Market Day

Posted on by Thor

Stella Arbeláez Tascón and I went to the Webster Westside Flea Market (516 NW 3rd Street, Webster, FL). This is a painting of the combined haul before we divvied up the spoils of the marketing war.

Stella is great at comparing prices and finding the best deal while I just grab on impulse and sometimes forget to pay. I’m just excited to get the produce in my ancient granny cart which was rickety by the end of the shopping spree due to the produce weight.

The jar contains, Tamarind, a hard shelled pea shaped Fruit legume, which is sweet and bitter at the same time. I bit off individual seed pods and nurse the fruit off the seed with my front teeth while rolling it in my mouth.

I have become addicted to having several oranges every day. I am also a fan of cooking corn on the cob every night. It only takes 5 minutes to boil an ear so it is a quick snack.

In the background of the sketch are some ink bottles. Stella was testing each bottle of ink for it’s permanence when used with watercolor washes. It turns out one bottle is not permanent and that is the one she had been using.

My backpack for my Europe trip arrived yesterday. Each morning I put it on to walk around the block to see how it feels. I shopped at REI and maybe packed it 1/3 full. I hope on my travels I can find keep finding lush bounties of fruit as I hike, train and drive from town to town. I am getting close to finishing my itinerary. Which will give me a list of the towns and hamlets I must visit to follow in 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken‘s footsteps as his C-Company infantry unit moved from France to Belgium, Norway and ultimately the heart of Germany at the end of WWII. I think I solved the mystery of which work concentration camp his unit might have liberated and moved the victims toward Eastern Europe via train box cars. The displaced person’s didn’t want to get on the train and his unit had to hammer the box car doors shut with nails. The trip East might have been a death sentence. Skeletal faces started out from between box car boards in sorrow.

No Humans

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I got to spend time watching Boo Boo for Stella Arbeláez Tascón when she went to Georgia for a woman’s art conference.

The last time I watched Boo, he left several calling cards on the floor when I had to go out to do a sketch for several hours.  Boo gets quite attached and will howl if he is left alone. I live most of my life alone, so I can’t understand his dilemma.

One of the pillows on the couch said, “No Humans on Couch.” I always feel a little guilty sitting on his prime real estate.

This sketch was done late in the day after many hours of working at my desk. I needed to relax and Boo is always ready for some rest and relaxation.

No lights were on in the room, and I kept sketching as the room god darker and darker. Once I finished sketching, then I sat back and turned on a side table lamp and started to read The Eye of the Artist. I have slowly been reading this book ever since I had an operation to try and fix the double vision caused by my left eye. The reading has been going slow since the type in the book is so small that it is difficult to rad given my condition.

Morning Laps

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My friend Stella Arbeláez Tascón and I subscribed for morning lap swims three times a week for the summer, at the H.O. Dabney Pool (312 Pine Street Leesburg Florida). I might have to miss a couple of lap swims while I am traveling to The Wild Rivers Film Festival, in Oregon, but the lap swims are a great way to start the day.

In the first session, we must have swum for well over an hour. I should have felt exhausted, after coming out of the water, but instead I felt euphoric. A sense of peace sweeps over me after a swim, and I feel ready to tackle the tasks for the day.

There are showers in the men’s and women’s rooms to rinse away the chlorine. The chlorine was making Stella’s long hair start too turn blonde. My stark white hair, what remains of it, refused to turn blonde. It might have been nice to have a hint of blonde since I am planning a long trip to Germany, and I would blend in better with my Nordic ancestors.

I tried swimming freestyle, but I really don’t like having my face in the water. I need to blow bobbles out of my nose, so I feel that I get winded too fast. I also seem to always breath on the upward stroke of my right arm. I am sure that with a few lessons I would get much better at this fast swimming style. I prefer to swim with a modified butterfly style. It is modified in that I don’t submerge my face with each stroke. My version of the swimming style looks more like a frog swimming, although a frog is probably is more graceful.

I also like to swim on my back, spreading my arms like Christ to check that I am not steering off course into the floating ropes. There are blue and white flags over the pool at each end,. When doing the back stroke, I use those flags to let me know to raise my arms to be prepared to touch the wall thus saving me from crashing my head into the cement.

As we were leaving the lap pool, the water was turned on with the water slide and it gushed out a top speed. Kids and parents, who have been waiting at the front gate rushed inside as we walked out the front gates to the parked Prius, and the place started buzzing with chaotic activity.

Alejandra in the Barn

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By Thomas Thorspecken

Stella Arbeláez Tascón wanted to visit her sister Carolina who had just moved her horse, Gold, into a new barn. Carolina and her fiance were busy getting the place ready.

Their daughter, Alejandra hung out with Stella and played on her own in her own mini barn. The plastic horse had movable legs and a long flowing tail. The plastic horse however was just a tad to big for the plastic barn. If it was squeezed into the barn its front legs or hind legs would have to dangle off the floor. A very poor design I must say.

Alejandra on the other hand could fit herself in perfectly. She tried squeezing in with the horse as well, but that was a disaster. The barn doors just would not close. The horse was thrown aside.

There was a baby girl with long flowing blonde hair, lying on the roof of the barn. I don’t know why. She seemed to be taking a nap with her arms raised. Perhaps she had climbed up there using the tiny ladder she was lying on. A key chain in the doorknob had a bottle opener for the all important task of providing liquid sustenance on a hot day such as this.

The real horse behind the mini barn had a ball on a rope he liked to play with. He would pull on the rope with his teeth and then let the ball drop back down to the ground. The occupied him for maybe 10 minutes and then her turned back to relax in the stall. It was a super hot day so movement was turned down to a minimum. Flies were a constant nuance. One fly crawled all over Stella’s palette, convinced I am sure that one of those colors was a tasty treat. I shooed flies off my sketch with my left hand. The horses shivered the flies off their hide or swished them off with their tales, and learned to live with the flies that marched up and down their snouts. I wished the flesh on my arms could shiver that same way to shake the flies off. Since my hands were full of art supplies, I leaned over repeatedly and blew as hard as I could the offenders.

The Barn

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By Thomas Thorspecken

Stella Arbeláez Tascón‘s sister Carolina had just moved her horse, Gold, into a new barn. The atmosphere was tense as she and her husband Tim worked to find the supply the water and get the horses out into the pasture for the first time.

A pick up truck full of bagged salt had to be unloaded for a mobile Equine Halotherapy business Carolina has started. Equine halotherapy, or salt therapy for horses, is a drug-free treatment that utilizes a halogenerator to disperse dry salt aerosol into a specialized room or container, which horses inhale to improve respiratory and skin health. This natural therapy offers benefits like clearer airways, reduced inflammation, improved lung function, enhanced stamina, and healthier skin, making it beneficial for both performance horses and those with respiratory or skin issues.

Stella wanted to stop by after sketching the protestors at Alligator Alcatraz to sketch a more peaceful setting. It turns out a horse barn can be just as much of a high stakes war zone.

Stella had brought her niece a box of wooden blocks which could be used to create and amazing fictional city. She kept her niece on her hip and then her lap as she sketched. Later she set her niece up with a water brush so she could make a painting of her own. That painting had plenty of red with a few splashes of swirling yellow.

Earth Day Cacao Dance

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My friend listened to DJ De Lady for many hours while she worked on her paintings for the UCF masters program. DJ DeLady is a South American musician whose music is mesmerizing, and ecstatic. People were encouraged to dance barefoot.

I arrived at the Longwood Yoga Shala (1455 North Ronald Regan Boulevard Longwood Florida) rather early so I could sketch the scene and add people as they arrived to my sketch. Conscious Dance Orlando presented the event. I started by sketching the fire pit being set up.

My hope was to sketch the Cacao Ceremony. The Cacao ceremony dates back to the Mayan civilization. Cacao drinks have been used for emotional and spiritual healing for thousands of years. Camilla Condour hand mixed the drink herself. It was warm, rich and thick.  Everyone sat in a large circle by a gorgeous lake and the cups were passed around until everyone had one. We raised the cups to the heavens and then to our hearts so heartbeats mixed with the drink, then we lowered out cups to the earth to honor its powerful life force.  The ceremony encouraged gratitude, intention, and reciprocity. The drink helps people reach a receptive meditative state, and it can support creative output for hours.

When the ceremony was over, I threw paint at the page in an ecstatic rush. I felt liberated, no longer concerned about how pristine things might appear as I sketched. Dancing had already started on a large wooden stage and in the grass. My friend with her eyes closed was smiling broadly as she spun and danced in the grass. I looked up at the huge bamboo and trees that reached for the sky as the sun set, and then closed my eyes and let the beat drive my every movement. On the wooden dance floor I could feel the beat of all the stomping feet. I was surrounded by pure joy. I lost myself for several hours in glorious dance.

As I danced I watched DJ DeLady as she mixed her beats. She had a turntable which she used to set the beat and then she might play wooden flute of drums on top of the driving and mystical sounds she was generating. It is hard to describe her music, you have to feel it vibrating in your bones and soul as you move to fully understand it.

At the end of the evening everyone stood in a large circle on the stage and held hands. All thumbs were supposed to face in a clockwise direction so the energy could flow in a linear direction through us all. After a ceremonial invocation we all pressed towards the center of the circle for a huge group hug. Everyone let out a guttural humm and then shouted wild turkey calls. The warmth and vibration was overwhelming. I got choked up feeling so much communal love. We were all encouraged to look at our neighbors and smile to recognize the life force we all shared. I glanced over at and my friend who wiping away a few tears of joy. For her, this was a celebration of her completing her masters program. I can’t imagine a more perfect way to celebrate.

The Cathedral Comes Down

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By Thomas Thorspecken

On February 25, 2025, Stella P. Arbelaéz Tacón asked me to help her dismantle and pack away The Cathedral into a U-Haul. I got up at 5am for an early morning drive down to the UCF Gallery. It was a glorious drive with literally no traffic until I got close to Orlando. Stella had to pick up the U-Haul truck and there was some type of complication. I was thankful, since it gave me time to sketch the installation piece.

While sketching, a flock of herons few overhead. They made an amazing honking racket. They glided down to a grass field beside The Cathedral. Once on the ground they continued honking. Something about the herons flying overhead was truly beautiful. The piece is meant to allow the viewer to experience the enormity of the natural world, while bringing forth a profound awareness that we are a small part of a large but delicate ecosystem.  As the artist said, “The Cathedral offered deeper appreciation of life by prompting reflection on the fleeting nature of human existence, contrasted against the timeless and majestic presence of the environment that surround us.” I felt all of that as the herons flew overhead on the cool, misty, and otherwise quiet morning.

Slowly the parking lots filled with cars and the art students filed into the building. A grounds keeper fired up a loud edger and the herons flew off. The noise and clutter of humanity began to encroach. The Cathedral felt so much larger on that peaceful morning. The last time I had sketched it was at night and it blended into the dark night sky. Here its bold silhouette was predominant against the sky which turned from a dark grey to pure light.

I tried pulling up some stakes before Stella arrived but, like King Arthur’s sword, they were stubbornly impossible to extract. I decided there must be a tool needed to do the job. Many bamboo stalks were tied to the metal ring with natural string. I tried untying one with my fingernails but the knots just got tighter.  Bolts refused to budge as I tried to loosen them with my fingers. This sculpture wanted to remain standing. When Stella arrived she had a tool box with all the tools we would need. I snipped the strings with a wire cutter but better yet, she had an Exacto Blade which made the job simple. One by one the bamboo poles were walked over to a spot in the grass where she would later park the U-Haul.

With few poles left the metal ring became unstable and she had to hold it up by balancing it on her shoulders. She looked like Atlas holding up the world. When the final bold let loose the ring was gently lowered to the ground by both of us. It then rolled a short bit, and fell to the grass. It too needed to be disassembled into two strips of metal. I asked about the price of The Cathedral but Stella told me it is not for sale. It would make a magnificent centerpiece to a homestead garden.

The shortest bamboo poles were the first to be loaded on to the truck . The larger poles would have to be loaded corner to corner and they barely fit. One pole in particular had to be repositioned multiple times before the trucks back gate could be lowered. A student approached to ask the artist a question since she is a teaching assistant in a drawing class. A professor also approached to ask a question.  The artist seemed quite at home in the university setting. She has so many opportunities in the hopper as the Masters Program winds down for her. Only time will tell which way her path might turn. Of one thing I am sure, she will get her masters degree, which was well earned.