Mysterious Muses

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On Tuesday June 4th, at 7pm Frank Holt, the  Director of the Mennello Museum of American Art, (900 E Princeton St Orlando FL) conducted an intimate tour of Mysterious Muses: A Selection of Southern Folk Art, and the companion exhibit, Southern Folk Art Masters. This was a chance to hear Holt speak about the pieces in both exhibits that he’s drawn from the permanent collection.

Perhaps 20 to 30 art loving patrons gathered to hear Frank’s insights. They moved throughout the galleries and I decided to catch Frank in the main entry to the museum as he spoke about this large totem covered in words and crows. Apparently there was a myth among southern blacks that crows would spy on the white community and report back. I was reminded of the not very politically correct crows in Dumbo. I liked the crows angular forms blocked out in wood. Their long yellow beaks made them resemble Toucans. This column is actually covered with words but I ran out of time and only wrote the one line. The upside down copy at the top said something like, “I wrote this upside down because it was easier.” A thunderbird is a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples’ history and culture. It is considered a supernatural bird of power and strength. It’s name comes from the common belief that the beating of its enormous wings causes thunder and stirs the wind. A large crow at the top of this totem stands in as the thunderbird. Artists in the show include, Alyne Harris, Brian Dowdall, Sybil Gibson, Kurt
Zimmerman, Ronald Lockett, Jesse Aaron, Benjamin Perkins and Gary Yost. The exhibit will remain up through August 9th.

In the back room of the museum was an exhibit called “Crackers in the Glade” with sketches by Rob Storter.  These simple pen and ink with watercolor drawing really resonated with me. Here was an artist doing exactly what I love to do, documenting his life and times with line and tone. These sketches were done to preserve the artists’ memory of a side of Florida that is now long gone. Storter was a humble fisherman, but he has an eye for detail and his sketches help bring the past to life. Things he is intimately familiar with like fish and boats jump off the page with bold and confident line work. This exhibit is well worth a visit and I know I’ll be going back. I left an umbrella in the museum as a subconscious reminder that I must return.

Weekend Top 6 Picks

Saturday July 6th 2013 

10am to 5pm FREE: Bank of America Museums on US! Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando FL 32801.) BA’s Gift to you this weekend, free admission for Bank of America or Merrill Lynch cardholders. Present your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch Credit or Debit Card and a valid photo ID and the cardholder receives free admission!

INFO (407)836-7010

www.thehistorycenter.org

1pm to 4pm $2 Donation: Summertime Music Series, The Ladyz and the Boyz. Lakeridge Winery and Vineyards, (19239 US Hwy 27 Clermont FL 34715.) Ladyz and the Boyz is a tribute to American music starring two dynamic sisters from Rochester, NY on vocals and keyboards. The Howard Sister’s, Kaimi, Quin, and Casey’s soulful voices give the band spirit that has audiences giving standing ovations at every performance. Lead male vocals and guitar of Louie Velez, drummer George Mitchell, and Band leader, bassist Paul Lovizio.

8pm to Midnight FREE: Dark Arts Art Show. The Falcon (819 E Washington Street Orlando FL 32801.) Art featuring witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolf’s & anything that goes bump in the night!

Sunday July 7th 2013

Noon to 2pm Order lunch: Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s! (110 West Church Street Orlando, FL 32801.) Show tunes and a juicy burger.

6pm to 8pm FREE: SHUT YOUR FACE! Poetry Slam by Curtis Meyer! La Casa De La Paellas (10414 E Colonial Dr Orl FL 32817.) The only current ongoing slam in Orlando officially certified by Poetry Slam Incorporated, IE. Send a team to Nats as well as poets to The Individual World Poetry Slam and Women of The World Poetry Slam! $50 to the winner! If you’ve never seen or been in a slam before, it’s definitely worth checking out!

INFO: curtisxmeyer@hotmail.com

www.casadelaspaellas.com

7:30pm to 9:30pm  FREE: Concert! 3 world premieres by Richard Drexler, Keith Lay & Ralph Hays!!! The White House (2000 South Summerlin Orlando FL 32806.) This fine clarinet quartet is going to Assisi next week to perform at the International Clarinet Association’s conference. New music by three living composers, two of whom will be in attendance (one from NYC). The Ralph Hays piece is entitled Divertimento, and can be described as a neoclassical multi movement work that is quite charming. With sometimes surprising harmonic twists. The Keith Lay pieces are entitled, Even and Sawtooth, and will challenge the audience to rethink what they know about tempo and rhythm. The Richard Drexler piece is entitled Five South American Dances and will transport the listener to very different parts of the world without the jet lag. Donations welcome (to help pay for their trip). Kevin Strang, Keith Koons, Jessica Hall, Jennifer Royals

Don’t forget to bring food & wine to share!

www.timucua.com/calendar.html

Folk Festival

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On Saturday February 9th I went to the Mennello Museum Folk Festival to do a sketch before I went to work. When I arrived bright and early, vendors were still setting up. Two large dog sculptures by Dale Rogers were standing nose to nose in the center of the lawn. Twenty 8-foot-tall, 10-foot-long dog
sculptures made of rusty steel are found all around the museum. The red collars with nametags on the
sculptures indicate those dogs that have been “adopted” to benefit local
animal charities. The Sculpture Garden is always open and dogs on
leashes are welcome. The dogs remain on exhibit through March 3, 2013

Dan Savage at the Sabal Palm Press table was busy selling the Florida environmental books on display. He had a natural knack for small talk and he made a sale as I was sketching.  Highwaymen painters had several tents set up behind me. I noticed a woman starting to do intricate lace work and wished she had been working earlier. She would have made a good sketch. Gordon Spears was walking tent to tent trying to find out which vendors vehicle was blocking traffic in the museum parking lot.

The sound stage had it’s first performers doing children’s songs. As soon as I finished my sketch I had to head off to work. Children in Indian costumes started dancing to a drum beat. They were doing a butterfly dance. The Mennello Museum sent out a heart felt “Thank You” to all the talented people that made the festival possible.

African American Art Opening

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On February 1st, I went to the opening of African American Art at the Mennello Museum of American Art, (900 East Princeton Street Orlando, Fl). The exhibit, on loan from the Smithsonian Institute is titled, “African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond“. The exhibit
presents one hundred
works dating from the 1920s through the 1990s by forty-three
black artists who participated in dialogues about art,
identity, and the rights of the individual that engaged American society
throughout the twentieth century.

As I sketched, I heard a brief explanation about the installation in the middle of the room.  The chair and cabinet were supposed to belong to a world traveler. Objects in the cabinet come from exotic places around the world. A map shows three isolated islands where the traveler stayed. Everything was fictitious. It was a way for the artist to escape everyday life and imagine a life of travel and leisure.

New York City artist Joseph Delaney had a 1941 painting of Penn Station at war time. The painting was bisected horizontally down the middle with the upper half showing the architecture and the bottom half depicting the crowds in motion. Joe Biggers had a large painting called, “Shotgun Third Ward” painted in 1965. A church stood burnt as people gathered in the street. The sun was setting behind the charred rafters. The painting was mostly monochrome except for hints of violent red throughout. It is the most haunting image I have ever seen of the burning of African American Churches during the civil rights era. This happened within my lifetime, so the dark souls capable of that act could very well still be alive.

The show is on exhibit now through April 28th. The museum is open,  Tuesday-Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m and Sunday Noon to 4:30 p.m. If you go to the Museum website, there is a coupon you can print for free admission to the exhibit.

Art and Process

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On November 14th, I went to Urban ReThink to hear artists Brian Phillips, Dina Mack and Tory Tepp talk about their Art and Process. Dina Mack lead off showing her work from inception to today. She worked in the beginning by doing collages. Her work later matured and become austere in its simplicity and abstraction. She did an instillation in which she froze written documents in ice and then let them melt in the gallery. For the Corridor Project, she had a series of cloth napkins which she used to blot her lipstick. She vividly remembers her grandmothers perfume, so she scented the fabric. The lipstick stained napkins were an autobiographical look back at memories she had of her mother and grandmother.  Her grandmother used to give her a butterscotch candy if she sat still in church. The sound of the wrapper still brings back the memory, so she filled a vintage purse with butterscotch wrappers. The ephemeral installation was installed on the lawn of the Mennello Museum for only a few days. The sense of smell is only now being researched. Apparently all the Marriott hotels in the country use the same perfumed cleaning products. A scent can trigger many vivid memories. Much of Dina’s work speaks in a whisper, implied, like a scent on a breeze.

Tory Tepp is now a resident artist at the Atlantic Center of the Arts in Daytona Beach. He began his career as an artist doing traditional paintings. He hit a wall where he felt painting didn’t have any meaningful place in today’s society. He stagnated, not knowing where to go as an artist. Then he started planting seeds and growing a garden outside his Los Angeles studio. This garden helped him feel more connected to the people in his neighborhood. He started using abandoned shopping carts as planters. This evolved into Urban art with a taste of nature. An installation at a college consisted of a series of grass covered dirt mounds that acted as a natural place to meet, lie back relax and mingle. He is now working on a similar installation as part of his Atlantic Center of the Arts residency. With any luck, I’ll get out there to sketch the work in progress.

Brian Phillips showed his illustrative work. He has a whole series of paintings of house fires illuminating the night sky. He has some of his paintings hanging at Urban ReThink now. One piece in particular caught my eye. It was a painting of a stone arrowhead with a bold flat backdrop. This simple image implies much about the violence of survival. That image lingers. Brian didn’t claim any deep rooted underlying themes to his work. For the people intent on finding hidden meanings, he did a painting of a house fire and diagrammatically circled some embers. The diagram pointed to a bird, leaf and phone. It was pure nonsense. He paints because he loves the process.

I’ll be giving a talk on my art and process this Wednesday December 12th from 7PM to 9PM at Urban Rethink, (625 E Central Blvd  Orlando, FL, 32801). Rick Jones will be presenting, discussing and displaying his works on the ReThink wall, along with photographer Hannah Glogower. Stop by and say hi.

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.

RAW: RADIATE

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Ashlie Rolfe, the Orlando Showcase Director of RAW suggested that I sketch the premiere showcase event of RAW called Radiate at the Abbey. RAW is an International indie arts organization created by artists, for artists. It features local emerging artists in fashion, music, art, film, performing art, hair, makeup, DJs and photography. When I arrived the place was packed with a line down the block to get in. The first artist I noticed was Parker Sketch and next to him was Shannon Holt of Bombshell body Art.
I know Shannon from critique sessions where she showed oil painting which had evolved over many layered iterations. I didn’t realize she did body art, but now that I think back, I might have seen her working at an event a year ago. Shannon is applying for a grant for her body art. Vote to help her out. Her model was already covered with an intricate pattern of lime green and orange. A scarab beetle was firmly painted on her chest. The Batman logo was painted by Parker.

Libby Rosenthal, who worked at the Mennello Museum on weekends, and some of her friends were there and we chatted for a bit, but I couldn’t hear much over the music. I quickly made my rounds looking at all the art and then I found a table that I could stand at up close to the stage. One artist amused me because he was dressed to the nines and worked so hard to look like an edgy artist. I’m not sure the work justified the outfit. Thinking back, I really should have sketched him, but he was busy promoting his image. The band playing was called Stockholm and they had plenty of energy. The guitarist was spinning and gesturing in all directions. It started raining outside so I decided I had to do a second sketch. A videographer was busy shooting footage. When my second sketch was done, so was the rain so I headed home.

Ivanhoe After Hours

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Business owners from the Ivanhoe Village Business District mixed, mingled, and networked among the enriching art of the Mennello Museum of American Art, (900 East Princeton Street). There were libations and hors d’oeuvres. I arrived right after work and started sketching before the room got really crowded.

Dave PerMar from the Social Media Consulting Group and Colleen Burns from Yelp gave talks about how social media can help businesses. I sketched them as they set up their power points. According to Dave, Google + has been gaining influence online slowly inching towards Facebook’s influence. The benefits for any business are obvious and it is important these days to keep the conversation going with costumers. People trust advice from friends online rather than large corporate ad campaigns.

The wife of Rick Singh took an interest in my sketch. Rick is running for Orange County Appraiser and he was there with a broad smile shaking hands. I was encouraged by his wife’s obvious knowledge and love of art. She told me about Gallery G4 which just opened up downtown and she suggested I get down there and meet the owner. Linda Stewart was there as well and she suggested I go to a fundraiser for her campaign for Florida House District 47.

Printmaking Workshop

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The Mennello Museum of American Art (900 East Princeton Street) is exhibiting IMPRINTS: 20 Years of Flying Horse Editions through August 12th. Here in Orlando for the past 20 years, the University of Central Florida has nurtured Flying Horse Editions, a collaborative research studio committed to creating significant works of art by leading and emerging artists who fuse traditional and innovative printmaking processes. Artists come to Flying Horse Editions to work in the graphic media of intaglio, woodcut, lithography, letterpress and silkscreen.The results are highly collectible, limited-edition, handcrafted fine art prints and books. There are only a dozen or so fine art presses in the country, and Flying Horse Editions is one of the most distinguished on the East Coast.

Artists from Flying Horse Press have been offering workshops at the Mennello museum. This session was about making monotypes, which is the specialty of UCF “Artists in Action” Michelle Garay and Anna Cruz. Michelle showed us Nathan Redwood’s Like Air, as an example, the print used a lino-cut for the tree trunk, collograph for the ground and a mono-print for the sky. We learned
how to manipulate printer’s ink so that it looks like brushstrokes along with other tricks of the trade that make unique, one-of-a-kind prints.We were introduced to Reductive Mono-printing. Nathan’s a print on display in the Museum.

Students were given two sheets of paper. They cut out simple shapes on one sheet. For instance the woman seated in front of me cut out a leaf shape. The negative shape, or the paper outside the leaf shape, was placed on a sheet of Plexiglas and a brayer was used to roll the ink onto the Plexiglas. When the paper was removed, only the leaf shape was inked. Q tips were used to smear and remove some ink to add texture. The positive leaf shape was then placed over the inked leaf shape and a new color ink was rolled down. When the paper was removed the printing plate was ready. A clean sheet of paper was lightly spritzed with water and placed on top of the printing plate. The plate was rolled under pressure. Then came the reveal, as the paper was pealed off. Mono means there was only one print made. One student went so far as to print a rendition of the human brain. There is an undeniable childish delight when the print is finally seen.

Printmaking is not just for kids! The museum has set up its own print studio. Enjoy coffee and pastries in the morning while you create your own art prints, . No previous experience is necessary. Cost is just $12 per person. Each class will have a different focus.

You have one more opportunity to create art and treat yourself to something new!

Get up bright and early July 17, 9-10:30am, with coffee and pastry.

Printmaking Workshops for Adults

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Work with “Artist in Action” Cara Pentecost, UCF Print Collective, in the Mennello Museum’s Printmaking Studio. A group of industrious UCF students helped Cara with the workshop. Inspiration for the workshop came from the large-scale work by artist Tanja Softic. In A Morning of the World, 2006, Softic pairs images from the natural environment with an image from the man-made environment to provide a study in contrasts. Using “tools” from nature, such as plants, we’ll emulate Softic’s soft, blurry flowers and branches to create personal prints of our own. Later, you might wish to add a photograph of a man-made object to complete your artwork. Enjoy wine and cheese as we enter the world of printmaking. Printmaking is not just for kids!

The exhibition of “IMPRINTS: 20 Years of Flying Horse Editions” was in the entry hall with three dimensional prints housed in glass cubes. Large prints were to the right of the reception desk and then the back gallery was converted into a working print studio. Students started by doing loose watercolors on paper. These watercolors were then used as a background for a collograph print. The collograph print plate was a sheet of corrugated cardboard. Creating the plate was an additive process. Faux plant materials were hot glued to the surface creating an organic floral pattern. Anna demonstrated the inking process. She used a rubber roller to spread the ink out on a plexiglass sheet. The ink took on a velvety look as the roller thinned it down. The ink was then spread onto the plate touching all the high points. When the prints were done, then were hung on two strings with clothes pins.

Wine and cheese was on the reception desk for print-makers and patrons. No previous experience is necessary. I actually think I might go back to experiment with the process myself. Cost is $12 per person. Each class will have a different focus, so join us for all of them if you like!

Other dates and times are as follows:

April 17th, 9pm – 10:30am with coffee and pasty

May 1, 6pm – 7:30pm with wine and cheese

May 15, 9pm – 10:30am with coffee and pastry

June 5, 6pm – 7:30pm with wine and cheese

July 17, 9pm – 10:30am with coffee and pastry

What a great opportunity to create art and treat yourself!

Call the museum to RSVP: 407.246. 4278

The Executive Director

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For a recent advertising illustration assignment I was asked to sketch an executive behind his desk. Rather than search for that executive online doing an image search, I decided to ask friends on Facebook if they knew of an executive who might not mind my stopping by to sketch him on location. Genevieve Bernard suggested Frank Holt, the executive director of the Mennello Museum of American Art. Frank was fine with me sitting in his office and sketching as he worked away on his computer.

His office is has colorful vibrant walls. The orange wall behind him ties in perfectly with an orange curtain featured in the painting that hangs on it. Gorgeous orchids were bursting into bloom. I like his desk which is simply a thick sheet of glass supported by saw horses. The room was simple and elegant much like the vibrant museum itself.

On display now at the Mennello is “Style & Grace” exhibition of American Impressionist paintings and sculptures collected by Michael and Marilyn Mennello. This really is an amazing collection of paintings by some of my favorite “Ash Can” artists, like Robert Henri and George Bellows. Sometimes I feel like that is the time when I should have been working as an artist. But hey, make the most of the time you have, right?

Friday March 30th there is a reception for IMPRINTS: 20 Years of Flying Horse Editions. A celebration of UCF’s limited-edition fine art book printing press, with a printmaking studio set up in the museum for workshops. 6-8 p.m. Admission $5, free to members. Continues through August 12.

Saturday, March 31st share a cup of coffee with the Artist: Mary Whyte. We are thrilled to have the teacher, author and “investigative watercolorist” from South Carolina discuss her book, Working South: Paintings and Sketchings by Mary Whyte , a series of interviews and portraits of blue-collar workers whose ways of life are diminishing. She is in town for the UCF Book Festival. The event is 10:30a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Reservations requested. Admission $5, free to members.