Culture Pop! Not Your Typical Art Opening.

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I went to the Maitland Art Center (231 E Packwood Ave, Maitland, Florida) to sketch at Culture Pop. The evening featured the opening of “Contemporary and Historic Landscapes,” with works by Bruce Marsh, Dawn Roe and pieces on loan from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum. In addition to being among the first to see new exhibitions, guests also enjoy live music, poetry readings, complimentary food & cash bar with fine wines, craft beer and more.

Activities on the campus grounds included open artist studios and a pop-up exhibit by one of the A&H’s Artists-in-Action, Martha Lent. I decided to sketch The Actomatics, who had set up their band equipment on what used to be an abandoned shuffleboard court. They had a string of white Christmas Light strung across the top of all the instruments and it made for a magical display. Shadow, who was on the keyboards, introduced herself. There was unfortunately very few people in the audience. Besides myself there were only three other people seated in the folding chairs. That didn’t hinder the spirits of Shadow, Rick an of Shadow, John and Rick however. They performed a magnificent set of all original tunes. As a true artist, you don’t always need an audience. Some birds sing for the pure joy of singing. I sketch and write, not knowing if a word is heard, or a sketch seen.

Several times, I was offered complimentary appetizers from Creations Catering and Events. The server was a young woman who is an artist herself. She was very curious about the Wacom tablet I was using to sketch. She is excited about the new Apple iPad Pro that came out and she is hoping it might find its way under her tree this Christmas.

In the Mayan Courtyard, there were literary readings by the DIY MFA Readers: Danielle Kessinger, Misty Watkins and Karen Price. I didn’t make it over that way to sketch. As I left, I did get a chance to see Martha Lent’s large colorful paintings, as she took the art off the walls and loaded it into her car. I admire her large bold works which make me wish that I was working so large.

The N Tunes performed at Maitland Art Center’s Culture & Cocktails Summer Concert Series.

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Art and History Museums (231 W Packwood Ave, Maitland, FL) has a Summer Concert Series as part of their monthly Culture and Cocktails event. This sketch of the N Tunes was done at the July 2014 event. When I arrived the band was still setting up the sound equipment. It was the golden hour, a time when the warm light gets more intense and orange as the sun sets. Large live oaks and palm trees kept the stage shaded, but a bright magenta stage light illuminated the stage. By the time the band started performing, the stage and background were blocked in with pencil.

As with most Culture and Cocktail events, there was also poetry being read across the street in the Mayan Courtyard. New art exhibits had also opened to the public. Although I would love to be everywhere at once, I have to limit myself to focusing one one thing a a time. Sketching takes time.

N Tunes website describes the band as “performing songs from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Adele,
Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, Kid Rock and everything in between that’s
currently topping the charts, this 5 piece powerhouse of a group
lays it down with style. Having the N-Tunes perform at your venue or
event is like having all of the current top 4Art the consummate party band. With a wealth of popular material to pull
from, they can tailor their performance to meet your needs.”

Finding information about the performers wass close to impossible. All I could find out online is that the lead singer is Natalie Wright.

Bring Your Own Beamer at the Maitland Art Center

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Bring Your Own Beamer Orlando was a one night gallery exhibition featuring explosions of light and movement by local and world renowned digital artists, designers and filmmakers.

This is pop up projected experience included animated GIFs, motion graphics, interactive installations, video shorts, and more.

BYOB Orlando is a collaborative effort by Snap! Orlando, and the Art and History Museum with Nathan Selikoff and Michael Forrest as the curators.It took place in the Germain Marvel Building, Art and History Museum campus (231 East Packwood Avenue, Maitland, FL).

Even more more important, the exhibit fell on my birthday, so I treated myself to a unique sketching experience. Since the show was all about high tech projections, I decided to execute my sketch on my tablet. I figured that way I would sort of blend in. It was tricking finding a spot where I wasn’t blocking a projection beam. I sat right next to the projector that threw an animation of a view that looked like the camera was flying over a city of colorful cubes. I was most intrigued by Ivan Depeña‘s piece which consisted of a blue screen that would explode like colorful fireworks when people walked in front of it. All evening children and adults moved in front of the screen to watch the color dance. On the floor was a tiny TV. I couldn’t make out what was being shown but later when i got a drink, I met Carl Kickerbocker and he explained that the TV was showing one off his animated shorts. I decided to go back and I sat down in front of the TV to watch. Another projection was sampling colors from around the room and vibrations from a pan of water drove the image frequencies projected. I’m probably explaining that wrong, but it looked cool. This really was a world class exhibit. Exhibitions like this have occurred all around the world in cities like Moscow, Begota, Firenza,  NYC and Copenhagen to name a few. It is good to see Orlando catching up to the World art scene.

Artists in the Orlando BYOB exhibit included,

Culture Pop

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On November 8th, I exhibited a sketch at the Maitland Art Center (231 W. Packwood Avenue, Maitland FL.) Devin Dominguez had the unique idea of exhibiting art on clothes lines in the museum’s courtyard. Since there was no charge to the artists, I submitted a sketch for the evening. My sketch was on the right hand clothesline in that inverted pyramid stand.

The evening included music, poetry from Maitland Poets and Writers, and food from Gator County BBQ Food Truck and of course cocktails. The Art and History Museum’s Main Galleries will were open for guests to enjoy A Day in the Life of the Research Studio and shop at the Museum Store. Terry stopped out, excited to hear local author Naomi Butterfield read. Inside the Art Center, there was an exhibit by the first artist in residence in 56 years,  Josette Urso from Brooklyn New York. This is the first formal,
nationally competitive Residency program at the Art and History Center since
Smith’s fellowship program, which was funded by Mary Curtis Bok from
1938 through 1957. Several of Josette’s pen and ink drawings were absolutely stunning. I should have bought one. All the sketches and drawings were done around the Maitland Museum property, having the Mayan motifs. Other work was more abstract. It was a really good exhibition.

We ran in to a former colleague of Terry’s who was exhibiting several photos of horses. The plan was to stay until the event closed and then take the sketch home that night, but after watching several readings, Terry wanted to go out to get some dinner. We ended up getting some fast food. I picked up my art a week later.

Robert Ross Studio #7

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The Art and History Museums of Maitland (A&H) offers an Artist-in-Action (AIA) program that reflects the spirit of founder J. André Smith’s Research Studio and the current mission of the institution. This program provides non-residential studio space to an established or emerging artist for the professional practice and research of fine art. This program is an exciting opportunity to interact with A&H’s community of artists and art enthusiasts while working in this uniquely rich and historic environment.

A fixture at the institution for many years, the A&H’s acclaimed Artist-in-Action program takes place at the A&H’s historic Maitland Art Center (originally André Smith’s Research Studio). In Smith’s day, famous artists were invited to live and work at the Research Studio in the winter months, including luminaries Milton Avery and Ralston Crawford. In the recent past, a number of very well-known artists occupied the studios in a non-resident capacity, including the late Anita Wooten, Barbara Tiffany, and Ellie Diez-Massaro.

On September 12th I went to visit Robert Ross one of the 2013 Artists in Action. I got to the studio a bit early, so I considered doing a quick study of the Maitland Art Center’s central courtyard.  Unfortunately that sketch was interrupted by a lawn jockey who entered the courtyard with a lawn mower. He isn’t permitted to mow a lawn with anyone within 50 feet of him because flying debris could cause injury. He asked me to leave and I erased what I had started. Robert arrived as I exited the courtyard.

His studio doesn’t have any windows, but the bathroom window lets light in when the door is left open. A large tree branch was hung on one wall and Robert was working on a life sized sketch which was pinned to the wall directly below the branch. He decided to work on a still life with a cup, jar and seed pod. He quickly assembled his field paint easel. A warm spot light was set up to illuminate his scene. Robert’s paintings  have been exhibited in a growing number of venues in Central Florida. He also maintains a studio at McRae Art Studios in Winter Park. He worked quickly on his painting and I tried to maintain the same energy with my sketch by avoiding line in favor of value and color. Robert is a retired graphic designer and he loves the ability to pursue painting full time. He plans to take part in the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival where he can see which pieces sell. He doesn’t want to get caught up in chasing the market. I admire Robert’s work which is a blend between Edward Hopper and Fairfield Porter.  Many of his pieces show lonely, empty spaces between structures.

Recently he has been doing large painting based on sketches from sketchbooks. He likes having control over color and form which he can experiment with not feeling the need to slavishly recreate every detail. Watching him work made me itch to start attacking large canvases myself.

Plein Air Paint Day with Josette Urso

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The Maitland Art and History Center‘s new Artist-In-Residence Josette Urso, from Brooklyn New York, began her
residency on April 28. Her residency continued through June 2. The
program honors the legacy of founder J. André Smith, and the 75th
anniversary of the Research Studio’s (now the Art and History
Museums of Maitland) first Bok Fellow. This is the first formal,
nationally competitive Residency program at the Art and History Center since
Smith’s fellowship program, which was funded by Mary Curtis Bok from
1938 through 1957. During her tenure, Urso will work
in her studio and paint plein air, affording visitors an opportunity to
see her create throughout campus.

On Saturday, May 11th, from 10 AM to 1 PM, Josette Urso held an official Plein Air Paint Day at the Maitland Art Center (231 W Packwood Ave, Maitland, FL). Painters from around Central Florida were encouraged to come and create alongside Urso. She showed us the tools and techniques she uses to create her widely-collected paintings. This program was FREE and the public was encouraged to attend.

Josette showed us a color wheel and explained how a limited palette could unify a painting. She had some empty slide casings which she said could help a beginner to see a composition. She said in a workshop she taught in Taiwan, several students taped the slide casings to the brim of their baseball caps.  She explained the importance of thumbnail drawings and she demonstrated a thumbnail sketch using as few lines as possible. We then went off to do our own thumbnails. I excitedly sketched the fifteen or so students around me as they sketched architectural details or foliage. I knew artist Chere Force and Lynn Whipple. I checked out other artists progress and then returned to my own work.

The next step took me outside my comfort zone. We had to pick a thumbnail sketch, and work it  up as a larger painting without using line. My primary issue seemed to be that my brush was to small to put down satisfying bold blocks of color. I found that my two color studies were done before the class was over so I couldn’t resist putting in a few sensual lines afterwards. It was a fun workshop and I’m thinking I might work faster with my daily sketches by focusing on large washes first. The issue I’ve had is that the pens I use die the second they touch water. If I can find a good fountain pen, that might solve that problem. An even bolder decision would be to give up the pen all together. Time and daily experimentation will tell.

pARTicipate: Side Show of the Senses

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pARTicipate was an exotic fundraising gala held on April 6th, under the stars and throughout the Art and History Museum’s beautiful Maitland Art Center campus, the stage was perfectly set for this Sideshow of the Senses, an interactive event that showcased local visual artists, fabulous food, and intriguing performances. The campus came to life, with every nook filled with art and activity. Guests could explore the grounds as they enjoyed a progressive dining experience, featuring cuisine by celebrated local chef Jamie McFadden of Cuisiniers. There were fine wines and beers at tasting centers throughout the campus.

Art installation dining tables, created by the participating artists, offered guests a unique dining experience. Select artists created art during the event, as they shared their stories and insights. The silent auction of artworks, donated by popular Central Florida artists, generated some lively bidding. Talented Phantasmagoria entertainers from Empty Spaces Theatre Co(llaboration), under the direction of John DiDonna, performed throughout the evening. Phantasmagoria is a local macabre performing troupe of fire-breathers, musicians, and acrobats.

When Terry and I arrived, I immediately scouted around looking for my sketch opportunity. When I entered a secluded inner sanctum of the Maitland Campus I found this table with a nun standing beside a skeleton. I was certain she was a live model posing as a statue. I approached tentatively until I finally saw that her plastic gaze was eternal. I wandered some more to look at other decorated tables. Dawn Schreiner had set up a tree with play money as leaves. Each bill had one of her paintings on it.

I then bumped into Camilo Velasquez. I told him about my scare with the nun, and he told me that he had decorated that table. A photographer wanted to interview Camilo and that settled the matter. I followed them back to the nun. Camilo had grown up with dominant priests and nuns in New York and he always felt like an outsider. The table design had been inspired by the art of Paul delVaux, a Belgian artist who lived through the atrocities of World War II. As I worked on this sketch, Melissa Mila Marakoff, one of the Phantasmagoria performers, slipped up behind me. She whispered in my ear, “I don’t mean to startle you.” I just about jumped out of my skin. She startled me half to death and I shouted out with a start. Everyone had a good laugh. It was as if death had whispered to call me away before my work was done.

With the sketch complete I grabbed a few morsels to eat. I sat at Dawn Schreiner’s table and after a few texts, Terry found me there. Dawn started disassembling her table display. Two small doves were in a cage hanging from a tree. I hadn’t noticed them until Dawn pointed them out. They were puffed up and snuggled together. Dawn’s play money paintings had a draw back in that some patrons thought they could take a painting if they replaced it with a real dollar bill. Obviously these patrons didn’t know the true value of her work. The pARTicipate Event raised over $30,000 gross, $18,000 net, with proceeds benefiting art and history programming at the Museums. Bats fluttered in the darkness as Terry and I made our way back to the car.

Weekend Top 6 Picks

Saturday June 16th, 2013

9:30am – 5:30pm  Orlando Anime Day $3 International Palms Resort & Conference Center 6515 International Dr Orl FL 32819. One day anime marketplace that brings all your anime/manga needs to you & Features over 2,000 sq ft of dealers, Video/Event room, prize giveaways, raffle drawing, cosplay, & FREE Parking.

www.orlandoanimeday.net

http://animecons.com/events/info.shtml/4139/Orlando_Anime_Day_2013#

1pm – 3pm FREE Plein Air Paint demonstration by Frank Ferrante. Cottage, located on beautiful Lake Lily park in Maitland. The demonstration is FREE and all are welcome to attend. This Plein Air influenced oil painting demonstration is for painters who want to develop a sound understanding of the fundamentals of outdoor painting. The demonstration will focus on the formal elements of painting composition, color values, structure and form. Emphasis will be placed on composition, capturing light and dark shapes, atmosphere and mood while using strong color harmony. We hope to see you at the Cottage this Saturday!

7:30pm – 9:30pm Coupled: The Game Show & Game Night. The Abbey 100 South Eola Drive, Orlando, Florida 32801. Tickets, which are $12.50 per person, can be purchased online in advance as well as at The Abbey. Created by Curtis Earth Entertainment and Great Dates Orlando, Coupled begins with a hilarious interpretation of the classic he said/she said Newlywed Game, the event will invite 6 couples to compete on stage for prizes as they demonstrate how well they REALLY know each other. Of course, Curtis will be mixing in trivia throughout so audience members can win some fabulous prizes too! Immediately following the ninety-minute show, classic board games (Sorry, Connect Four, etc.) will be set up at tables throughout this posh venue so you and your sweetie can continue the fun well into the night. In addition, we’ll be playing Twister, Musical Chairs, and Dance Freeze on the dance floor. Expect lots of prizes, drink specials and more fun than you could ever imagine having on date night.

Sunday June 17th 2013.

11am – 2pm Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s! Hamburger Mary’s 110 West Church Street

Orlando, FL 32801  (321) 319-0600 Show tunes, drink specials, and an amazing
show with Broadway performances by The Minx, Ginger Minj, and special
guests. Seating at 11:00am with show starting at 12pm 

6pm – 8pm FREE SHUT YOUR FACE! Poetry Slam by Curtis Meyer! La Casa De La Paellas 10414 E Colonial Dr Orlando FL 32817. The only current ongoing slam in Orlando officially certified by Poetry Slam Incorporated, IE. Send a team to Nationals as well as poets to The Individual World Poetry Slam & Women of The World Poetry Slam! $50 to the winner! If you’ve never seen or been in a slam before, it’s definitely worth checking out! INFO: curtisxmeyer@hotmail.com

www.casadelaspaellas.com

9pm – 11pm FREE: “Comedy Open Mic” Austin’s Coffee: 929 W Fairbanks Ave Winter Park, FL 32789. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Josette Urso

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Josette Urso is a Brooklyn based artist who has been invited to come down for a residency at the Maitland Art Center.  Her residency runs from April 28 through June 2nd. This residency program has been resurrected after about a 30 year hiatus. lt was part of J. Andre Smith‘s vision to bring accomplished artists to Florida where they could recharge their creative batteries. Past artists of national prominence,  who were residents here included Milton Avery, Ralston Crawford, Doris Lee, Boris Margo and Teng Chiu.

Josette offered a presentation of her work in the Germaine Marvel Building on the Maitland Art Center Campus. I was one of the first people to arrive. I had been in contact with Josette because I hoped to sketch her at work and learn about her process. This talk was a perfect way to truly meet the artist. She talks with passion and excitement about her art which is accomplished and branches in multiple directions. What was most exciting was that her work has a sense of play as she experiments in various mediums.

Some of the earliest work was collage arranged in circles. Intricate images inhabited tiny squares within the over all design. They were like Madella’s or kaleidoscopes with vibrant color. She collects UPC codes and these linear patterns adorned one of the circular motifs. The image she was working on was huge and she ran out of UPC codes. Most people go to their neighbors perhaps for a cup of sugar but she turned to her neighbors for codes.

When she showed her Urban drawings, I was inspired. One sketch was of a Bushwick building rooftop with a flock of pigeons moving as a dark mass above the building. She thought the pigeons would always be there but the coup was closed down. The drawing was done with a child’s pen she had purchased in Taiwan. The ink is beginning to fade along with the inspiring memory of the flock. She would visit other artist’s studios and sketch the amazing views.

Her paintings border on the abstract yet are grounded in direct observation. She likes to get lost in the process moving around the page and is surprised when it all lines up. One action always leads to another. Her paintings pose questions not offering just answers. Different tools inspire different images. An ink sketch can’t be erased yet an oil painting can be kept in a constant state of flux. Here in Maitland she is working plein air getting her inspirations from the gardens around the museum. She admitted that the Florida sun had tapped her energy. Someone needs to bring this woman a big straw wide brimmed hat.

On Saturday, May 11, from 10 AM to 1 PM,the Art and History Museum will hold an official Plein Air Paint Day with Josette Urso. Painters from around Central Florida are encouraged to come and create alongside Urso. Guests will discover the tools and techniques Urso uses to create her widely-collected paintings, as they enjoy the beauty of the A&H’s Maitland Art Center campus. This program is FREE and the public is encouraged to attend.

Artist Critique and Conversation

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Tonight, March 26th, between 6Pm and 8PM, I will be a guest panelist at the Art and History Museums of  Maitland, Artist Critiques Evening held in the Art and History Museum’s Germaine Marvel Building. The event is free and open to the Public.  The Artist Critique and Conversation series, is a professional development series that offers artists the opportunity to have their work reviewed. Held on the 4th Tuesday of every month at 6 pm at the Maitland Art Center, the critiques are led by artist and arts writer Josh Garrick, along with guest panelists Thomas Thorspecken and Camilo Velasquez. Each evening is meant to be both entertaining and informative with audience participation encouraged.

Artists of every medium and skill level are encouraged to participate in the critiques.  Each critique will review up to 9 artists, and all artists MUST sign up in advance. Interested artists can sign up in advance for one of the nine slots.  Each artist can only sign up for one of the nine slots every three months.

This sketch was done at the January Critique. A nocturnal painting by Deloris Habencorn is on the easel.  Marion DeJong showed five paintings depicting life in Siri Lanka. She has just recently taken up painting and the pieces which had a folk art flair were quite accomplished. Lorain Del Wood showed several of her fashionable women in large hats. She has been offered a licensing agreement which she is quite excited about. The guest panelists that night were Martha Joe Mahoney and Dr. Victor Locas.

Greg Nielsen showed several small paintings of clouds. Martha liked the pieces but she encouraged him to be bold and work very large. That way he would be more physical in the creative process and perhaps bolder. She wanted him to consider the luscious quality of the paint working fat into lean, with thick juicy strokes. He took in all she said but when asked what he thought of the idea, he said, “The notion of working that large would probably scare my wife.” Everyone laughed.

Orange, White and Blue Gala

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Devin Dominguez invited Terry and I to Evening in the Grove, was an Orange, White and Blue Gala honoring the Orlando Magic with proceeds benefiting the Art and History Museums of Maitland. I wore a blue and white striped shit,with a blue tie and jacket. The event was at the Sheraton Orlando North Hotel in Maitland. I had sketched a wedding reception here once. As soon as guests entered the hotel. they were greeted by Ashley and Amy, two of the Orlando Magic dancers. I wandered around the lobby looking at all the silent auction items but I couldn’t find a spot to sketch. Dawn Schreiner was doing quick portraits for anyone who wanted to sit for a bit. There were several Orlando Magic players, Bo Outlaw and Nick Anderson, sitting by themselves but they
looked bored and so I decided that the chipper dancers were my best bet for a decent sketch during the cocktail hour. They posed with people and waited patiently between photo shoots. They didn’t quite know shat to make of me and they peeked at the sketch in its early stages.

They wandered off and I debated about abandoning the sketch. I figured they were creeped out by the loony with the sketchbook. I decided to focus on features of the room and before long, the dancers were back. Amy peeked again and said, “Moving on the ink, this is getting serious.” This time I nailed down the dancers slender proportions. Raffle tickets were being sold by the arm length. Bidding on the silent auction items involved downloading a program on the smart phone where bids stacked up digitally, and you were even warned if someone outbid you. I tried to limit my palette to blue, white and orange. When I finished the sketch, I found my way to the dining area. The salads had just been served, so my timing was perfect. Speed painter, Tony Corbitt was on stage doing a painting of Paul McCartney of the Beetles. Tony usually takes his shirt off when he paints but event organizers insisted he keep his shirt on. I’m always impressed with the speed in which he nails a celebrity face using just white paint on a black board.

The live auction was lively with one of Tony’s paintings bringing in over $300. Henry Maldonado,  president of thee Enzian Theater, acted as the Emcee. Speakers pointed out that the Orlando Magic Youth Fund had distributed over $17 million dollars through the Orlando Magic Youth Fund. Programs like, Journey to the Arts, help bring culture to at risk youth who might never get that experience otherwise. A young woman named  Mercedes Beaudoin got behind the mic to talk about her experience as an intern working for the Maitland Art and History Museums. She spoke of how much she learned and how grateful she was. The arts offered a long lasting meaningful purpose. Then she choked up as she said, “especially since my mother died recently.” The room grew quiet as she regained her composure and spoke about how important the arts are in our lives. Everyone stood and clapped as she left the stage. The evening brought in a net total of $48,200. All monies raised will support art and history programming at the Art and History Museums of Maitlnd.