Dina and I left Panera Bread and walked down to Urban Think. Right outside Panera Bread there was a street performer playing guitar and singing the Blues. That would have made a great sketch, but as the host I had to get to Urban Think to say hello to any artists that might join the crawl at that point.
Local Author John Fleming was setting up to sign copies of his book “Fearsome Creatures“.
A group of three other artists, Brian, Travis and Randy joined our group. Jessica Earley and Rick Jones sat outside doing wonderfully quirky sketches of buildings in the neighborhood, bikes and each other.
My goal was to sketch all the people lined up to get their copy of Fearsome Creatures signed. However not a soul showed up to the book signing. Bob Hague, a watercolor artist, explained to John why our group was there, and to pass the time John read to us some of the passages from his book. The passage he picked related directly to artists and he got an ovation from our group. Although I am now curious about Florida’s Skunk cabbage man, I didn’t get a copy of the book. Dina and several other artists left the group at this point and we all said our goodbyes. The next stop was the Eola Wine Company down the street and I thought a cup of wine would do me good at this point to loosen up my line work…
Book Club
Terry asked me if I would like to sketch at a meeting of a book club she has joined. We drove to a beautiful house in Winter Park and walked back to the pool house where the meeting was to be held. The book they all had read was “Making the Mummies Dance” by Thomas Hoving. Thomas was the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and apparently an A type personality who disclosed the cutthroat politics involved in making the museum run. I didn’t read the book so I can’t offer any insights other that what was discussed at this gathering. Most of the women did not like the book finding it to dry and technical. Many of the women did not finish the book in time for this meeting. They did seem to agree that Hoving’s abrasive personality did result in some sweeping changes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The discussion then turned to a book that had been discussed in a previous gathering. This book was written by an 65 year old woman who started putting ads in the personals because she wanted to fully discover her sexuality in her later years. Some felt sorry for the woman who was acting like the high school girls they pitied who would do anything for attention from boys. A heated discussion then erupted about whether sex and personal intimacy might be separate entities. Being the only man in the room, I wondered if I should chime in, but I had a sketch to finish.
Brian Feldman Reads The Orlando Weekly in its Entirety
I arrived at Frames Forever & Art Gallery 941 Orange Avenue Winter Park, to find a small crowd seated in front of a glass storefront window watching as Brian Feldman read the Orlando Weekly in its entirety. He not only read the body copy but also the ads, captions and he would even describe any pictures and art. Three of the people were from the Orlando Weekly Newspaper and they sat and watched for over an hour. Brian spoke into a microphone and the sound mixer Tommy Wingo (in the yellow shirt) supervised as Brian’s voice was amplified crisply on two speakers outside.
The performance commemorates WMFE’s canceling of their newspaper-reading service for the blind on its station due to funding issues.
The store window was masterfully decorated with the current issue of the Orlando Weekly taped up behind Brian and even strewn about on the floor. A classy Greek column was on hand where Brian perched a cup of water for his parched voice. One audience member tapped furiously on his laptop computer and others occasionally texted friends on iPhones. Some people had the newspaper and read along tracking Brian’s progress. The owner of Frames Forever & Art Gallery, Katie Windish, was tweeting about the event to about a thousand people on Brian’s behalf. Katie was also the one who tailored the classy vest Brian was wearing which was also made of newspaper. She confessed that the vest was made from another local rag called the Orlando Sentinel.
The drive home from this event was quite eventful, While driving through Parramore, I was pulled over by a patrol car. “Can I see your License and Registration”, blinking lights, and a flood light in my rear view mirror, the whole deal. After waiting 15 minutes while he looked up my long criminal record he came back and informed me my left brake light was out. He asked if I knew about that, and I did, but I said “no officer”. He said he could give me a $96 ticket for that but he would let me go with a warning this time…