Cat Birthday Superspreader

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According to The Sun and Newsweek, who cited local reports, a birthday party thrown for a pet cat in Chile led to a COVID-19 outbreak that infected over a dozen people. The super spreader birthday party for the feline took place in the town of Santo Domingo, and all ten guests tested positive for COVID-19 afterwards. The attendees also infected five additional family members and friends.

“When I heard it was a cat’s birthday party, I thought it was a joke — that they were probably trying to hide something,” said Francisco Álvarez, the regional health secretary for Valparaíso, according to the Daily Mail.

“We have corroborated it with at least six of the 15 [infected] people who told us the same thing,” he added. Álvarez stated that he was surprised to know people are continuing to have social gatherings despite warnings and restrictions from authorities. The CDC labeled Chili as a dangerous travel destination. Of course a far more dangerous travel destination is the United States of America.

On Twitter Álvarez said, “An essential part of democracy is that no one is exempt form complying with the law, and that no one cam behave as if they are above it.” This is a lesson that our former POTUS has yet to learn.

Flight Home

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I arrived at the Santo Domingo Airport several hours early. I was shocked that there were no lines. I had to fill out all the customs forms and breezed through security with no wait.I sat and watched the crowd slowly gather at the gate for my flight. A nun sat stoically never moving, while a brother and sister fidgeted the whole time. Domino’s Pizza was set up to sell slices and the ads reminded me of the domino players enthusiasm in the park.

On the flight, I sat next to a young missionary who taught English and math to students in small villages around La Cucarita, in the Dominican Republic. She explained that the schools were makeshift but the central village now had a cinder block building. She had to pay her own way to get to and from the Dominican Republic and she couldn’t wait to get home to her own bed. He T-shirt read, Love God, serve people, change the world.

This was Jet Blue pilot, Kevin Kelly‘s, last flight. He was leaving Jet Blue after 30 years of service. The first thing to flash through my mind was that the Titanic captain was retiring after his last voyage. Everyone on board cheered when we had a smooth landing. Jet Blue has a tradition in which two fire trucks spray down the plane with water for a retiring pilot. We were told not to panic. The plane taxied forever. I figured they might be going to a hanger for the ceremony, but then I saw the firetrucks with their tall streams of water arching over the plane. My window went liquid and the green trucks shimmered. Everyone was shouting and clapping. You don’t see THAT every day. It was good to be home.

Fiesta

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The closing ceremony for the Santo Domingo Urban Sketching Symposium was held at the Museo de las Casas Reales. As we walked inside, a regal peacock strutted through the lobby. Long tables were set up with all the artist’s sketchbooks on display. There was also a silent auction set up with some of the instructors work up for grabs. Everyone was crowded around the tables flipping through sketchbooks. Some people moved clockwise and others counter clockwise. I lost patience since I couldn’t see all the sketchbooks fast enough, so I wandered off to get a coke. There were also finger foods available so I ate dinner. I had a quick chat with Gabi Campinario. He seems to be moving away from sketching across double page spreads. The last few months, I have been doing the same, choosing instead to sketch in larger spiral bound sketchbooks.

Frank Ching from Seattle was doing a sketch of the spacious courtyard. Since I was still intent on seeing the rest of the sketchbooks, I decided this wasn’t an event I would be sketching. All of the Urban Sketchers were asked to stand in the courtyard where they were each called up and issued a certificate. It was just like a graduation. Since all the sketchbooks were now being ignored, I decided to sneak away to flip through the remaining sketchbooks. When my name was called, I trotted out like a triumphant Olympian, picked up my certificate and jogged right back to the sketchbooks.

When we left the closing Ceremony, we discovered that a Fiesta was being staged at Plaza de Espana. Historic fortifications were illuminated a rich orange behind the makeshift stage. Dancers were changing costumes in the lot next to the Museo. On stage a singer and keyboard player were performing Meringue. An official sat beside the stage while hundreds of locals sat in folding chairs set up in the Plaza. Unfortunately, this was the last act and as technicians broke down the stage, I rushed to throw down color washes. The Urban Sketchers had gathered at a bar across the plaza, so when I was done, I walked over for one last drink with this incredibly talented international group of artists.

Dominos

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On the afternoon of the final day there was a SketchCrawl in Santo Domingo‘s Parque Colon. I had done several thumbnail sketches of domino players in Veronica Lawlor‘s, The Decisive Moment Workshop. I decided to try and get a larger sketch done. The game is rather fast paced usually punctuated with loud arguments in Spanish about moves that could have been made. It is rather nice that people linger in the park all day. This game of dominoes would migrate periodically to keep the board in the shade of the parks trees. Along with the locals, there were 100 artists gathered in the park this day.

 One of the men viewing the game looked after me by shooing away anyone who stood between me and the board. I smiled and gave him a thumbs up for his assistance. Melanie Reim was just as infatuated by the game and she did a lively series of sketches from her spot sitting on the grass. I did a few more loose thumbnail sketches in the park before all the Urban Sketchers gathered for a group photo in front of the Cathedral.

My Last Urban Sketching Workshop

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My last Capturing the Event Workshop took place on the street leading to Puerta del Conde. I knew the ancient fort would close it’s gates at 5PM so there wasn’t much time to get a sketch inside. I was really pleased that Urban Sketcher Nina Johansson from Sweden sat in on this workshop. I admire her vibrant watercolor sketches. It was cloudy out which meant we didn’t have to hunt for shade. I sat in the middle of the street sketching the architecture. The previous day, a cocoanut salesman and guitar player showed up on this corner and I hoped they would return. Sure enough, when I was halfway into the sketch, the cocoanut salesman arrived on his tricycle loaded down with cocoanuts. He cut open the coconuts with a machete to serve it.

It began to rain and I backed up into a shop vestibule. One of the shop assistants gestured to offer me a spot to sit. This happened to me while I sketched in the park as well, a gentleman offered me his seat on a bench. They seem to take pity on aging artists in Santo Domingo.  Lapin showed up as the rain began to ease. I gave him a quick rundown on the workshop and gave him the class notes. I caught him in my sketch as he stood sketching a mannequin. Then he started asking people if he could sketch them. A crowd gathered around him as he sketched.

I gathered up the troupes and we shared our sketches. We then posed for a photo in front of the sign that I had sketched. There was a wonderful variety of styles. Everyone weathered the storm.

The Decisive Moment

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0n the morning of the final day of the Santo Domingo Urban Sketching Symposium, I took Veronica Lawlor‘s Workshop called The Decisive Moment. I have always admired Veronica’s loose spontaneous sketches. The idea of the decisive moment came from photo journalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. As he said, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment” Veronica pulled out her iPad and showed us sketches by Ronald Searle from his Paris Sketchbook. I have a copy of this sketchbook and it is a prized possession. She also showed us thumbnails from Gustav Klimpt. She suggested we explore Parque Colon doing small quick thumbnails instead of detailed sketches. She explained that her first impulse when on an assignment was to do as many thumbnails as possible.

I found doing the thumbnails quite liberating. Each sketch had to begin with a frame. I probably could have organized the thumbnails better on the page, but I was just focused on getting each image down as quickly as possible. I worked straight ahead using ink and watercolor washes.

The first thing that caught my eye was a young man feeding the pigeons. If anyone walked too close, they would take flight all at once. I sketched a candy cart, the monument to Columbus and then became infatuated with the men who played dominoes all day long. The cathedral was a cool reprieve from the hot park. The chihuahua named Pancho belonged to a couple who stopped to talk to me in English. The owner was an artist herself and I suggested she join us for the SketchCrawl later in the day.

Urban Symposium Panel

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Right after lunch each day there was a panel discussion where instructors from  the Santo Domingo Urban Sketching Symposium would get up in front of the room full of artists and talk about their experiences sketching that day. I had this sketch fairly well layed out when Gabi approached me and asked me to be on the panel. Sigh, I would have to finish the sketch the next day. I sat center stage, sandwiched between the amazing talents of Veronica Lawlor and Nina Johansson. Gabi Campanario, who founded Urban Sketchers, had heard about my run in with the guards at Puerta del Conde and he wanted me to relate the incident. My main point was that it was important to always finish the sketch, come hell or high water. This was the first time that the person who insisted I stop sketching was carrying a gun.

It was incredibly rewarding to hear students from my first workshops relate what resonated with them.  I thought that instructing and standing in front of a room full of piers might be stressful, but the opposite was true, I felt at ease and at home among artists who shared my desire to document and record events by sketching. The next day, I sketched Marc Holmes, Lynne Chapman and Liz Steel into my unfinished sketch from the day before. Lynne, smiled broadly, radiating good humor and Liz had filled an entire sketchbook already. I had taken Marc’s class and it made me realize that it helps to be thrown outside the usual sketching comfort zone when being asked to think about sketching in a different light.

Tea, Milk and Honey

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I’ve long been an admirer of Mark Taro Holmes‘ watercolors, so the first workshop I took was his, Tea, Milk and Honey Watercolor Workshop. The fifteen or so students hiked to the Ruins de San Francisco. The first order of business was to find a shady spot from which to paint the ruins. We couldn’t go inside the structure since it was unsafe. We all sat on some stone steps across the street from the building. Marc wanted us to all follow along as he went through the steps, doing a study of a stone window on the ruins. I admired his set up which consisted of a camera tripod on which he mounted a flat board and an arm which held his large palette.

Rather than follow along, I watched intently as he mixed colors and applied washes. The first step, pour the tea, consisted of light washes of local color. That first step had to dry before the second step, a touch of milk, which involved only adding semi-opaque paint to the shadow shapes. The third pass, sweeten with honey, involved thick gel-like paint added to emphasize contact shadows. A woman walked past the ruins with a basket of bananas balanced on her head and a mule pulled a wagon laden with a whole family. As we all worked, a lively basketball game began on the court behind us. Sometimes the ball would go out of bounds, bouncing into an artist who would then toss it back.

I lost interest in the ruins and turned around to sketch the animated game. There was plenty of arguing, all in Spanish of course. Players became aware that I was sketching them and they stopped on occasion to see my progress. One little boy obviously wanted to be in the sketch and I pointed to the player shooting the basketball. It was a little white lie, but it made him happy. A little girl would pick up my brush or pencil anytime I dropped it. She was very attentive.

After we were all done, we assembled on the steps for a group photo. The workshop forced me away from using line to define shapes. For me a light bulb turned on as the sketch became more about painting.

Puerta del Conde

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For the afternoon, Capturing the Event Workshop, I invited students to sketch on the city block leading to Puerta del Conde or inside the Puerta. I leaned against a pole and worked on the view down the street to the fort. The street bustled with merchants selling everything from sun glasses to art. The tropically themed art all looked the same as if it was pumped out of a factory. One of the sketchers can be seen working in the lower right hand corner of my sketch. I knew that two other sketchers were seated on the benches at the next light post down the road. The remaining sketchers went inside Puerte del Conde to sketch.

Residents of Santo Domingo were curious and inquisitive. Once one person stopped to look over my shoulder, there would soon be a crowd. Questions would be fired my way, but all I could do is shrug and say “No Espanole.” In a way, not knowing the language was a major advantage in that I didn’t have to interrupt the sketch to answer questions. I didn’t feel rude working away as they talked amongst themselves.

As I was finishing up my sketch, the students came as a group to let me know that the monument had been shut down before they finished sketching. I looked down the street and sure enough, an iron gate blocked the arched entry. I gathered up the remaining sketchers and we all put our sketchbooks on the street to compare notes. It was a strong afternoon’s work. What a delight to mentor such talented sketchers. A musician started playing guitar behind me and a coconut merchant hacked open coconuts with a machete. The events were there to be found but my sketch was done and I was hungry for dinner.

Capturing the Event

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I was teaching two workshops on the second day of the Urban Sketching Symposium in Santo Domingo. I had seven students for the morning class and we all met at the Centro Cultural de Espana. A sheet of letter sized paper with a bold letter B was taped to the wall. So we could find one another.

My  morning workshop, Capturing the Event, was less about technique and  more about how to make Urban Sketching a daily habit. I’m convinced that artists have a roll in making others aware of the communities in which they live. My most important lesson was that you always have to finish the sketch, no matter what happens. I offered several examples of incidents in which people tried to interrupt the sketch but I still managed to get the sketch done. We walked along the water front and through the stoned streets of the historic city towards the workshop site.

The Workshop took place in Parque Independencia which is a fortification at the end of El Conde Street. There was a monument inside with three large sculptures reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial in DC. It was a hot day so I advised everyone to find shade. Barbara Boulter, (BJ) and I were drawn to the stoic guard at the entrance. BJ knew some Spanish so she asked if it was OK for her to borrow a chair. I had my own chair so I sat opposite her in the shade of the large stone arch facing the guard. I noticed two officers in camouflaged military fatigues arguing in the background. Then one of them approached me and started gesturing and speaking quickly in Spanish. I didn’t understand a word, so I kept sketching. Through his hand gestures, I became vaguely aware that they must have had a problem with my chair. I then stood and continued to sketch. The senior officer seemed to be loosing patience with me. Finally one of my students, Natali Ovalles, a native of Santo Domingo, came over and translated.

Apparently there was some issue with my being visible from the street outside the fort. It was perceived as a breach of security. BJ was seated in a small alcove which hid her from passers by. With Natali translating, I negotiated for a spot from which I could draw. I sat diagonal to BJ and sketched the stoic guard from behind. The armed guard who had made me move stood behind me the whole time and watched every line that went on the page. A cannon was aimed out over the historic city. The bottom line is that I got the sketch done. Our group assembled near some park benches and compared notes. Kalina Wilson asked pointed questions that helped me further outline my thoughts as I execute each sketch. Minus the run in with armed guards, it was a fun first class. In this case, capturing the event, became the main event.