Face Forward

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On the first Thursday of November, the Orlando Museum of Art hosted a group exhibition called Face Forward. Every first Thursday the small gallery next to the lobby is opened to a themed group show. The work in Face Forward was predictably mostly portraits. I arrived early so I could case the space and decide where I wanted to sketch. In one corner, Paul Austin Sanders began playing guitar. The opposite corner is what finally caught my eye. Ashli Szymanski and Sarah Okun from CSStudios, were arranging makeup and foam latex masks. They had to duck tape down some plastic to protect the museum carpeting. Ashli cut off lengths of tape and handed them to Sarah who crawled under the table to tape the edge of the plastic. Facetiously Sarah said, “You are getting better at that Sarah.” Sarah replied, “Thank you, I went to school for it.” A custom blood red mask was glaring out with his face chiseled and skeletal. The model for the night, Jess D.P., arrived with a large backpack full of dresses. After much discussion, the black dress with purple trim and lapels was chosen. Black boots with plenty of buckles completed the ensemble.

As soon as the latex mask was placed on the models face, I began to sketch. They were planning to turn her into a very creepy porcelain doll. The model was beautiful but with the mask her features became swollen and strange. A long time was spent getting the edge of the mask to flow seamlessly into her skin. The model held the small dish of latex or glue that held the mask in place. A young girl complimented my sketch and then sat and watched the makeup transformation transfixed. After she finished her plate of food from Cafe Tu Tu Tango, she started to squirm.

As I was putting the last of the watercolor washes down, they started spreading white make up all over the model’s face, neck, chest and arms. The transformation was almost complete. By now the museum was packed. Allison Stevens was offering Shipyard beer in the main gallery and we spoke for a while about the new brewery coming to town. I am hoping to do sketches as the brewery takes shape. I spoke to Pam Treadwell who had several pieces in the show. She explained that one image had been achieved by pouring chocolate on her son’s girlfriend’s face and watching how it dripped over her features. In the painting the girl looked like she didn’t enjoy the process. Anna McCambridge announced she is now engaged to Marabou Thomas. So much to celebrate!

Ax Handle Saturday.

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As part of Juneteenth the Well’s Built Museum hosted a literary review where author Rodney L. Hurst S. spoke about his book, “It was never about a hot dog and a Coke!“. The book recounts Rodaney’s personal account of the 1960 sit in demonstrations in Jacksonville Florida. At age 11 he joined the National Association of Colored People (NAACP).
Woolworth Department store would accept a black persons money at one counter but not allow the same person the right to shop at another counter. The store had two lunch counters one had the sign that read, FOR WHITES ONLY. The other counter located in the far reaches of the store had 15 seats and no windows. This was FOR BLACKS ONLY. The plan was for the students to buy something in the store, which was easy enough to do, and then as a group they would sit down at the white lunch counter. The first sit in was on August 13th 1960. The students employed the philosophy of passive resistance being sure to keep the sit ins non violent. They wore their Sunday best. At the first sit in, the white waitress shouted out, “This is the white lunch counter. The colored lunch counter is in the back of the store.” The students continued to sit. A crowd of white onlookers assembled and started shouting racial slurs. When the lunch hour was over the students left the sit in one at a time but each student encountered some form of physical and verbal abuse from the assembled crowd. These sit ins continued for well over a week.
On August 27th 1960 several members of the NAACP drove past Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville and noticed several white men dressed in confederate uniforms. More men walked around the park carrying ax handles with confederate flags tapped to them. A van parked on the street had a sign on it that read, “Free ax handles.” The 34 students gathered in the youth center that day were told about the men in the park and they had to decide if they would go on with the sit in that day. They voted unanimously to demonstrate. Rather than go to Woolworth which was right across from the park, the students decided to sit in at Grants Department store which also had a Whites only lunch counter. When the students sat in at Grants the store manager turned out all the store lights.
As the students exited Grants, they saw a mob of whites carrying ax handles running towards them from the park. They swung the ax handles at any black they encountered, many having nothing to do with the sit ins. The students scattered and ran but many were severely beaten that day. There were 34 students who demonstrated that day and 200 Whites with baseball bats and ax handles. The violence escalated that day with rocks thrown at cars and a few shots fired but there were no fatalities. 162 people were reported injured that day.
When most of the students were back at the youth center, the reverend offered an encompassing prayer in which he said, “No one can turn us around.” and “The die is cast.” As everyone joined in singing “We shall overcome,” the tears flowed. The demonstrations were never about being served food at a store counter, they were about human dignity and respect.

“Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-George Santanyana

The Artist is Present

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As Brian Feldman got closer to the front of the line at MoMA‘s “The Artist is Present” exhibition, it was getting near the end of the day. Several times he walked out of the room and I feared that he might have given up or changed his mind. Instead, he was charging his iPhone so he could continue to text updates to people following his progress. When Brian was on deck, the next person to go on the floor, a guard stood next to him talking for some time. From my perch at a third floor window overlooking the room, I couldn’t hear what was being said. Later, Brian told me that the guard had reservations about letting Brian sit opposite Marina Abramovic in his white robe. He feared Brian might be planning something disruptive.


I worked on this sketch for over an hour before Brian sat down. I simply left the seat empty where Brian would sit until he was finally in place. Since I was in a black suit, some people may have thought I was a guard; I was asked more than a few times about the event and was happy to answer questions. A small group of people clustered around the window I was drawing from, and wanted to know all about Brian. I couldn’t help but offer some background on this amazingly charged clash of titans.


From the moment Brian sat down, he said he felt Marina was in total control. Towards the middle of their time together, Marina placed her hand to her chest and gasped lightly. Then, she once again regained composure and remained in control. When Brian walked away, Marina leaned forward and wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands. After it all was over, MoMA visitors stopped Brian and asked him questions as he walked around the museum. He said that he was ready to stare at Marina all day, but was still grateful for the brief moment he had been granted. I think this trip to NYC made a major impression on Brian. Walking the streets afterward, he was carefree and lighthearted. I have never seen him so happy.

Brian Waits

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Brian Feldman had a dream. He shared it with me months ago at a Toast to Elizabeth Maupin at the Repertory Theater in Orlando Loch Haven Park. He told me that he wanted to sit opposite Marina Abramovic, the world’s greatest living performance artist, who was having a retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) called “The Artist is Present.” On top of it all, Brian wanted me to join him on the quest knowing I would get a great sketch. The MoMA exhibition consisted of Marina sitting in the center of the atrium with spectators having the ability to sit opposite her and look into her eyes for as long as they could last, as an exercise in being present in the moment with another person. Brian wanted to camp out overnight outside the museum on the final day of the exhibit to be first in line to sit opposite Marina and then he hoped to sit opposite her for seven straight hours. Brian raised money to get himself to NYC through donations at his parallel performance “The Staring Contest.” One person was generous enough to actually give Brian their Delta Sky Miles. The dream was now a reality. Marina had been performing “The Artist is Present” for two and a half straight months and Brian was determined to be there on the final day, May 31st.

The day started with surprises. Upon his arrival to MoMA, Brian found out that they were allowing people to sit opposite Marina for only 10 minutes. Though disappointed, he kept moving forward rather than turning back. Though he camped outside the museum, there were 29 people who were in front of him in a line that inched forward in agonizingly slow increments. There was no guarantee that Brian would even get the chance he had planned and trained for over many months.The exhibit drew people from all over and there were many who waited patiently along with Brian for their chance to be present with Marina. Photographer Marco Anelli took photos of every person who sat opposite Marina. Shortly after the exhibit opened, a young woman in a one piece dress approached Marina and before she sat down, whipped the dress up over her head and stood naked for a split second in the center of the crowded room. Guards rushed around her and shielded the audience from getting a clear view of the woman. Crying, she was led away. As the pandemonium died down, he glanced over at me and raised his hands and shoulders in a gesture that said, “What the …?” Brian regained his focus and waited for his chance to face Marina.

Happiness Hurts

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Performance artist Brian Feldman put out a call on Facebook for anyone with a video camera to record his performance of Happiness Hurts at the Orlando Museum of Art. I happen to have a video camera, so I sent him a message and he made arrangements to get me into the event. He created this performance for 1st Thursdays at the Museum. 1st Thursdays is a monthly event where artists are asked to exhibit work along a similar theme. I couldn’t make out the theme by looking at the art hanging on the walls. Then Tisse Mallon finally realized that they must all relate to happiness. Brian’s performance piece was the key to the puzzle. I spent some time getting the camera ready and there was some panic that the cord to the projector might not be long enough. At the last minute a longer cord was found.

Brian began to smile and the museum slowly filled up. Some people got the idea of the performance right away. I overheard one woman saying, “Smiling that long must hurt.” I was the sketch artist and cameraman. I turned the LCD display so Brian could see his closely cropped face in the viewfinder. This allowed him to focus and remain perfectly still. I set my watch timer to go off in an hour and at that time I would have to replace the tape.

While I was working Sultana Fatima Ali introduced herself to me. She had helped organize a bicycle giveaway program called “Wheels for Kids” that I had sketched. On that day, she had seen me working and she asked a policeman who I was. He told her about my blog and she started reading. She has started following Brian’s performances so she has started to appear in my sketches. As I sketched, I kept meeting people I know. I don’t disappear into the woodwork the way I used to. I am slowly learning to balance the work with the socializing.

On the wall, Brian’s smile was quivering; he was having trouble keeping his smile consistent. He had to keep smiling for three straight hours. With my sketch complete, I wandered around a bit and looked at some of the art. I had to leave early to go sketch another event, so I asked Tisse if she would pack up my camera and tripod and she agreed.

The Pollock Project

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I went to the Mennello Museum of American Art to watch and sketch Beth Marshall’s, “The Pollock Project“. This performance was a unique collaboration with drama intertwined with performances by the DRIP dance troupe. The first evening I focused all my attention on the beginning of the performance which took place outside the front steps of the museum. I had seen this DRIP dance routine in rehearsals so I was curious to see the final performance. I had not realized that audience members were encouraged to sit right underneath the Plexiglas canvas as the dancers painted it. As soon as Jessica Mariko told me this I put down my seat and staked out my claim on this prime seating real estate. I started a sketch from this vantage point but ended up erasing it since I felt I would need a much larger sheet of paper to catch the wide angle view. When more people crowded under the Plexiglas “canvas” I decided to pull back and sketch from a short distance to catch the audience. I was still working on the sketch when the audience went inside the museum for the second act. Stubbornly I remained behind to finish my sketch. When the audience returned back outside I was still hard at work.
I returned for the second performance so I could experience the show firsthand as an audience member. This time I remained under the Plexiglas to watch the DRIP dancers as they went through their ritualistic dance and painting routine. A little boy seated behind me said to his mother, “It looks like syrup.”
Inside the museum the drama unfolded as Hans Namuth, a photographer, interviewed Pollock in front of the two original paintings on exhibit in the museum as part of the Auspicious Visions exhibition. The interview gets heated when Hans mentions to Pollock what some critics said about his work, for instance a 1959 headline read, “It’s a bad joke in bad taste.” Pollock goes ballistic, angrily pacing around the room defending his work. He storms out of the room and shouts back that he wants the photographer out of his house. Lee Krasner, his wife, manages to calm him down and in a more levelheaded way he tries to explain himself to Hans. He explains that his pictures do not have a beginning or an end, that style isn’t important. His method is a growth out of a need. Lee explains that Pollock’s painting are numbered rather than named since Jackson doesn’t want people to have a preconceived notion of what they are looking at. Where he to title a painting, “Horse”, then people would find a need to see a horse.
I felt that John DiDonna gave a memorable performance at the temperamental Jackson Pollock and Douglas McGeouch’s quiet demure performance as Hans Namuth stood in stark contrast, offering a calm in the storm. Jennifer Bonner with her thick Brooklyn accent was a believable Lee Krasner, who had her hands full trying to keep Jackson steady through his violent mood swings. The small gallery room was crowded with the audience all standing on the outer walls trying to leave room for the angry Pollock. The tight space added to the claustrophobic feel of the drama.
The third act takes place back outside where Jackson Pollock paints while Nemuth shoots his film footage. It is during this act that the collaboration is in full effect. The DRIP dancers, now free of the ladders are given full reign to express themselves through dance. Jackson dances around the canvas creating his “action painting” as the dancers perform. I was particularly moved when audience members each read a quote about Jackson Pollock. It left me feeling that no matter what critics might say, it is the people viewing the art who will finally decide its worth over time.

Brian Feldman – Under the Covers

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At the first Thursday of this month Brian Feldman held a cabaret by request called “Under the Covers” at the Orlando Museum of Art. Back on the first Thursday in May, Jeremy Seghers performed, an act by the same name, singing cover songs requested by the audience for a Fringe Festival Preview. Brian used Jeremy’s performance as inspiration to literally go under the covers.
Accompanying Brian was Isaac Schankler on a Kurzweil SP-76. The performance was developed and first presented in July of 2009 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach Florida. When the audience entered the theater, they could faintly make out the form of Brian lying under the covers on a mattress on stage. Isaac introduced the act and sat at the piano. Brian explained that he didn’t actually sleep on a mattress himself, but instead slept on the floor of a friend’s house. He was recently separated from his girlfriend, Jessica, and many of the songs in his first set seemed directed to her. An unexpected development towards the end of the first set was that Jeremy Seghers got on stage and joined Brian to sing a duet. At first, Jeremy just sat on the bed next to Brian’s form hidden by the covers. Then, Jeremy lifted the covers and joined Brian underneath, singing “I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues”. This song was a show stopper.
I returned to see his second performance which featured a Queen song requested by Katie Windish from Frames Forever titled “Fat Bottomed Girls”. Don’t ask why she needed to hear that song at this time in her life. After the last song, Brian had to explain that the performance was over since he was still on stage, though under the covers. I am sure some people like myself lingered to see the performance artist in person. But Brian consulted with stage hands and shouted out, “No really, the show is over! Get out of here, people!” When everyone had left, he sprinted into the wings.

The Tiffany Chapel

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In 1893 Louis Comfort Tiffany designed and exhibited this Byzantine inspired chapel at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition. Men would take off there top hats in respect. The chapel was hailed as a virtuoso performance of the arts of mosaic and glass. Hanging from the ceiling is a large cross shaped electrolier which made use of the latest technology of the time, the electric light bulb.
After the Chicago Exhibition the chapel was bought by Mrs Celia Whipple for The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. It was installed in a dark crypt and used as an actual chapel for about 10 years but was then abandoned and left to deteriorate. Tiffany, upset about the condition of the chapel arranged to reacquire the remaining parts and bring them to his Long Island Estate, Laurelton Hall. Tiffany then lovingly restored the chapel and replaced the lost and stolen parts. When Tiffany died in 1933 his estate was scattered to the winds. In 1957 the Laurelton Hall estate burned to the ground. Luckily the chapel was in a separate building but it once again fell into disrepair.
After the fire Jeanette McKean the Morse Museum founder, and her husband Hugh McKean visited the hall and bought all they could to Winter Park Florida. Some callous moving men threw furniture and a used tire on top of the chapel parts assuming they were hauling junk. Once in the Museum the chapel was once again lovingly restored over a three year period. Tiffany viewed the chapel as “a temple of art, not of worship.”
While I sketched the chapel, a woman tried to take a picture with her cell phone. A guard quickly appeared and shouted that no pictures were allowed. As he walked past me he said “Sketches are fine buddy, you have the right idea”.

Orlando Museum of Art

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I went to the OMA last night for “First Thursdays”. Every first Thursday of each month the museum hosts art created by local artists for one night. The evening usually has live music, food and booze. The cost to get in is $10. Food and booze are extra. I thought Terry might want to go but she wasn’t picking up her cell phone. When I got to the museum I decided to sit on the edge of a fountain and sketch the entry. I liked watching the various individuals waiting for dates and the warm welcomes when people are reunited. Like myself many people were on there cell phones trying to figure out why they were left waiting. The event only lasted till 9PM so by the time I finished sketching I discovered that there was only 15 minutes left to go before the museum closed. I had totally lost track of time.
The exhibit fit neatly into a small room right off the lobby. One artist had really nice resin sculptures of a dragon and werewolf. Another artists acrylic paintings of movie characters were really fun and quirky. I should have taken cards.
Brian Feldman of “txt” fame was also exhibiting himself as a performance piece. Brian stood with his back against a wall being filmed by a video camera which projected a large image of his face on the wall beside him. Brian was practicing method acting by trying to make himself cry. His face was contorted in a harsh grimace but I didn’t notice any tears. Either he was cryed out or he was unable to tap his inner sorrow in such a loud party atmosphere. I unfortunately didn’t have time to get a decent sketch of him, but once again he held my attention far longer than any painting or sculpture in the room. His performance reminded of a short story entitled “The Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka, it has a surreal disturbing quality, that I liked. Bravo!