Exponential Decay

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Pam Schwartz and I went to the Rogers Kiene Building formerly The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801) for the monthly In between Series featuring Exponential Decay.  The in between Series is so named because each concert happens as one art show is coming down and the next one is being mounted. I focused my attention on sketching the nudes forming a human skull before the performers took to the stage. The Nudes won a red ribbon. The ribbon added a festive 4H County Fairs vibe to the setting.The In between Series concerts are notorious for stating about an hour after the time posed on the invite. This gives me plenty of time to sketch in the setting before the performance starts.

Exponential Decay is an experimental duo from Orlando, Florida. Their music draws inspiration from a wide breadth of genres and artists but is firmly maximalist. Consisting of Jeremy Adams (bass guitar and visual programming) and Aaron Linglebach (electric guitar), Exponential Decay debuted at the IMMERSE 2017 presented by the Creative City Project. Adams and Linglebach graduated from the University of Central Florida with degrees in Music Composition and Music Performance, respectively. Outside of noise making Adams and Linglebach teach music lessons in Central Florida and perform in a variety of popular genres.

Before Pixels

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Third Thursdays, now marketed as, Art, Tech Biz is an opportunity for visitors to converge downtown and celebrate art, food, technology, and business. Along the way,
people partake in an evening of sights, sounds, food, shopping, and cosmopolitan living. At the time of this sketch, I had two sketches on display at City Arts Factory, but in order to get a sketch done, I walked two blocks over to The Gallery at Avalon Island (now City Arts) to sketch the musicians performing for the evening.

The monthly Third Thursdays event includes, the Gallery Hop, hosted by the Downtown Arts District featuring numerous
galleries and non-traditional art venues that spotlight the best of
established and emerging Orlando-based artists, in tandem with nationally
and internationally acclaimed artists.

The 3rd Thu Biz
Networking events are hosted by the Downtown Orlando Partnership and
allow attendees to experience some of downtown’s fine establishments
while making great local business connections.

The Orlando Tech
Meetup offers tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs the chance to
socialize and hear five different technology groups present live product
demos.

This sketch done at The Gallery at Avalon Island was of the musicians for the night, Before Pixels.  Much has happened since this sketch was done, the historic Rogers Kiene Building (39 Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL) that was home to the Gallery at Avalon Island was donated to the city. Thus Avalon Island Art Gallery was shuttered. City Arts Factory moved from its location on Orange Avenue two blocks away to the Rogers Kiene Building and is now called CityArts Orlando. The end result is of course much less exhibition space as the visual arts scene shrinks in Orlando.

Art Critique

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An art critique was held at the Gallery at Avalon Island (39 South Magnolia Avenue Orlando FL). Each artist would bring a sample of work to discuss. It is best if the artist has a specific question that can be posed to the group. This artist hand paints electric guitars and other instruments.

The building was donated to the City of Orlando and is now known as the Rogers Kliene Building which is now part of
the Downtown Arts District. It is a contemporary art space that
displays work by emerging and established artists. The gallery is
located in the historic Queen Anne style Rogers Kliene building. It was
built in 1886, and is the oldest operational building in Orlando.

I had two painting on exhibit in what I believe was the last exhibit at City Arts Factory which will be moving into the Rogers Kliene Building. This means that the art scene in downtown Orlando has collapsed and substantially shrunk. The Rogers Kliene Building has 1.5 rooms as exhibition space as opposed to the 6 or so gallery rooms in City Arts Factory. Avalon Island curator Patrick Greene was planning to leave Orlando when Avalon Island closed, but was hired on at Laughing Samurai marketing.

The Inbetween Series at Avalon Island.

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Elizabeth Baker presented “Headspace/I Found a Pearl in the Wall This Morning” at The Gallery at Avalon Island, (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL 32801). This was a new work by new renaissance artist Elizabeth A. Baker, which
unfolded as a sonic and movement ritual exploring the meditative state of
opening the mind and vulnerable action of opening one’s heart. The work
incorporated interactive electronics, fixed media, lighting, dance,
Indian harmonium, toy piano, and found objects.

For the first half of the performance the artist, dressed in what appeared to be a bathrobe moved from instrument to instrument.I  sketched her in the various locations incorporating her multiple times into the sketch. The audience sat in two rows of chairs on either side of the open performance space. As it grew dark outside, the dozen or so candles on the floor were the only illumination. Sounds were recorded and repeated to achieve hypnotic effects. 

The program described the
performance of an “Autonomous Controller” who prompted  the Automaton range from musical
instructions to movement instructions to interaction with the audience
and performance space. The Automaton constantly carried a tablet to see the prompts from the Anonymous Controller. I can’t claim to understand what was happening, but it was visually fascinating to sketch. Pam Schwartz and several other members of the audience were given drum sticks to tap a beat on the floor. I passed on the interactive opportunity since my hands were occupied.

There was a short intermission and then Elizabeth came out dressed head to toe in a golden jump suit with a Mexican wrestler style golden hooded mask. She performed on the tiny piano like the one used by Schroeder in the Peanuts cartoon strip. Red lights projected patterns on the walls. Wires snaked everywhere on the floor. I left scratching my head, but, perhaps that was the point.

Nakatani Gong Orchestra.

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The Inbetween Series at The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801) features experimental music Inbetween he times that shows are hung in the gallery. An art exhibit titled Atelier was hung and ready for the November 20th opening, the show featured the works of Edson Campos and Kathleen Brodeur. The nude paintings added a pinch of creative class to the evening.

Earlier in the day, Tatsuya Nakatani had offered a gong workshop for fourteen Central Florida celestial, sonic jockeys. Using bows mallets the performers became a gong orchestra. Artist Lesley Silvia was one of the workshop attendees. She had never performed with a gong in her life, yet she seemed to blend seamlessly into the Gong blend.

Tatsuya began the evening with a solo performance. In his pre-show chat with the audience, he confided that being a gong virtuoso isn’t exactly a lucrative wasy to make a living. He used multiple gongs and a small drum set in his orchestrated piece.  I sketched him in several of his signature poses as he performed. At one point gongs crashed to the ground and it was all part of the creative din.

Third Thursday at Avalon Island.

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On every Third Thursday the downtown art galleries open for the beginning of new exhibitions. I often stop at The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL 32801) since there is live music in the bar area. I started drawing the wrought ironwork surrounding the stage and then stopped half way through the process, realizing that the intricate pattern wasn’t adding anything to the sketch. I have
been doing that more and more lately, just leaving out what doesn’t interest me
and sometimes drawing what does interest me several times. This willingness to
change history has allowed me to complete sketches must faster.

Two children sat playing video games the entire time I
sketched. They were oblivious to the art around them, but the games employed
artists to help design the world in which they were playing. Headphones
further guaranteed that they were isolated in this virtual world. The music was
pleasant to sketch to. I had sketched these musicians before. The gallery
curator, Patrick Greene, is often at the bar serving drinks. The gallery doesn’t
get very crowded, so it is nice to sketch a set and then move on to see more
art downtown.

Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt performed at Avalon Island.

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The Civic Minded 5, Timucua Arts Foundation
and Gallery at Avalon Island presented
a Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt  concert at the Gallery at Avalon Island (37 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801).

The evening consisted of solo mini-sets by Corsano and Orcutt followed by a duet set.

Guitarist Bill Orcutt could be described as a raw, outsider Country Blues guitarist or a radical, Post-Minimalist composer. Or he could be a Noise or No Wave musician gone acoustic to play chestnuts of American Vernacular Music. Checking all these boxes would also lead to a fairly functional description. It’s also fair to say that Bill’s international appeal in the last half a dozen years comes from his singular, dynamic approach with a partly de-stringed and re-tuned acoustic guitar.

Chris Corsano is a drummer who has been at the intersections of free improvisation, noise, and avant-rock musics since the late 1990’s. He has worked with saxophonists like Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee and Evan Parker; guitarists such as Sir Richard Bishop, Heather Leigh Murray, and Jim O’Rourke; and one-of-a-kind artists like Björk and Jandek.

The moody lighting and improvisational music was inspiring to sketch to leading me to let go of my tried and true methods to get an image on the page.

The Inbetween Series, David Vassalotti.

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The Inbetween Series, (The Gallery At Avalon Island, 39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL) hosted David Vassalotti. The Inbetween Series happens once a month when one art show is removed from the gallery walls, and another show goes up. Unique musicians use the venue as a small concert hall. Several simple lamps acted as stage lights. A skull was on the floor with the brain cavity open.

David’s music was hard edged and seemingly improvised. At times he would get on his knees to play, while electronic reverb pulsed through the foot-switch console. The friend I was with didn’t much like the music, feeling it was “masturbatory.” I let my mind wander as the lines danced on the page, and the electronic music helped keep the flow spontaneous.

Mark your calendar. On March 22, The Gallery at Avalon Island screened Fargo in the upstairs screening room. Fargo is the original Coen Brothers classic about “Homespun murder.” The plot centers on an ill-fated plan of greed, kidnapping, extortion, and a trusty wood chipper. Doors open at 6pm, film rolled at 7pm.

There will be Madness # 5 – A Flash Fiction Slam.

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There will be Madness  # 5 – A Flash Fiction Slam was held at The Gallery at Avalon Island (37 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801). Eight writers faced off head to head in three rounds and there was only one winner.

Jessie Bradley was the MC. What does it take to compete?

1 – No greater than 250 word story for the first round

2 – No greater than 500 word story for the second round

3 – No greater than 1000 word story for the final round

The last writer standing will received a copy of both There Will Be Words chapbooks for 2016.

In this town where poetry readings are a dime a dozen, it is nice to let some prose develop characters and plot. The best part: the audience decided who wins each round (which means, feel free to bring as many friends as possible to help rig the competition in your favor). I felt that my vote counted. Only take eight writers could compete. To sign up, e-mail twbwsubmissions@gmail.com or on the invite page. The show started around 7:00. Connie Cassia Heinz took home the grand prize.

Creative Process Workshop with Cirque Artistic Director, Daniel Ross.

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The Gallery at Avalon Island (37 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801) hosted a Creative Process Workshop with Cirque Artistic Director, Daniel Ross. The even I promised to bring a new level of depth and strength to attendees artistic process in this first Creative Process Workshop. The talk uncovered how to develop strong personal practices and how to work with a team of artists to bring a work to life.

The Creative City Project is honored to host the Artistic Director of Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba in this evening in three parts.

First, Daniel gave insights into the Creative Process from his experience working with Cirque du Soleil all over the world.

Second, we’ll take time to answer your questions about your own Creative Process and how to develop a strong company and organization to bring your creative ideas to life.

And lastly, Daniel gave feedback on some of your works in progress. 

The Creative City Project is committed to cultivating a thriving arts community in Orlando, and this new series of workshops is just one more way we’re doing that. Don’t miss it! Reserve your spot today.

When I arrived, the talk back was well under way. I muscled my way in through the standing room only crowd to find a decent view. The room was full of choreographers, dancers, visual artists, documentary film makers, writers and actors. I recognized faces in the crowd from past sketches. Orlando has such a rich talent base. One point that came up that I firmly believe in is to create, even when the mood doesn’t suit you. So long as you keep creating on consistent schedule, then you then find you are creative than you thought you are.