BAERtoven and SchuBAERt

Posted on by Thor

Wendy Wallenberg informed me of free admission to the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando FL) if you are a Bank of America  or Merrill Lynch cardholder.  My wife works for Merrill Lynch, so on July 6th I went to try out the deal. I presented my Merrill Lynch Credit Card, at first the woman didn’t know what I was talking about, but her supervisor did. and sure enough I was offered free admission.

In partnership with Bank of America, the History Center offers free admission on the first full
weekend of every month for Bank of America and or Merrill Lynch cardholders. So, Mark your Calendar, if you have a Bank of America or Merrill Lynch card, you can get in the History Center free on August 3rd and 4th.

I just went to the museum to do one sketch. There are two Polar Bears under the stairwell that have always intrigued me. It turns out their names are BAERtoven and SchuBAERt. The names are spelled correctly. Bill Baer and his appliance store bears were a familiar sight to Winter Park and Altamonte Mall shoppers in the 1950’s and 60’s. BAERtoven actually held a baton, but I left it out of the sketch because it diminished his pride.

I executed this sketch a bit differently than I usually do. I worked strictly in watercolor and added ink line work as an after thought. I liked the process and I need to do that more often.

The Vault

Posted on by Thor

On Tuesday June 11th, my wife Terry and a co-worker Psi from Merrill Lynch offered an informational seminar for prospective clients at The Wine Room (270 S Park Ave Winter Park, FL). The building had once been a bank, and the meeting, in the basement, was literally in a bank vault. The thick steel door with its multiple pistons and gears was an impressive sight. The vault now has private lockers where clients can lock away their expensive and dusty bottles of vintage wines.

I can’t discuss the power point demonstration. After it was over, the plush leather chairs were turned to face the TV so  sports fans could watch the NBA finals.  I began to sketch after the presentation was over. Staff came in to clean up the table full of cheeses and crackers. By the final quarter of the game, Terry and I were the only ones left in the vault. We had to move upstairs so the vault could be cleaned up.

AADW Weekend Top 6 Picks

Saturday July 13th 2013.

40th World Wide SketchCrawl  incorporates 4 events in an Orlando Sketch Marathon all day Saturday…

1. 10am to 1pm $5 A Special Demonstration: Sculpting a Classical Portrait. Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens (633 Osceola Ave. Winter Park FL). Exhibiting sculptor Peter Forester presents a six-hour art demo. Demo goes to 4pm if you want to stay. Sketch the sculptor at work or take notes.

2. 2pm to 7pm $5 ReThink Games. Urban ReThink (625 E. Central Blvd. Orlando FL). Play 15 hosts a variety of games, from video games to board games. Sketch folks playing games or play yourself.

3. 8pm to 10pm $10 ME Dance, Deja vu. Garden Theater Winter Garden (160 Plant Street Winter Garden FL). Sketch this dance company’s final performance of the season.

4. 11pm to 1am Free Black and White at Redlight. Redlight Red Light (2810 Corrine Drive, Orlando, FL). An Art Show. A full scale, monochromatic, celebration of value, void of color, except red of course.Artwork will display a use of black and/or white, maybe some greys, and possibly red, literally or figuratively.

Sunday July 14th 2013.

5. 4:30pm to 7:30pm Free Orlando Brew jam. Orlando Brewing (1301 Atlanta Ave., Orlando, Florida 32806). Traditional instrument jam playing old time, bluegrass, celtic, swing, or anything else that comes to mind.

6. 7:30pm to 9:30pm Free Concert! Leo Linares and Urbe Prima. The White House (2000 South Summerlin Orlando FL). This young musician plays music that is close to people. Folk tinged with classical and punk, expect a surprise.

Artist: Reina Castellanos

Cirque De La Symphonie

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Merrill Lynch was a primary sponsor for the Cirque De La Symphonie concert on March 30th. Terry invited quite a few of her clients to the concert and the VIP reception held beforehand at the Bob Carr. I started sketching the buffet while Terry entertained clients. Within moments the line for Food grew. I was faced with a wall of people’s backs and an occasional glimpse at the spread. Outside, the sun set causing the sky to flash orange. For the longest time I left the middle table empty because I couldn’t catch a glimpse of it. Carol Connor joked that by the time I finished the sketch, the food would all be gone so leaving the table empty might be correct. When my sketch was done, the line had died down so I quickly ate a small plate of food as the lights flashed to get people seated in the theater. Merrill Lynch financial advisers purchased tickets for their clients to attend the concert. David Shilhammer announced that it was the largest number of tickets ever sold to a single corporate sponsor.

At the concert, Cirque and the Orlando Philharmonic collaborated in a thrilling program featuring music by Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and others. Acrobats, contortionists, jugglers and strongmen performed and aerialists soared overhead as the orchestra supplied the musical suspense. Elena Tsarkova did an amazing act in which she performed quick costume changes on stage in a matter of seconds behind a glittering curtain. I have no idea how it was done but every woman should see this act to realize it shouldn’t take long to get dressed to go out.

When Elena performed as a contortionist, Terry leaned over and said, “I bet you would like to sketch her.” She was right.

Jazz on the Green

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Bank of America was the host for Jazz on the Green held on Saturday October 20th at the UCF College of Medicine (6850 Lake Nona Boulevard). Terry had VIP passes since Merrill Lynch had paid for a corporate table. VIP parking wasn’t much different than regular parking since the event didn’t seem to be very crowded. Food trucks and their loud generators crowded much of the lot. Corporate tables were arranged on either side of the stage. The Merrill Lynch table was empty. There was no shade and it was hot, so Terry and I abandoned the table and sat in our lawn chairs in the shade cast by the stage. We had to move several times as we lost shade.

We were offered a free bottle of wine and a large cheese and fruit platter. Each table got one of these platters and since we were the only ones at our table, there was too much to eat. The Lake Nona Middle School Jazz Ensemble was performing on the Travistock Green when we arrived. It was hard to listen to all the missed notes. The audience, baking in the sun on blankets, loved them however. They all must have been parents of the kids in the band. Next up, on stage, was Jeff Bradshaw and his band. Their jazz had a subtle taste of Cajun Zydeco. During one number, the folks at the table next to us started dancing as they waved their napkins above their heads. Jeff came off the stage and marched up to the table still playing his saxophone. He lead them in a Cajun march through the audience and more people joined the line. Terry got up and joined in. Last to perform was Ken Navarro. He played gentle, smooth jazz as the darkness rolled in. Ken is the act I managed to catch in my sketch. It was a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon. All the money raised from the event benefited the Lake Nona YMCA and the UCF College of Medicine Scholarship programs.

Terry’s Office

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After a day of searching for Citrus Floats, I decided to meet Terry at her new office at Merrill Lynch. The firm is located on the eighth floor and Terry’s office has a view of the new Amway Center. Terry was one of maybe four or five employees who were in the office between Christmas and New Years. Terry looked up a press release on the computer for me and then went back to work. Amanda Chadwick said she had something planned that she wanted to do that night. She wanted to keep the destination a secret from Terry. We all decided to meet at a Mexican Burrito joint on Colonial.

After dinner, we all piled into Amanda’s car to first pick up Mark Baratelli and then go to the final destination. On the drive south on I-4 we passed the neon rainbow studded Bungee Sling Shot on International Drive. We convinced Terry that was the destination but Terry insisted she would keep her feet on the ground. A “Screaming Gator” zip line adventure over the teaming swamps around Gator Land elicited the same response. Our true destination however was Disney. Amanda was concerned for my mental health, fearing I might experience flashbacks. Mark had a season pass which got us into parking for free.

We took the Monorail to the Polynesian Hotel where wWe sampled some pineapple slushies, called Doles, before heading out to the beach. There we sat on wet beach lounges and waited for the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom. Boats on the lagoon kept honking their horns and we screamed back at then to “Keep it down.” It’s not like there is any traffic on the lagoon. The fireworks were stunning, with Saturns, cascading waterfalls and immense blooms. The piped in music was faint and the explosions came long after the flash catching us off guard.

After the display we began a quest for hot chocolate and soft serve ice cream. There were plenty of photo opportunities with the huge Coronado Christmas tree. We laughed endlessly as we searched the Coronado Springs Resort. As Mark put it, “Its not the journey that is important, it’s the destination.” The drive back had us all singing like Young Frankenstein to pop hits on the car radio.