted black which makes the offices a furnace in the summer. I created this composite sketch to suggest an overview of downtown on the facade. There wasn’t a working budget for the project, so George Fringe Wallace created a Power2Give fundraising page to raise the $5000 for the mural’s creation.

I like the idea that anyone in the community can contribute a small amount to make this idea a reality. As of this writing 2% of the needed funds have been raised. In 80 or so days I find out if this project will become a reality. Donor benefits include…

$1-99, a personal thank you on the Orlando Fringe and Ivanhoe Village Facebook pages.

$100-249, a digital photograph of the mural once it is completed (plus the above benefits)

$250-499,
an invitation to the public unveiling of the mural, including a meet
and greet with Fringe  and Ivanhoe Village Executives and the artist
himself, Thomas Thorspecken. (plus the above benefits)

$500 or more, a plaque at the site of the mural with your name on it as a donor (plus the above benefits)

Ivanhoe Trivia Night

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0n Tuesday August 27th, Ivahhoe Trivia Night kicked off at The Hammered Lamb. Each week the event will help raise money for Ivanhoe Village and there are prizes for the winners. It’s easy to play; you just need to put your thinking cap on.

HOT TIP: Each Monday an answer to one question will appear on the Ivanhoe Village Facebook page and Twitter (@IvanhoeVillage). So be sure you’re liking and following!

Arrive early, stay late! Happy Hour is 4:00 PM-7:00 PM. Then after Ivanhoe Trivia Night, plan to stick around for open mic night!

Ivanhoe Village Manager, Scottie Campbell, was the MC firing off the trivia questions. The bar was full and the competition fierce. Some contestants took to bold posturing to intimidate the competition.  Here are a few of the questions from the premiere event. See how you do. I’ll list answers in the comment section over the weekend. No Googling the answers.

1. What country has the most patent applications?

2. Mount Thor has the greatest purely vertical drop. What country is Mount Thor in?

3. Who was the first person inaugurated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1936?

4. The song “Walk this Way” by Aerosmith was written after seeing which 1974 film?

5. Who wrote the book, “Ivanhoe”?

6. What is the name of the park across the street from the Hammered Lamb?

7. Word Jumble… NAAJNEFDO.

8. What president was in office when Marilyn Monroe died?

9. What country drinks the most alcohol?

A train rumbled by and everyone had free shots on the house. It tasted a bit like grapefruit. Mark Your Calendar! Get your trivia fix every Tuesday night 6pm to 8pm at the Hammered Lamb (1235 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL).

ReThinking the City: Main Streets and Town Halls

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ReThinking the City is a monthly symposium on new ideas and updates in urban ism held at Urban ReThink ( 625 E. Central Ave, Orlando, Florida). The June 25th meeting featured a remote presentation by Hesse McGraw, curator of the innovative Carver Bank Town Hall Project in Omaha Nebraska, which seeks to create a space for public participation and creativity. Also presenting was Pauline Eaton, curator of Orlando’s Main Street USA program, on how the program is developing and helping local communities. Eliza Harris tried to get the Skype hook up working but there were several tech issues that kept us from connecting to Omaha.

Pauline Eaton stepped in and told us about the Main street USA program while folks struggled with the computer. Founded in 1980, there are now 2000 Main Street programs nation wide.  There are about 5 different neighborhoods that are a part of the Main Street USA Program, like, Ivanhoe Village, Mills 50 District etc. The Milk District is spearheading its own neighborhood initiatives, learning from the developments in other neighborhoods. The point of the program is to improve the urban feel of the neighborhoods. It can be as simple as adding a bike rack to painting utility boxes pretty colors. The “BAT Team” is the mayor’s better assistance team. The dream of pie in the sky ideal initiatives and then settle for what can be done with the present politics. Pauline joked that the “R&D” department, (Rip off and Duplicate) will take ideas that work in other cities and hope to duplicate them in Orlando. Orlando is a urban area designed for keeping automobiles moving quickly. The primary concerns are usually automotive sight lines. There was some lamenting that sometimes the only way to make improvements is to wait for incumbent politicians to die or leave office. Scottie Campbell who works for Ivanhoe Village was surprised to find that there are Main Street groupies who admire the work that is done. He felt like a rock star for the night.

The computer link to Omaha started working and Hesse McGraw showed us a slide show of the renovation to the first African American Bank in Omaha. Volunteer labor was leveraged to bring the building back as an active creative community hub. Old high school gym flooring was used to cover all the floorboards.. Slate from chalk boards was also used throughout the 100,000 square foot space. The building now offers residencies for artists. There are 15,000 applicants a year for 35 spots. The residency challenges artists to think of how their work effects and engages the community. Lamont Hamilton took 75 photo portraits of living artists he considers iconic. There is a sandwich shop inside and a mix of gallery and office space. I couldn’t help but think of how similar the place sounds to the Urban ReThink ideal. Eliza spoke to me about her hope that someday local artist’s work would welcome people arriving to Orlando in the airport. It would be awesome to get work in front of so many new fresh eyes. Now the work starts researching how to make that vision a reality.

Tree of Light

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On June 14th, the Virginia Drive Live Street Party was held all along Virginia Drive in Ivanhoe Village. Scottie Campbell, the Ivanhoe Village-Manager war running from street side tent to tent. I saw him when I first got out of my car and then several more times as I walked down Virginia Drive. Vendors and artists were busy setting up.

    Virginia Drive, between Alden Road. and Haven Drive, in Ivanhoe Village came alive with late night shopping, food trucks, street vendors and artists, entertainment, and more! A wine stroll guided people you from merchant to merchant. I stopped at the beer garden, Sponsored by TheDailyCity.com, in the lot next to The Venue. Mark Baratelli of TheDailyCity.com stopped to say hello. There had been some drama among the food truck vendors he invited to the event and he had to straighten it all out.

As the sun set, the Tree of Light illuminated the area where DJ Chris Mendez was spinning tunes. Parents relaxed, sipping beers while their children played in the grass. The Tree of light has a welded aluminum structure inside with wood boards from shipping palettes screwed to the outside. I saw the structure as it was first being built in Cole Nesmith‘s yard. An exotic computer program used to make the lights flicker in a sequence when they were turned on with pull chords. Small diode light strips in the mason’s jars looked like fire flies. The heavy Florida rains had some of the jars collecting water. The draw strings were no longer an option. All the lights were always on. The tree was going to be set up in downtown Orlando but after working all night to gel it set up, someone leaned a ladder against a branch and the branch crashed to the ground. No one was hurt, but now the sculpture was seen as a dangerous liability. Cole and his team of artists and engineers went back to the drawing board reinforcing all the inner supports.

Children couldn’t resist trying to climb the tree. A group of three or four toddlers gathered at the base and used the roots as a boost to try and get up the trunk. Thankfully, parents moved in and pulled the children off. Had the kids gotten up to the branches, the results could have been devastating. Worst would be if an adult who has had too many beers decided to climb the tree on a dare. As a teenager, I once drank so much that I decided I had to climb to the top of a telephone pole. I was alone, so I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I did it cause I was drunk and therefor indestructible. Sometimes I’m an idiot.

4 x 4 Fringe Pub Crawl

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The 4 x 4 Fringe Pub Crawl on May 13th was in the Mills 50 District and in Ivanhoe Village. There were drink specials at Wally’s, Will’s Pub, BART and The Peacock Room in Mills 50 and The Matador, Hideaway, Hammered Lamb and Savoy in Ivanhoe Village. O-Cartz (included with the $10 wristband) transported patrons between bars.  There was a rumor that Andy Matchett would pay $20 to anyone who literally crawled from BART to the Peacock Room a block or two further up Mills Avenue.

I decided to go to BART, an arcade and bar on Mills Avenue that I have never been to before. Chan Sterling was checking his portable microphone and speaker. It was tinny but would have to do. Lead by Ruby Darling, Skill Focus Burlesque Dancers arrived and sat in the cushy lounge seating.  The entire cast of Jet Backpack and the Battle at the End of the Universe arrived all at once. They were all in their intergalactic costumes. There were photo opportunities of Jett and his crew playing video games.

Earth Girls are Easy was on the wide screen TV but music drowned the sound track. Paintings by Parker Sketch had just been hung earlier in the day. Parker arrived with a few friends and he let me know that several of the smaller pieces had already sold. A woman asked me if I was the Painter, Sketcher who was on the poster. I didn’t know what she meant at first, but finally realized she was referring to Parker Sketch.

Suddenly a gaggle of screaming women entered the bar. Two of them climbed onto the bar, dancing and making out. One girl had a long pink penis shaped water pistol filled with vodka and she was offering shots to all the men. I couldn’t bring myself to purse my lips in front of the phallic dispenser. One woman had penis shaped antenna and she was the one to go up to the mic to promote the Bachelorette show. I was given a business card with a tiny plastic bag of white powder stapled to the back, I did a detective wet finger taste test. It wasn’t cocaine but powdered sugar, then again, I have no idea what cocaine tastes like. The Bachelorettes vanished as suddenly as the arrived, probably off to the next bar. Suddenly the bar was relatively quiet again.

John Bateman took to the microphone and sang David Bowie‘s “Space Oddity” with lyrics that had been altered to the Jett Backpack theme. Kevin Sigman as the sinister Doctor Saurian also stepped up to the mic.  Matt McGrath shouldered up to the bar with model Sierra Missed. She had an angular futuristic hair style that made her appear like an exotic futuristic replicant from Blade Runner. I had sketched her just last month at the RAW event at the Abbey. I didn’t recognize her at first since she was all green when I sketched her, but she recognized me. Matt pointed out that I’m probably the only person in town who can get away with scrutinizing someone for several hours without appearing creepy. With my sketch done, I contemplated wandering off to another bar on the crawl, but decided one sketch was enough for the night.

I’m curious about that Bachelorette show now.

Remaining Show Times are:

5/18 at 7PM

5/19 at 4:20PM

5/22 at 9:30PM

5/24 at 11:15PM

5/25 at 9:15PM

Where: Gold Venue at Theater Downtown, Princeton and Orange

Tickets: $10 plus a Fringe Button

The Big Dog Show

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At the foot of a walkway bridge that leads from the Mennello Museum to the suburban neighborhood on the opposite side of Lake Formosa is a “Red Dog” sculpture by Dale Rogers.  I love walking across that bridge as the sun sets. Snapping turtles leisurely paddle their way through the thick green water for a breath of air. The bridge is now part of the Dinky Line Trail, an exercise trail that will weave through the Virginia Drive, Ivanhoe Village, neighborhood. Under current plans, the trail ultimately could stretch from the new
arena in downtown Orlando past Lake Highland and the city’s Loch Haven
Park before terminating at Mead Garden in Winter Park, where it could
eventually tie into other trails. Also on the drawing board: a spur to
Lake Baldwin.

Driving past the Mennello, I saw a pack of huge rusty dogs, which were giant versions of the “Red Dog” in he Sculpture Garden and around the entrance to the museum. I had to pull in. The museum has welcomed back Rogers with a fresh pack of twenty 8-foot-tall, 10-foot-long sculptures of dogs made of Cor-ten steel. Small  versions are available for sale in the gift shop. Rogers has said that he thinks his work gives you a dog’s eye view of the world, and he hopes art, the public and animal welfare can all come together for a good cause. The show is open to the public now through March 17th, 2012.

Today, Saturday DECEMBER 1st, there will be a Big Dog Show Happy Hour
from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is free.
Bring your four-legged friends to this outdoor reception for Dale Rogers and the new installation of 20 Brown Dog steel sculptures. Refreshments for sale for dogs and their owners from The Spork Happy Food Cafe and Puppy Love Cafe, along with litter bags. Bring donations of pet foods and supplies to donate to local animal shelters. Adopt one of the rare breeds to benefit Canine Companions for Independence and A New Beginning Pet Rescue.