Social Chamelion – Analog Artist Digital World

In the beer garden behind the Social Chameleon, the DJ Mo’Negro, had a portable mixing board perched open before him. His hand rested on the earphones as he mixed the music.A young woman painted several small automobiles and then spelled out, “Bank” in bright red paint. A dollar sign was added by another gentleman later in the evening. My favorite part of the mural is a gnarly black and white stripped tree which looks like it could grow and take over the wall. A young woman with curly blond hair knelled before it and I thought she might be the creator returning to let the tree stretch it’s limbs and grow. Unfortunately she just added a small detail next to the roots.

Todd Morgan got up on a short ladder to work up high. His wife Laura was going to paint, but when she was coached, she decided to sit it out. The creative impulse is so easy to break. Markus Adkins made bold large changes to the mural. He added a huge bold area of red above the large face of a woman. He liked adding paint with a squirt bottle letting it drip down. In spots the mortar of the block wall was accentuated with dark paint. The wall was compartmentalized yet in spots it began to pull together as a whole. A few more drinks and many more brush strokes and who knows where it will go. Work will continue on the mural on the evening of December 17th. Get out there and make your mark, everyone is welcome. “Be it, share it.”

Sometimes I experience an evening so enjoyable that I wish I could relive it. The first time my wife and I were at the Chameleon was with all the actors and crew of War of the Worlds. Let me tell you, actors know how to party. I didn’t sketch that evening, instead I drank, ate great food and enjoyed pleasant conversation. I ended up staying until 2 AM to close the place down, not wanting to leave.
The Social Chameleon is located at 2406 East Robinson Street in the Milk District. I returned because I needed to organize places to go for the 24th Worldwide SketchCrawl which will be September 19th. I figure the Social Chameleon is a perfect stop on the crawl so I decided to have dinner and get a sketch before heading off to Infusion Tea for a poetry reading. The infinite detail to all the clutter in the room however left me working on the sketch a bit longer than expected and I missed the poetry. There is plenty of poetry in soaking up the Social’s warm inviting environment however.
I sat a a small corner table with a good view of the front room. In front of me a British couple who were trying the restaurant for the first time. They tried some beers they had never tasted before and ended up leaving with a 6 pack of some raspberry flavored beer. The bar keep was talking to a costumer about something called an Electro Guinness. They electrocute the beer to give it extra carbonation. I had never heard of that and I suspect I will be back to try it out.
The Social Chameleon serves food tapas style with an emphasis on flavor and small portions. The first time at the Chameleon I tried the tomato basil pizza which was fantastic. This time I ordered a Mediterranean plate and a glass of Pinot Noir. The stuffed grape leaves were very tasty and the crispy pita was topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, Olive oil and a perfect blend of spices.
In the kitchen was Brett Ashman who owns the Social Chameleon with his wife Serena. Through the window to the kitchen, Brett related to the British couple that he had worked for 100 days as a provisions master on a ship called the National Geographic Explorer. This ship traveled the world showing passengers some of the Geographic’s most famous research sites. Though he worked hard, he had enough time off the ship to shoot 2000 pictures which display automatically on the HDTV above the bar. As the place filled up around 8 PM the TV was switched to Obama’s speech on health care. I decided that when the speech was over so was my sketch.