Brooklyn’s Pizzaria and Italian Restaurant

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Brooklyn’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant (27405 US Highway 27, Leesburg, Florida) has to be the most sketched Pizza joints in Lake County Florida. When my food supply would run out I would head out one night to Brooklyn Pizza for some spaghetti or a small pizza pie. Both options offered comfort food before my next grocery run.

On this pizza run there was an older couple seated in the corner which offered my only hope for some figurative drawing. On past outings to Brooklyn Pizza there has been a large group of retirees from the Villages who would sit at the center tables and chat while waiting for their large orders to arrive. On this evening I arrived early before any major crowd.

In the corner of the room was the waitress station. In that corner they would talk and compare notes. That is where the soda machine is and the waitresses were always generous with the cup refills. Returning to a restaurant or venue time and again offers a chance to get to feel the ebb and flow of a place.  It would be nice to return to sketch the kitchen and back counter areas. All these everyday mundane moments are what makes for great sketches.

After getting my sketch for the day, I always liked returning to my roommate who at this time was involved in a magnificent creative project. Being in a collaborative open studio was new and exciting.  I was working on posters for the Orlando Shakespeare Theater at the time, but that work was all done one my iPad while sitting on the couch. My studio situation, was the definition of being an artist being a couch potato.

Leesburg Art Festival

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While living in Lake County Florida I was searching for events to sketch and I found the Leesburg Art Festival. Art Festivals are always fun sketch opportunities with artists selling their wares in tents. Tom make a living as an artist in Florida you sometimes have to be a gypsy. I got to the festival with plenty of time to spare to get a sketch. I decided quickly to make sure to get the historic clock in the town square in my sketch.

I was surprised to find that the artists were all packing up their art to break down their tents. There were many hours to go before the art festival was over. I decided to sketch even as the artists were making their escape.

The lady on the left hand side of my sketch had already broken down her tent. She was curious about me and we started to talk. She explained that the organizers of the art festival had seen that a thunder storm was coming so all the artists were breaking down and getting out of Dodge before the heavy rain started. All her tent poles were at the curb and soon her husband drove up and she packed everything into his SUV.

Across From me the guy with the pink had and shirt was selling jewelry. He was much slower to pack up. I decided to sketch him twice. The Leesburg clock kept spinning as I raced to finish the sketch before getting soaked. It turned out that I didn’t need to rush. I finished before a single rain drop fell. I closed the sketch book and decided I wanted to get a scoop of ice cream.

Leesburg has a quaint historic feel and I went into Mystic Ice Cream shop on my walk back to my car. I ordered two scoops of vanilla in a big cone and sat in the ice cream shop front counter to look out and watch for the rain. Old album covers were on all the walls and lava lamps could be found in every corner. I liked the place. I want to return some day to sketch the ice cream shop. Mystic has another ice cream shop  in Fruitland Park that has Karaoke. I went there once with Stella Arbelaez, and we had a fun time sketching the place while listening to some very talented singers along with some questionable clunkers. I loved singing along, but I am not one to get on stage. Only those closest to me get to hear my singing voice. It is so rare to have a friend who loves to experience the world that way I do. I had so much fun that night. I asked the lady serving my ice cream, and Mystic in Leesburg does not host Karaoke nights.

It still hadn’t rained but the sky was now a dark slate grey. Once I got back to my Prius the first big drops hit the wind shield. It rained hard on the entire drive back to my art studio.

Brooklyn’s Pizza Dining room

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After the Disney Feature Animation Reunion and the chaos of a film shoot at the Stella Arbelaéz studio, I settled back into a sketching routine in Lake County Florida.

My refrigerator was largely empty, so I treated myself to a night out at Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 Us-27 Lake Harris Square, Leesburg, FL). I ordered a plate of Fettuccini Alfredo which is my favorite creamy pasta dish. The waitresses her were familiar with having an artist who would sit, eat and sketch for several hours.

I had gone out to eat early so the dining room only had a few people. A man and woman sat at the corner booth so at least there was some humans to be seen. The corner of the dining room is also where the waitress station was. The barricade made it so I wouldn’t see the waitress until she came to my table.

Meals and memories can be found at Brooklyn’s Pizza . I have strong memories of sketching with a friend in this dining room, and it makes me want to return often. My strongest memories are on paper put down with pencil, ink and watercolor. I have been unpacking my drawings from over the years, and I was truly on fire artistically right before I moved to Orlando. Drawings done with oil paint, and colored pencil were so expressive. I remember loving how luscious the pencil line felt as it melted into the oil paint.

Seeing that work makes me want to regain some of that angst filled energy. I suspect my work will begin to once again evolve after having looked back at my past.  Right now, I am doing a series of drawings of the best Vegetarian Restaurants in Orlando. Drawings of restaurants tend to be more about depicting the perspective of a room and less about the figure. I am feeling the urge to do more figurative work and may begin to hire models to pose in my Eola Heights Studio.

I am also doing a series of 49 paintings of Lake Eola. This series gets me up early at sunrise each day to get some painting under my belt at the start of each day. In the evening I then go out to sketch at some Orlando Event. It is by doing a whole lot of work that I hope to get to the point where the paintings and drawings get more expressive.

I ate maybe half of the Fettuccini Alfredo and took the rest back to the Lake County Studio. Today I would not longer consider ordering such a rich and creamy dish. My new plant-based diet doesn’t allow for dairy product. Eating out has become more of a challenge with the plant-based restrictions but I keep finding some dishes which foot the bill.

Yesterday I ordered a Subway sandwich with a friend and we both wanted only vegetables. Every sandwich description started out with a list of processed meats. The only vegetarian option was to order a sandwich and get the meat on the side. Filling up the sandwich with extra vegetables was then a fun process. I ordered a lemonade instead of a soda and I was instructed that I should water the lemonade down since it had too much sugar. I tasted the lemonade and it tasted delicious in a saccharine sweet way. I did water the drink down but not in a 50 to 50 proportion. I wanted and needed the sugar flavor blast.

I am learning what is good to put in my body a bit at a time. When I slip off the wagon my goal is to get right back on and train myself to eat a more healthy diet.

Brooklyn’s Pizza

Posted on by Thor

When I lived up in Lake County Florida I used to frequent Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 US-27 Leesburg, Florida). When I went on a sketch outing with Stella Arbeláez Tascón to Brooklyn’s, we got to meet our server who was also an artist. She had just finished painting the restaurant front window with holiday themed art and it was darn good.

I went to Brooklyn’s Pizza sometimes for their delicious pizza but also for the occasional Alfredo and spaghetti meal. Besides the large plate of rich pasta there were also garlic knots which I could never finish. Brooklyn’s got my business on days where I didn’t have much available in the pantry and I didn’t feel like cooking. I felt comfortable eating on my own because the staff remembered me as that quirky artist who is always sketching. They were always curious to see what I would sketch next.

I can’t offer a biased review of the food at Brooklyn’s because I have just recently switched my diet to only plant-based foods. On my refrigerator is a note that says, “No Dairy, No Eggs, No Meat, No Oils, No Processed Foods”. I have started to read food labels to be sure I am not buying tons of hidden chemicals, salt and sugar. I now spent plenty of time searching for healthy foods which are a challenge to find in a Publix, with rows and rows of brightly colored junk food.

I am following an online course where I get to try out different recipes that are for delicious plant-based meals. Since I just moved onto my new Eola Heights Studio in a gorgeous old historic home, the timing is good, since I can stock my kitchen pantry with only whole plant-based food supplies.

The Alfredo spaghetti at Brooklyn’s Pizza was delicious but it has so much heavy cream which is no longer in my diet. The pizza which was also delicious is no longer something I would seek out when going out to eat. The cheese and white flour are both items that I am avoiding moving forward.

If you want a great pizza, Brooklyn’s is a great place to go. I think I will need to experiment to find a recipe for a great plant-based pizza. The cheese is the thing that will be most challenging to mimic. A healthy and savory tomato paste should be easy to make. I made my own spaghetti sauce for the first time last week. I know Cashew nuts and nutritional yeast have good cheese flavor. Most commercial baked goods have too much sugar and processed flour. As I learn more, I will find out which flours are nutritional and worth using. I have only dipped my toes in the water and taken my first baby steps towards a healthy plant-based diet. I will likely make mistakes along the way. But if I fall off the bike, I just need to get back on.

I didn’t purge my refrigerator and I had a large frozen pork loin left over. I made the pork loin several weeks ago and discovered that it is absolutely exhausting to digest meat once you have started a plant based diet. I actually had to stay in the studio that night and rest although I had plans to do a sketch at an event. I have shopped several times since that experience and no meat has made it back into the freezer.

The Bug in Mount Dora Florida

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My bike needed a major tune up when I lived up in Lake County Florida. I took it to Adrenaline Bike Works (206 N Highland Street, Mount Dora, FL). They did a great job of fixing a flat and getting the brake pads balanced. It felt like a new ride when I left. A few months prior I had just purchased an inner tube and I replaced it myself. However, I had to drill the hole in the aluminum rim a bit larger to get the valve to fit. I think I must have left a few aluminum shards behind because the next time I went to use the bike the tire was flat.

The time I wanted to use the bike I was going to Stella Arbelaéz’s Graduation. It was a several mile bike ride from the artist studios to the UCF stadium where the graduation was taking place. I was more than disappointing when I got on the bike and found that the tire was flat. It was a moment to shout out and curse the gods. I decided to walk the distance to the graduation ceremony. I was a sweaty mess in my dress shirt and fashionable slacks when I arrived, but I made it in time.

Next to Adrenaline Bike Works was this shell of a VW Beatle which was turned into a menacing metal spider. The sculpture was unveiled in January of 2020. It was built by John Henns who owns the commercial property at Highland Street and 3rd Avenue. The bug is painted an ominous black. Any arachnophobics who happen to drive by might get a fright. The Volkswagen or, translated, the People’s Car was car developed from an idea of Adolf Hitler himself.  To me the VW Beatle symbolized the Nazi ideals which included concentration camps and ethnic cleansing, which makes it all the more frightening.

School must have just let out when I started the sketch, because large groups of school children kept walking past as I worked. One student shouted out, looks great! And I gave him a thumbs up.

Brooklyn Pizza

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In an attempt to locate arts events in Lake County, I found out that Brooklyn Pizza has live music on Thursday nights. Stella Arbelaez agreed to stop out for the sketch opportunity. It is always fun to sketch with another artist. When we got to Brooklyn Pizza on highway 27, we f0und out that there was no live music. The website had been wrong, or rather misleading. Live music was a rare occurrence. It is more likely to happen in the summer months rather than leading up to the Christmas holidays.

Rather than leave, we decided to settle in and order a pizza and sketch anyway. The tables in the center of the room had been pushed together and there was a large group of retirees, probably from The Villages which is a short distance to the north. Their pizzas had not been served yet so there was time to sketch the group.

Our waitress was an artist herself. She had done the Christmas window paintings at Brooklyn Pizza. Stella and I checked out her handy work when we were leaving. I have returned to Brooklyn Pizza several times since this outing, since it isjust one of the three choices if you want to have a quick bit out. There always seems to be a crowd of baby boomers enjoying a slice here at Brooklyn Pizza.

At the No Kings Protests around the country, baby boomers came out in force. Even in the deep red south, the young and old alike are furious at the fascist direction the country had shifted towards. There are plenty of Boomers making their voices heard.

Our waitress kept checking in on our sketching progress. I think having artists sketching is a rare occurrence at this pizza joint. The open sign was a lit up as an American flag. Seeing people crowded around a pizza pie as the world burns is true Americana. The only thing that could have mede the scene more complete would be for a guitar player to be standing in the corner working hard to drown out the conversations.

47th Annual Winter Park Christmas Concert

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After getting back to the United States from Europe, I started sketching events that returned a feeling of normalcy. I have sketched the Winter Park Christmas Concert multiple times before and returned despite the 30 mile drive to get there. It was dark by the time I got to Winter Park and traffic seemed insane. I took back roads to get to the city hall since I had always found a parking spot there in the past. I started loosing hope of finding a parking spot, the closer I got.

When I found the lot, it was jam packed but I drove up and down the aisles anyway. At the end of the last aisle, there was a single parking spot. I shouted for joy. It was devine providence. I quickly packed up my art bag and walked down Park Avenue towards Central Park where I could hear musicians warming up in the bandshell.

The park was also packed with people in lawn chairs chatting with neighbors. There was no way I would get a sketch of the stage. I decided to sit close to the back of the crowd and draw the Tiffany Windows from the Morse Museum, that were on display. There were four Tiffany windows that stood among the crowd like the monolith from 2001 a Space Odyssey. The windows were surrounded by police tape and each had a docent standing guard. The illuminated windows faced the stage. I thought that it would have made more sense for the to face out towards the audience. Maybe the glow would have interfered with the audience seeing the tiny performers on the stage in the distance.

I set up my artist stool which had served me so well in Europe and leaned back against a utility box facing back looking at the stained glass windows. I start each sketch by writing the date in the lower right hand corner of the sketch. I dug into my pockets for my iPhone. I couldn’t find it. Bloody hell. I use the phone for navigation and have just recently started mounting it above the steering wheel. In Europe, I forgot the phone a couple of times. I developed the habit of taking a photo of where ai parked the car which helped as I searched for the car and it guaranteed I had my phone in hand. Here in Winter Park, I didn’t think to shoot a photo of my magnificent parking spot.

I must have left the phone back in the car. I decided I had to hike back. As I approached my car someone was slowly driving behind me. He rolled down his window and asked if zi was leaving. I apologized and said no. The phone case also held all my credit cards. The last thing ai needed was for someone to walk by and see the glow of the phone along with all the credit cards on display. I got back to the car sweaty. The phone was not over the driving wheel. I tore my art bag apart again looking for it. Could it have fallen out of my pocket between the car and the concert? I started throwing items in the back seat.

Where the hell was it? I flipped both indoor light on and searched under the seats. Ultimately I found the phone lying under my art bag in the passenger seat. Why on earth dit I put it there? In the distance I could hear the introductions starting for the concert. I needed to get back.I rushed back to the park. A family h ad set up where I had sat previously. I sat right behind them to get a similar angle to the sketch I had started which had a square in the lower right hand corner for a date. I filled in the date and started sketching.

The couple seated in the foreground of my sketch were waiting for friends to arrive. When their friends arrived everyone stood and talked throughout the rest of the concert. This scene played out throughout the crowded fields. Few people came for the concert. They came for conversation. In France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany I got used to ignoring the din of conversations in crowded spaces. It was easy since I didn’t understand a word of what was being said. This concert was similar with constant conversation and a hint of Christmas music in the background.

When Silent Night was being performed on stage, I decided that was my cue to consider the sketch complete and head back to the car. With so many people rushing to leave Winter Park, I wanted to be on the road before that back up. I missed the crush of cars and drive 30 miles back to Lake County.

For a sketch like this, I usually arrive early and sketch while there is still light. This time that wasn’t an option. I can only reassure myself that this isn’t the worst drawing I ever did.

Forest to Mausoleum

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A day or two before I left for Europe to follow in my father’s footsteps in WWII, a roof was thrown up on the home being built next to the Lake County studio I was renting. The lot had been a lush forested area just a few weeks before. The sand mountain the home sat on had been leveled and built up in a day. The cinder block mausoleum had gone p in a day, and now the roof structure went up in a day. This was now the largest home in the area on its own mountaintop/

The roof beams had an interesting inverted series of beams which I suppose are to keep the roof from collapsing inward in the high winds of a hurricane. All the triangular sections were delivered to the job site pre-assembled. They were each lifted int place where workmen quickly hammered them into place.

All the workmen spoke Spanish which made me concerned for their safety in the new hate fueled policies of ICE, seizures and deportations. I have seen photos of rooms filled with workmen still in their uniforms in detention centers, having been rounded up from their work sites.

I am in Europe right now in Northern France about to cross the border into Belgium. Russia has just sent military drones over Poland  and it feels like WWIII is about to break out with Trump, a wanna be dictator, in the White House who is owned by Putin.

80 years ago America helped defeat dictators and bring about world peace. Nuclear bombs were used to stop the war in the  Pacific. That was a questionable decision which I hope is never repeated. It only takes a few petty, power hungry men to break down democracy and embrace autocracy in a lust for land, power and a desire to stay in power indefinately.

Beach Day

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I woke up to the sound of a loud metal bang. Dump trucks were dumping piles of sand on the now empty Lake County  lot which had been a lush forest only days before. The loud bank would happen when the back door of the dump truck slammed back into the truck chassis once the pile of sane was completely dumped.The lot next door was becoming a deserted, beach.

A single John Deere  Wheel Loader would take the sand and spread it out to each corner of the lot. The annoying thing is that any time the Wheel Loader backed up it would beep loudly. The beeping persisted all day long, so I decided I had to go out and sketch rather than attempt to ignore the insentient nagging of the beeping.

Once all the piles of sand were spread out, the driver of the excavator would stop to rest and wait for another dump truck to arrive with more sand.

The entire lot was covered in sand by the time my sketch was complete but the beeping persisted all afternoon.

Someone arrived in a pick up Truck and he rolled out a black fabric fence about the height of the black wooden fence in this yard. I’m guessing the black fabric fence was meant to keep the desert contained in the event of a sand storm.

As the sun set, I went into the back yard to look at the progress once again. What I found was what looked like a Mayan temple with the Excavator parked on the top platform. The sand platform was now higher that the top of the fencing in the studio front yard.

Whatever home was going to built on this insanely high mound would not have issues with flooding because all of the water would run off onto the property I was standing on. During hurricanes and seasonal storms, this property already floods. With the temple of packed sand next door the water would flood the low lying planes which I was sketching from.

Strip for Profit

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By Thomas Thorspecken

The Lake County Studio used to have a lush undeveloped lot full of tall pine trees and underbrush. In a matter of days that lot was cleared with all the trees cut down and the roots ripped out using large machinery.

There was a backboard set up at the edge of the studio property with a bench in front of it. The bench was rather worn, needing replacement boards. Most important, this section of the yard got plenty of shade. That is no longer the case, now this corner of the yard is exposed to full sun. The backboard was destroyed because the root system of a tree caused it to get knocked apart. Boards now are at odd angles. A section of the black cattle ranch fencing was also destroyed.

At first the developer only wanted the first 80 feet of the yard stripped barren. But on this day more trees were removed and the underbrush stripped bare. A canoe was found which had a bullet hole and some decking. The canoe was ripped in half by the jaws of the machinery. Fence damage in the back yard is now highly exposed, looking out on a barren war torn landscape.

Development in the area is encroaching fast. Large farms are being bought up to be turned in to lifeless home developments stacked with ticky tacky box homes wall to wall.

I am now researching French and German cities my father fought in at the end of WWII. Entire rural towns resembled the lifeless lot next door, flattened by 50 ton bombs, artillery and tanks.