Mystic Ice Cream – Analog Artist Digital World

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.

By Thomas Thorspecken

Mystic Ice Cream (1217 Miller Road, Fruitland Park FL) has a Karaoke night every Tuesday and Friday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. I went to this event with Stella P. Arbelaeéz Tascón, who I first met about 30 years ago at Disney Feature Animation. She was an effects artist at Disney, having graduated from the internship the year before me, and she is just as devoted to sketching from life as I am. Stella went to the Fashion Institute of Technology, an art school in NYC about the same time as I was attending the School of Visual Arts, also in NYC.

This karaoke event is very well attended, so much so, that I thought we might have to use ours art stools. However, we were invited to sit at a big round table with a lovely group of new friends. I suspect many of the folks at this Karaoke night were from The Villages which is a huge retirement, active lifestyle, community north of where my studio is now in Lake County. I also suspect many of the singers were plants, because there was some amazing talent in the crowd, from classic era romantic crooners to country singers.

One song I absolutely had to sing along with was Frank Sinatra’s New York New York. Stella joined in as well. she claims to be tome deaf, but she actually carried this tune magnificently. I just recently came back from looking at homes in New York State and I am committing to making that move north although I am not sure exactly where I will land.

There was a third artist in the crowd who seemed to do close up portraits of singers. So this particular evening had three different artists documenting the stellar evening of songs. People must have signed up to sing before hand because the music maestro would call people up in quick succession. I have sung. karaoke before, but I remained as a back up singer for this evening. One of the proprietors was delighted to find two urban sketchers sketching away. She took a photo of Stella and I holding up our sketches. Amazingly, the singer that I sketched much earlier in the evening was up on the stage again when she took the photo, making it look like the sketch had happened in an instant.

Of course Stella and I also had some delicious ice cream. I ordered a peanut flavored chocolate ice cream mix that was to die for. When I sketch, I tend to hyper focus, and I forgot about the ice cream, so it became a tasty soup before the sketch was complete. This was a perfect event for me to humm and sing along with each song. I tend to hum along during musicals and I have to try and stifle that urge so as not to distract the professional actors on stage.

Mystic Ice Cream has four locations with one about to open in Mount Dora Florida. If they offer Karaoke in Mount Dora, I know the place will be packed. The other locations are… 6770 US Highway 44 Summerland FL, 38 East Magnolia Avenue Eustice FL, and 314 West Main Street Leesburg Fl,.