Winter Park Art Festival

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My wife works for Merrill Lynch. To kick off the start of the Winter Park Art Festival, Merrill Lynch opened the Winter Park office for a kick off party. The office branch has a wide open rooftop patio that overlooks Park Avenue. More important, food and drink were on the house all night. When Terry and I arrived there were lines of people waiting for food. I started sketching immediately. Irving Radar McLean was playing steel drum music all night. He quite honestly never took a break. I caught him briefly between songs to grab his business card. He said, “You’ll be makin plenty of money from that sketch you did of me”. He actually hadn’t seen the sketch but he had noticed me working.

Clients and prospective clients of Terry’s came to the rooftop event. While she was being a social butterfly, I sketched. Looking over the rooftop ledge unfortunately didn’t offer a view of the art festival itself. The show tents began one block further north. With my sketch finished, I then loaded up a plate and grabbed a beer. Terry introduced me to a local magazine art director and I was surprised to find out she knew of my work. After another beer, I relaxed enjoying the sunset as the steel drum lifted me away to a Caribbean retreat.

Foil Muse Receptor Caps

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The Silver Fern Writing Workshop held the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month is approaching its second anniversary. To help celebrate this milestone, Janna and Geoff Benge decided to mix it up and have some fun by having the authors create their own thinking caps, which they would then wear to tune in to their creative muse. My wife Terry planned to attend and I decided this was a sketch opportunity which could not be missed. When I arrived Janna started telling me that she had just gotten a text from a friend who was in Roswell and he wanted to know if she knew where to find the aliens. This was rather fortuitous, a sign.

Muse cap supplies were scattered about on the dining room table. There was plenty of tin foil, tin pie pans, buttons, rubber bands, straws, soda cup tops, tape and a glue gun. The first author to arrive, already had his tin foil cap made. It had two large handles and a large satellite disk. He explained that tin foil is usually used to deflect the forces of mind control. The disk however was a conduit for pure creative inspiration. Rachel Kapitan designed an elegant Victorian looking bonnet that resembled a peacock when it spread open, fan like, perched on her head. Karen Price used a pie plate cap with a central antenna with a disk and button to catch her signal. Another author used a simple foil cap with foil flames flowing out behind his head. He claimed the design was based on the classic mullet hair style. One author crafted a very accurate Mickey Mouse aluminum skull cap with two buttons that made it look eerily life like. I made some very simple viking horns for my baseball cap to assist in my sketching.

Soon everybody put on their caps and got down to the serious business of writing. The room grew quiet and the pencils, pens and keyboards clicked and scratched out the messages caught by the twitching antennae capturing inspiration from the ether. Twenty minutes flew by as I sketched furiously trying to capture the quirky moment.

Everyone was then asked to share their musings. As Rachel read her story, I became infatuated with the way the potted Mother in Law tongue plant flamed up beside her. I enjoyed Geoff’s story about an author’s dependence on his foil cap. He claimed the cap allowed him to go where no mind had gone before. He experienced such a high from the creativity generated by the cap, that he started wearing it to sleep and in the shower. It slowly became clear that this man’s addiction to creativity bordered on insanity.

Terry managed to press the wrong button on her computer and she lost everything she wrote. Several authors helped her search the hard drive with no luck. This is another advantage of analog over digital, things don’t just disappear. After everyone had read their stories, the serious business began of drinking Funky Llama White Wine and enjoying the conversations about art and literature in the internet age. The stories and laughter lasted late into the night. Rachel gave Terry pointers on how to incorporate more dialogue in her stories. As I was walking to my truck outside, I glanced back through a window and noticed the warmth of the light as the remaining authors talked around the dining room table. One author was on the front lawn using his cell phone, the foil cap still on his head.

Leu Gardens

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I went to Leu Gardens last week to sketch and report on a meeting of the City Public Art Advisory Board. This group selects artwork that hangs on the walls at City Hall and chooses the sculptures found in public places around town. Developers pay a 1 percent fee that goes into Public Art Fund coffers. As an artist I figured it was my responsibility to learn more. When I got to the Leu Gardens reception desk, I was told that there was not enough interest among members of the board and they didn’t have enough members planning to attend for a quorum. An e-mail was sent out at 8am that morning canceling the board meeting. I was not informed. Most people don’t know this board exists. Now I know why.

Later that week, I returned to Leu Gardens for the Annual plant sale. Terry and I go to this event every year to get inspiration for our own garden. It was a beautiful day with flowers in bloom everywhere. I arrived before Terry thinking I might get a sketch. Mosquitoes drove me away from one spot and an old man started telling me all about a geyser that apparently used to shoot up 100 feet from Lake Fairview. Since my sketch opportunities had been interrupted, I decided to get an ice cream cone. Delicious.

When Terry arrived I decided to simply stroll and enjoy the perfect weather. We kept running into people we knew, like Doug Rhodehamel, who now has a show called Dessication which uses dried plant matter to create whimsical under water creatures. Amanda Chadwick joined us. It was rather fun watching Amanda try and catch a photo of a Monarch butterfly on her iPhone. The Monarch never posed for long and Amanda was always in the wrong spot. I believe she did get her shot in the end. After seeing all the vendors, the three of us went down to the lake side gazebo. We bumped into Genevieve Bernard and Seth Kubersky And the conversations bounced between Passover practices, bird watching and travel adventures. Turtles and fish circled in the water expecting a hand out. An Osprey swooped down and splashed into the water grabbing a fish. The setting sun sparkled on the waters surface. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Buzzcatz

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On Saturday, Terry and I went to the 5th Annual Baldwin Park Art & Jazz Festival. The festival looked very much like every other festival I have been to in Baldwin Park. Vendors arts and crafts tents were lined up down the length of New Broad Street. There are always a wide assortment of dogs being walked in this Celebration like “Leave it to Beaver” neighborhood. Our first order of business was to find some lunch. We decided to eat at La Bella Luna which was an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria. Terry ordered a chicken Caesar salad and I ordered Lasagna. The chicken in Terry’s salad was dry, overcooked and she couldn’t eat it. My lasagna was tasteless except for the excessively salty sauce. I however can eat anything, although my stomach sometimes complains. The waiter asked how everything was and he got an earful from Terry. She said she was doing him a favor since the restaurant wouldn’t be around for long if this is what then were passing off as food. He would be better off finding a better restaurant to work in.

After lunch we ran into Hal Stringer who was displaying his colorful paintings. He relaxed in the shade of a tree and watched as people examined his bold landscape paintings. He applies the paint thickly with a pallet knife. My favorite painting was an abstract that resembled liquid fire. Hal pointed out the program to us and told us where the two stages were set up. Terry and I wandered to the end of the streets and were drawn to the music of the Buzzcatz. Terry and I spotted Carol Stein, a wonderful pianist, song writer and composer. She grabbed a table and I sat down to sketch. While I worked, Terry decided to shop and explore the arts and crafts tents. Carol and I ordered margaritas. Carol said, “These people don’t realize the world class caliber of musical talent they are listening to!” I had seen the guitarist on the left, Bobby Koeble, at a Rollins College Faculty showcase concert and he amazed me. The classic jazz, motown and rat pack era music kept the audience swaying. Several couples started to swing dance while children ran in circles on a patch of lawn. Behind the band people relaxed in the grass looking out over Lake Baldwin.

The Skill Crane Kid

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As part of ArtsFest, Brian Feldman purchased a skill crane machine, stuffed it full of plush toys and then crawled inside where he remained for 16 hours. The machine was set up in Stardust Video and Coffee. When I arrived with Terry, Brian had already been inside for over six hours. Children especially loved the performance, often begging their parents for more change so they could try the skill crane again. Some people took pleasure in dropping the metallic skill crane claws on Brian’s head. For me the performance once again had a Kafkaesque quality reminding me of the Hunger Artist. Brian’s presence also reminded me of carnival barkers at the fair whose main objective is to keep the rubes from winning a prize. Brian acted as a sort of anti-carnie, actually placing a plush toy in the claws of the feeble skill crane to satiate each child’s greed and desire.

I seldom had an unobstructed view of the skill crane. More often than not families blocked my view as they took pictures and stuffed quarters in the machine. A friend of Brian’s named Helen Henny was shooting photos the whole time I was sketching. Sultana Ali, Brian’s girlfriend, was in the next room and she seemed to be updating Brian’s Twitter and Facebook accounts as the performance progressed. I heard the performance was streamed live. Terry and Sultana had lunch while I sketched. Several hours later when the sketch was finished, I walked up to the skill crane to say goodbye to Brian. He gestured from inside saying I had to try my hand at the skill crane. I refused, until Terry lent me the dollar to play. Several people in the room egged me on so I gave in and decided to play. I maneuvered the crane over a small teddy bear right near the exit chute of the machine figuring that if the crane didn’t grab the bear, it might just get knocked loose. I really didn’t need a teddy bear, and I didn’t want to play the game, but once the machine took the money, then the stakes were high. I had two tries and both times the poorly designed claw picked up nothing but air. With this failure I suddenly realized I was upset, not at the machine but at Brian. I had seen him coax the toys into the claw for child after child as I sketched. He even coaxed a toy out for Genevieve Bernard. Everyone was a winner but me! His passivity as I played made him just like any loud mouthed carnival barker who coaxed money from people at the fair using insults and dark sinister humor. I felt robbed.

As a child I once dreamed of getting a huge balloon that was for sale on an ice cream truck that wandered my neighborhood. Inflated, the balloon was larger than me . By the time I had convinced my mom to give me the change needed, the truck was long gone. I ran down the street for many blocks before finally giving up. I was devastated. The next day the balloon was forgotten. I had new obsessions. The night after Brian exited the skill crane, I met him in Stardust video and coffee to get my video camera back which had recorded most of his performance. Brian took me out to Sultana’s truck and presented me with the palm sized bear I had tried to win. I refused at first, but he insisted. At home my pet cockatoo was scared of the little stuffed bear at first, his crest rose in surprise, but then he ripped out its eyes and eviscerated its stomach playfully.

Fall Festival

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Terry and I went down to Lake Eola for the annual Fall Festival. It was a beautiful day, bright and crisp.The streets around the Park were blocked from traffic and crafts tents lined both sides of the street. The streets were packed with people. Of all the jewelry, lawn gnomes, wooden signs and ceramics I saw, nothing interested me. shopping with no set goal is hard for me. There is no, “thrill of the hunt” when shopping, I Just want to get what I need and leave. I do experience “the thrill of the hunt” when it comes to sketching. After patiently walking through two thirds of the festival I finally had to let Terry know that t couldn’t take it anymore, I had to sketch. I had stopped right at the North East corner of the Park where a beautiful flowerbed was in full bloom. Yellow and violet flowers were arranged to create the image of a giant star.

I set up my artist stood on the sidewalk behind a craftsman’s tent. Behind the flower bed children were running, screaming, and bouncing. Parents relaxed on the stone retaining wall that arched around the flower bed. Radio station K92 FM was set up in a mobile van pumping out music. One of those inflatable fabric tube puppets grated and gestured to the beat, flapping happily. When I finished the sketch, I called Terry and we decided to get some food. We both ordered juicy Mediterranean gyros and sat on a park bench near a Civil war memorial to people watch. Imagining peoples lives and relationships was far more interesting than any trinket found in the tents.

Nude Nite

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This year Nude Nite was in a large warehouse South of Downtown, (SODO). Terry and I arrived in separate vehicles. I parked in front of a cement factory. Terry got to the event before me and greeted me at the entrance. We got to the event early but it was already packed inside. The first thing we saw was this woman seated nude on a blue inflatable chairs with a red fabric covering her head and a phone outlet cord plate where her face would be. I started sketching Immediately. A sign invited people to pick up the phone. On occasion people would sit opposite the woman and hold the phone. Most people only did this long enough to have their picture taken. As one patron said, “I am presuming that’s what pay-for-phone-sex sounds like. It was hard to hear, because of all the ambient noise, but I did hear enough.” As the crowd grew thicker, fewer people took the seat since there would be an audience watching them for a reaction. Terry came back after wandering and looking at all the nude art. She mentioned that there was nowhere to sit in the whole place. I suggested she sit opposite the woman I was sketching but she didn’t want to become part of the performance.

After the first sketch we walked around together and I got to see all the art for the first time. By now the venue was jam packed. Emotions Dancers slipped gracefully around among the crowd. Periodically one of the dancers would let out an ear piercing scream. We kept bumping into people we knew. I recognized the work of some of the artists I know. For the second sketch, I watched beautiful women get body painted with graffiti from head to toe. I noticed that no one was completely nude. women always wore panties. A more accurate title for the event might be Topless Night. Sketching the body painter, I was often bumped by photographers who were so excited to shoot a nude body that they never looked where they were going. Actually this was true all night, everyone stared and crashed into one another.
I was starving. We had been to a reception prior to Nude Nite but the food was gone by the time we arrived. Terry had some sushi provided by Sushi 101. She couldn’t use the chop sticks provided so they wrapped a rubber band around them to make them easier to use. We wandered around looking for an open restaurant but nothing was open but fast food restaurants. We were almost home before we had to give up and go to Burger King.
I found out that an artist who exhibited work at Nude Nite had a painting go missing. If you see this painting anywhere around town, leave a comment on this blog. The artist is offering a reward for information leading to its return. The reward is either a print of the painting or a small original charcoal drawing of the artists choice. I had my own work disappear at a Sonesta Hotel fundraiser and work has been defaced at Pom Poms Cafe, we need to stop the madness or Orlando will become a cultural backwater.

Flash! At Parliament House

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On the day of the FLASH MOB at the Mall at Millenia, dancers were invited to give an encore performance of their dance moves at the Parliament House. Admission is usual $10 but Flash Mob participants could get in free for the night. Terry had danced in the Flash Mob and she was excited to have this second “gig”. It was 80’s night. The place was filled with images from 1980’s early video games. The bartender I decided to draw was wearing a Super Mario Brothers style hot as he checked out Facebook on his iPhone. This back room bar was probably the quietest spot in the club. The throbbing 80’s beat still set me cokes surface to vibrate. Lightning kept changing from green to red and back making color choices in the painting a challenge.

Terry had remained behind near the dance floor waiting for her moment to once again strut her stuff. with all that was going on, no one noticed me sketching. Two other bartenders were dressed as big blue Smurfs. Pac Man images were everywhere.This was my first time at the Parliament House in the evening and it was a wild eye opening experience. There was such a cross section of humanity, from cross dressers, gays, lesbians, straight, young and old you name it. It was a sketch artists paradise.

The Flash Mob was reenacted right on cue. Everyone went wild and joined in the on the dance floor. It was like an electroshock jolt that set the dance floor ablaze. The disco ball spun and neon rippled out from the ceilings center. Smoke filled the space making shafts of light visible as they cut through the air. When the dance was complete, I was just finishing up my sketch. Terry and I both decided to head home. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in as we left. The evening was just getting started and I suspect things were about to get unhinged. I have heard that the Parliament House is having financial troubles and might close soon. That is hard to believe since there was such an amazing crowd. It would be a real shame if the place closed since it is the closest thing to the Moulin Rouge that Orlando has.

My Dog Tulip

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I went to the Enzian Theater to meet Terry and see the animated feature film “My Dog Tulip.” This film was traditionally animated and I had heard great reviews. I went to the Enzian straight from work and arrived before Terry. I got the tickets and then settled in at the Eden Bar for a drink. I ordered an Orange Blossom beer and got out the sketch book. There was only one other patron at the bar and she was seated at the far end near the cash register. The bartender, Robert Johnson, put on some music that I had never heard before. The woman started asking Robert some questions about the music. It turns out the CD was a preliminary mix for his band, Odin’s Den. He said there were still many things he wanted to tweak to bring the sound mix up to par.

I really liked the music. One song in particular struck a note with me called, “I paint a picture in shades of gray.” When the woman said she liked the music just as it was, Robert tried to explain the subtleties he was listening for. At a party at Blank Space following an opening of a Seed Alliance art opening I participated in at the downtown public library, Odin’s Den performed. The sound check was indeed a long arduous process. Robert would lean close to the speaker and turn dials trying to get the sound just right. Blank Space is a rather small venue and the sound was loud and full. Terry told me I should put in ear plugs. I refused deciding to listen to the music’s full force. Just as I refuse to wear sunglasses anymore, I choose to experience things fully and unfiltered.

“My Dog Tulip” had me enthralled. The whole film looks like my rough sketches with no attempt at polishing them to some pristine finish. This was the furthest thing from a Disney film I had ever seen. It made me want to bring my sketches to life. The entire film was narrated giving it a straight forward matter of fact tone. Entirely about the search for the ideal friendship and an Englishman who found that friendship and endless devotion with his dog. There was sincerity to every scene. One scene even had the signature of the background artist. There was a child like joy to some of the roughest animated scenes. I fell in love with the look and sentiment of this film. It felt hand made, the vision of a single artist.

Boston Coffeehouse

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On the day of the 30th International SketchCrawl, Terry and I wandered the streets of Deland as the sun set. The temperature plummeted and I was happy to even shop just so I could go inside and get warm. We ran across a quirky little comics shop and went inside. The store had two narrow isles packed floor to ceiling with science fiction pulp novels, comics, figurines and even quality literary books by authors like Hermann Hess and Harper Lee. At the front of the store I was tempted to buy a book about sketching on location. As I was flipping through the pages Terry was talking to the store owner.

Terry asked if he had any Zorro Books and he showed her an entire drawer filled with Zorro comics. She squealed with delight. She wanted to know if I had money in my pocket so she could buy them all. Now, she isn’t a comic book collector, this went back to some childhood impulse that I don’t quite understand. On an upper shelf there was a sculptural figurine bust of Zorro still in it’s original packaging. The bust was $60. She said she couldn’t afford it but she just had to see it. The store owner delicately unwrapped the paper from around the bust and removed it from it’s snug Styrofoam inner casing. She turned to me and said she had to have it. I didn’t have that much money. She asked the store owner if there was an ATM nearby. He said there was one behind the bank across the street. I stayed behind searching through the books while she rushed across the street to get money for her fix. She couldn’t find the cash machine but he accepted a personal check.

After dropping off her stash in my truck, we went to this cozy coffee shop to relax. We were planning to go to a heroes and Villains party in Longwood but that was not starting for two more hours. Terry read her book and I started to sketch. She got some caramel infused foamy coffee and I got a Mountain Dew. I also ordered an apple fritter which was delicious. In the back of the coffee shop a storytellers meeting was taking place. There was a constant stream of customers ordering coffee and then leaving. As I was finishing up the sketch my stomach started to rumble. It had been a long day of sketching and worrying about sketch opportunities lost. My body was starting to revolt. I gave Terry my keys and asked her to drive me home. She got behind the wheel already dressed up as Zorro for the party we would have to miss.