Spores

Posted on by Thor

At the Earth Day Festival at Lake Eola I decided to get a Vegan Lunch. The food court was at the South east entrance to the park under a huge Live Oak. I decided to get a carrot hot dog at Spork Cafe‘s booth. Tisse Mallon and her sister Joyce were working hard to keep up with orders. Joyce was at the barbecue grill searing the carrots over the coals. For a drink, I went to Midtown Eco Village for a berry smoothy. I ate lunch back at the Analog Artist Digital World tent. The hot dog was delicious although quit messy. A big splooge of mustard fell on my pants.

Journalist, Curtis Franklin had taken several photos as I sketched earlier in the day. He stopped by my tent to interview me. It was a fun talk and it turned out we have quite a lot in common.  Whenever he visits a new city, he walks the streets with a camera and a tape recorder to capture the city’s story.

My next door neighbor was Doug Rhodehamel, one of his art projects is “The SPORE Project” he makes paper bag mushrooms out of used paper bags that would usually end up in a landfill. The SPORE Project was
created in 2005 to promote support for art in schools and to illustrate
the importance of creativity in everyday life. He supplied paint and brushes so the kids could paint their own mushroom. Doug worked with a volunteer from Northland
Church and Hope4Orphans. This summer he hopes to to help send a few volunteers to
Ukraine and Russia. Through several week long summer camps, they will be
providing arts and crafts and paper bag mushrooms to hundreds of
orphans.

Doug’s spores are slowly taking over the world.  He stood next to me and laughed like a mad scientist. Parents and their kids would march through my tent to plant their spore and begin painting. There wasn’t much in my tent so it made the perfect garden gateway. I was glad, cause it meant more people would see my sketchbooks. I had the framed books hanging from the tent upper supports above children’s heads. Parents ended up banging their heads on my frames so I just had to plant a seat below the sketchbook so people knew to walk around.

Patti Matchett and her husband Andy joined me for the afternoon. I can’t thank them enough. With all the merchandise sold out, there wasn’t much to do other than hand out business cards and talk to people about the blog’s sketch a day mission.  Two Japanese culinary students wanted to buy the sketchbook suspended over my head. I tried to explain that it was an entire sketchbook but they could buy a print for $200. Language was a barrier but I have their contact information so maybe there is still hope to close the sale.

Earth Day Endangered Species

Posted on by Thor

On April 20th there was a huge Earth Day Festival at Lake Eola. For the first time ever, I agreed to put up an artist tent to promote this site. I framed ten sketchbooks printed some business cards and figured I could sell some of the remaining T-Shirts from the Sonesta Hotel mural. The night before, I packed the car and at 7AM the next morning I was ready to head out. I had used the tent extensively when I painted an outdoor mural for the Mennello Museum over the summer. Now painting outside in the summer is insane and I’m sure the tent had saved me from overheating.

Hurricane Maria helped me find the spot to set up my tent. During setup, people helped each other out. For instance the tent next to me shared their sand bags which would help keep the tents from blowing over.  Rain was predicted but it was a bright sunny morning as I erected the tent. The sketchbook frames were hung back to back on electric wires. They spun in the wind like Calder sculptures. Compared to other exotic tents, mine seemed a bit barren, but that is what my art is like, no flash, just substance.

I had put a call out on Facebook for volunteers who could man the tent while I sketched. Janice Böhrk McIntosh and Patti Matchett answered the call. Janice agreed to come bright and early and Patti agreed to come in the afternoon. Janice arrived and I explained that she could sell some T-Shirts and hand out business cards to people that were interested. She was excited to get started and I walked over to the Ibex Puppetry area to sketch the puppets that would be in the Endangered Species Parade. In the background of my sketch you can see a tow truck removing a parked car. Business as usual it the city beautiful.

As I sketched the display, all the puppeteers posed for a photo. Of course it was tempting to try and sketch them all in, but I knew they would all be gone as soon as the camera shutter clicked. April Tennyson mugged for me but she knew I wouldn’t have time to sketch her in. Necole Pynn who was at the Broomstick Pony tent had a kazoo. She asked me for a good kazoo tune and I wracked my brain to come up with “Jack the knife”. She seemed pleased as she hummed the tune through the instrument.

The Endangered Species Parade began and all the puppets came to life. Heather Henson, the founder of Ibex Puppetry, took hold of the Manatee and breathed life into him. Her mother, Jane Henson, had recently died, but today was a celebration of life. To the beat of a drum the parade flowed past me with grace and rhythm. The children followed with paper puppets they had made in the craft tent.

With my sketch done, I went to check on Janice. She had sold every single T-Shirt and most of the business cards had been handed out. I was in shock and delighted. Within the first hour, all my merchandise was sold and she was telling everyone who would listen about my project to document Orlando Culture one sketch at a time. What a godsend. There is no way I could have accomplished that. All hopes and expectations had been exceeded.