Lake Eola sculptures light up the night.

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Any time I sketch at a venue in downtown Orlando, I park near Lake Eola. At night, the fountain is lit up as we r as the sculptures that were put in last year. They were put in place by an organization called See Art Orlando. This sculpture is called, “Take Flight” by Douwe Blumberg, sponsored by Darden.

Douwe was born in Los Angeles of two amateur artists, his artistic gifts were
evident early on.  During a childhood that was almost a continual art
education, he spent some formative years in Europe being exposed to
western artistic traditions.  Later he attended the University of
Southern California’s prestigious Idyllwild School of the Arts and
Music.  This was followed up with four years of sculpture/metal working
education during which he won many national awards.  His education was
capped by an apprenticeship at a CA art foundry where he mastered the
many facets of creating bronzes.  Hence his “art education” consisted of
a unique and healthy mix of traditional schooling with hands-on
apprenticeship.  He attributes his ability to work in varied techniques
and styles to this style of learning.

Upon graduation however, he did not immediately pursue an art
career.  Instead, he became a professional horse trainer, a career he
pursued for 18 years at his ranch outside of L.A.  Gradually, however,
he started sculpting again, albeit part time, and began accepting
commissions.  As demand for his work grew, he was forced to choose
between the two careers; his lifelong passion of sculpting won out. 
Closing his barn in 2000, he relocated to centrally located Kentucky
where he has a studio and home north of Lexington.  Douwe has completed
well over 200 private and public commissions and has numerous awards,
residencies and shows to his credit.

See Art Orlando

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I went to Loft 55 Gallery and Boutique (55 West Church Street, suite 114, Orlando, Fl), curated by Ashlie Lawson, to see  an interactive performance concept by Stephen AG Carey. This local artist will be locked within a gallery to only portray the messages given to him by the community. He calls this exhibit “Messages 4 the Cure” to help advocate for those who have survived, still battling or lost their lives to cancer. People were able to write a message and tape it to the gallery
windows for those individuals who survived, are still battling, or lost
their lives to cancer. The artist then rewrote the messages onto an art
piece hanging on the galleries wall.

Unfortunately when I arrived a little before rush hour, a sign on the door said the artist was out for a three hour break. The painting in progress had maybe ten lines of copy written into the piece. The writing was too small for me to read. The painting was far from complete. This was a sad excuse for performance art. The concept was good but the execution wasn’t great. I lost interest and left.

Since I still needed to do a sketch, I hiked to Lake Eola to sketch one of the new See Art Orlando sculptures of a flock of gulls swooping over the lake. See Art Orlando’s mission is to enhance the aesthetic experience and cultural image of Downtown Orlando through a major Public Sculpture Community Project. The installation of iconic works of art throughout the City will bring National and International attention to Orlando and will add to the economic viability of the community.

The flock was sculpted by Douwe (“Dow”, a Dutch name) Blumberg. He came to his art career by a rather circuitous route. Born in Los Angeles of two amateur artists. During a childhood that was almost a continual art education, he spent some formative years in Europe being exposed to western artistic traditions. Later he attended the University of Southern California’s prestigious Idyllwild School of the Arts and Music. This was followed up with four years of sculpture/metal working education during which he won many national awards. His education was capped by an apprenticeship at a CA art foundry where he mastered the many facets of creating bronzes. He attributes his ability to work in varied techniques and styles to this style of learning.

Upon graduation however, he did not immediately pursue an art career. Instead, he became a professional horse trainer, a career he pursued for 18 years at his ranch outside of L.A. Gradually, however, he started sculpting again, albeit part time, and began accepting commissions. As demand for his work grew, he was forced to choose between the two careers; his lifelong passion of sculpting won out. Closing his barn in 2000, he relocated to centrally located Kentucky where he has a studio and home north of Lexington. Douwe has completed well over 200 private and public commissions and has numerous awards, residencies and shows to his credit.

The Sea Urchin

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11-19-13SeaUrchinOn November 18th, Mayor Buddy Dyer dedicated Orlando’s permanent contemporary sculpture collection. See Art Orlando was responsibly for bringing eight sculptures to downtown. Most of the sculptures are around lake Eola. See Art Orlando’s mission is to enhance the aesthetic experience and
cultural image of Downtown Orlando through a major Public Sculpture
Community Project. The installation of iconic works of art throughout
the City will bring National and International attention to Orlando and
will add to the economic viability of the community. The operating funds come from partnerships with corporations, family trusts, charitable grants and individual donations.

This sculpture by Wendy Ross is in the Seaside Plaza (201 S. Orange Avenue Orlando FL) just 2 blocks from City Hall. It’s erect similarity to the Asparagus in front of City Hall is astounding. One patron approaching the site said, “It looks like a Sea Urchin.” The mayor and his entourage walked past me just as I was starting this sketch. Rick Singh, the Orange County Property Appraiser stopped to tell me that there was a collection of art work in his offices. Yulissa Arch, his outreach coordinator gave me her card. I had met Rick’s wife at a Mennello Museum event and she impressed me as someone who truly appreciates art. Obviously so does Rick.

I had walked past many of the other sculptures on my way to Seaside Plaza. Each sculpture site had live musicians and libations. It was nice that the city lifted the ordinance that usually shuts down live performances on the streets of downtown for one night. As you approached each sculpture, you would hear musicians at work. Barricades surrounded sculptures where beer was being served. One woman walked away from a sculpture of a woman partially buried in the Lake Eola landscape. A policeman stopped the woman with the beer and told her she had to drink it inside the barricades. She took the order with good humor and returned to chug her drink.

The biggest party seemed to be at the Jacob Harmeling sculpture at Central and Osceola Avenue next to where the Farmers Market sets up and where “Food Not Bombs” used to share food before the police arrests and endless law suits shut this site down. This food sharing program now happens at City Hall. Jacob is the one local artist who is part or the sculpture project. Most of the sculptures light up using color changing diodes like those used in the Asparagus. I have to admit that the polished chrome illuminated sculptures do light up downtown, but I doubt many tourists will leave International Drive or the theme parks.

The Asparagus

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11-13-13TheAsparigus2 Mayor Buddy Dyer and former Mayor Bill Frederick hosted the illumination ceremony for the “Tower of Light” on Nov 12.  The sculpture by artist Ed Carpenter, was commissioned and
installed in 1992 under the leadership of then Mayor Bill Frederick. The
original halogen lighting failed in 1994. Many attempts at funding a
relighting project were discussed in the interim but the sculpture remained dark and neglected for 20 years. In fact, due to lack of funding, especially during the
economic downturn, there was little to no maintenance at all performed
to the sculpture or base. The light less Tower of Light’s 102 glass panels weathered under the
Florida sun growing dull over time. Its steel framework corroded.

Knowing that the City’s See Art Orlando
project was slated for debut in late 2013, the Orlando chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW)
pledged to raise a minimum of $50,000 to clean and light the sculpture
and rework the basin. Sitting on the Plaza in front of City Hall, the
sculpture celebrates the intersection of private and public interests in
the City of Orlando and is a symbol of the asparagus in our
community. Including donated labor, the renovation cost an estimated $152,000, none of it from taxpayers.

 The 63-foot glass-and-steel spire received a makeover including 650 watts of programmable LEDS with full color spectrum, data cabling and a wireless controller. The controller can be programmed with numerous pre-sets (length and color of display) and can be accessed via the Internet on computer, phone or tablet. Sir Terrance Hummel added mosaics to the seating at the base of the sculpture.

As the sky grew dark, a crowd of 50 or so people gathered first on the balcony of City Hall and then in the City Hall square beneath the sculpture. A news helicopter hovered above City Hall for quite some time waiting for the sculpture to light up. Terry came down from her office and went across the street to see what was happening. She came back with a small squeeze bottle of disinfectant which I guess was swag at the event. She asked around to find out if any of the sculptures that are being placed all around town as part of “See Art Orlando” were by local artists and she was told that none of them were. My research showed that one sculptor, Jacob Harmeling, is from Orlando. His sculpture can be found in Lake Eola at Central Boulevard and Osceola Avenue near Publix. I haven’t seen it yet.

Buddy, bathed in bright light gave his speech with the usual decrees.  Actually I couldn’t hear anything he said from my perch across the street as I sketched. A passenger in a car parked at the red light next to me asked what was the building with the cylinder shaped tower. I pointed out city Hall and said the other building was just full of lawyers. At the proper moment the crowd grew still and the sculpture was illuminated for the first time in two decades. It glowed green and then the color shifted to blue and purple. Great, I thought, what color should I paint? I went with the first color that blazed bright. There was applause and people slowly dispersed. Josh Garrick approached me wanting to see what color I chose to use when illuminating the sculpture in my sketch. “Ah, you chose green, which makes it look all the more like an asparagus.” said Josh. On Facebook that night everyone seemed to refer to the statue as “The Asparagus”. Now I can’t think of a better name.