Marilyn Monroe zombie leaves a sweet musty smell in City Arts Factory.

Posted on by Thor

I had to drop off some cards for Barbara Hartley at City Arts Factory (29 S Orange Ave, Orlando, FL). The place according to the website is usually closed on Monday but on this Indigenous People’s Day it was open because artists were dropping off their work for the Day of the Dead show happening in October.

While I was chatting with Tr3 Mark Harris at the front desk, Paul Joachim walked in. Paul sculpts life sized chocolate sculptures.  Paul had dropped off a life sized Marilyn Monroe zombie sculpture and he wanted to touch up he paint job. The sign next to her read, “Do not touch. Do not eat.” Which is very ironic since there were plenty of open bite wounds causing her to bleed red syrup. An exposed bone was visible on her left shin. Denna Beena told Paul that every guy who viewed the sculpture thought she might be having her period. Paul had considered making a small card to put under her dress that said,Hard Rock “You should be ashamed of yourself.” He thought better of it.

Paul had done a clean sculpt of Marilyn and then he added the gouges, blood and pasty purple skin tone. When he was working on her face he had to walk a fine line, making her look like Marilyn but dead. A huge bite out of her right cheek exposed her jaw bone and she was missing some teeth. There was an amazing synergy between Marilyn’s mouth and Andrew Spear‘s mural behind her. Both pieces of art treated the female sumptuous lips and teeth with loving detail.

Paul told me that the drive to City Arts Factory with the sculpture in the back of the truck was harrowing. Orlando’s cobble stone streets sent her dancing and shimmying in the back of the truck, Thankfully she didn’t topple over. After this show , Paul hopes that Hard Rock Cafe might inherit Marilyn for next year’s Halloween season. Halloween Horror Nights might be another home for her. I was surprised to find out that chocolate keeps rather well. It gets harder with age.

Mark Your Calendar! CityArts Dia de los Muertos and Monster Factory Exhibit is opening tonight, October 16th 6-11pm.  Phantasmagoria will be there to entertain and amaze and there will be a Day of the Dead Parade with larger than life sized skeletons. The show will remain up through November 14th.

Paul Joachim chocolate sculpt

Posted on by Thor

On April 15th I went to Bar Harbor (2000 Premier Row, Orlando FL), to sketch Paul Joachim as he worked on a life sized chocolate sculpture. Bar Harbor turned out to be a seafood restaurant and I found the sculptor hard at work after I made my way through a maze of hallways and plastic covered entries. Paul’s assistant was Jennifer Mendez. She was spray painting food ties onto the sculpt. A paper sign taped to an electrical cord said, “No Pictures Please! Secret Project.” It didn’t say “No Sketching” so I was good to go.

This top secret project was being done for two giants in the confections industry, Zane Beg, was carrying Norman R. Davis on his back. Zane was just named one of the top 10 cake decorators in the country. It was Norms birthday and it was the Mother of Cake’s 1st Anniversary. Zane and Norm have been working together for over 16
years. Norm is small, around 5’2 and Zane is well over 6 feet. The
owner of Mother of Cake’s and Paul, the sculptor, thought it would be a lot of fun to have a
life-size cake of Norm on Zane’s back piggy backing, all just for fun and to celebrate their friendship and cake business partnership.

On top of all that, the sculpture was filmed for A&E’s Shipping Wars TV show. Paul confided as I was leaving that he was concerned about transporting the sculpt in an unrefrigerated truck. I know from one photo, of the cake decorators viewing the sculpt, that it did arrive in one piece.The episode is called “Punch Drunk Love” and it just recently aired allowing me to finally share this sketch. I was going to see an premiere screening of the show at a Universal Studios Hotel but changed my mind when I discovered I would have to pay $8 to self park. I had already done my sketch for the day, so I left. If anyone has seen the Shipping Wars episode, let me know what happened!