April 19th was Earth Day and Orlandoans celebrated at Lake Eola Park. That day was also the 43rd World Wide Sketch Crawl, so I organized the Orlando Crawl to happen at the Earth Day Celebration. There were artist and vendor tents set up all through the park. I suggested that any artists could meet in the art vendor area, so that is where I set up to sketch. I sat right at the edge of a huge patch of Doug Rhodehamel‘s paper bag mushrooms. The mushrooms are part of his Spore Project which encourages people to be creative with the simplest of materials, a paper bag, stick and a rubber band.
Jon Glassman Gardner was set up in a tent nearby and he explained the mushrooms to people who were curious. Jon had dozens of colored glass magnets that had colorful patterns that resemble topographic maps. He discovered the pattern one day while pressing pigments between two sheets of glass. I’m the proud owner of several of these magnets that hold up sketches in the studio. He was also selling lanterns that featured his unique glass work. Between costumers, he was working on a spray can chandelier. He cut the cans open in a spiral pattern which made them look a bit like Man O War jellyfish. I believe he plans to group these together with lights to create the chandelier.
My plan to have artists meet at this event was flawed. The event was so large and crowded that it became impossible to find any other artists. One art student of Kathy Blackmore‘s introduced himself and I suggested he sketch something in the area. I should have given him my twitter handle or phone number so I could find him again in the crowd. I assumed no one else showed up, but weeks later I was pleased to see that Plinio Pinto and Matthew Tardiff also sketched the Earth Day festivities that day. Though each artist was sketching on their own, they both found plenty of interesting subject matter to sketch. The next Sketch Crawl is July 12th. I need to get organized and learn how to bring artists together.