The Sketchbook Project

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The Sketchbook Project has been touring the nation and it made a stop at Urban ReThink (625 East Central Blvd., Orlando). The Sketchbook Project sells small sketchbooks to artists around the country, asking the artists to return the book full of art. I participated the first year I heard about the project but it was painful to give up a full sketchbook. I learned from fellow Urban Sketchers that the Sketchbook Project retains all reproduction rights to the sketches. It is nice to have the one sketchbook in the Brooklyn Sketchbook Library but I’m not tempted to do it again.7000 sketchbooks were neatly stored in bookshelves on wheels. They can be quickly rolled off a truck to be moved to a new city. Dina Mack sat flipping through sketchbooks. As she put it, “I’m in sketchbook heaven.”

Urban ReThink which was formerly a book store seemed perfectly suited to house the collection. The first step in checking out a sketchbook was to get a library card. I already had my card from the previous year, so I skipped to step two, which was checking out a book. There was a laser bar code reader to scan the card and then you used a computer to pick out sketchbooks by theme, location or artist’s name. I picked two local sketchbooks to start. The sketchbook from Orlando was dark, brooding and full of angst. The next category I searched was “This is a sketchbook.”  I figured I’d get to see some quality sketches. One artist did catch my eye. Cheism was an artist from London and his sketches were light hearted and fun. Larry Lauria an animation instructor from Full Sail stopped in. Larry had submitted a sketchbook this time around so I tried to check out his sketchbook. It wasn’t available. Someone else must have checked it out. I seemed to keep checking out duds while the young couple next to me kept getting fun creative sketchbooks. One of their books was taped together accordion style and the whole book was one big colorful Dagwood sandwich.

Artist Mary K. Shaw sat with friends at the table in front of me flipping through sketchbooks. Blank post cards were available for artists to sketch on. If you sketched on a postcard, it would be sent to the next stop on the sketchbook tour. Robin Maria-Pedrero completed a postcard sketch and in return, she was given another artists postcard. The postcard sent her warm wishes for a beautiful day. The next step for the Sketchbook Project is a mobile library, similar to a food truck.

Artists Process

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As part of the Corridor Project‘s first show, Walk on By, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, a UCF art instructor, sat in a thrown outside Urban ReThink starting at 6pm on September 5th accepting trash offerings. That evening artists gathered at ReThink to talk about their art and process.

Wanda was dressed in a tight red corset and had a huge wig of purple hair which was woven and balled up. Red and white jewels glistened in her hair. From the moment I entered, I knew I wanted to get close to her to sketch. Wanda’s regal performance piece had previously been done at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.


She began her discussion by asking the audience what they felt her performance was about. I hadn’t seen her performance, so I kept quiet. Her question rang forth like a challenge. The room was dead silent. A little boy started shrieking and complaining in the corner. With a regal flair Wanda raised her hand and shouted out “Excuse me!” The mom ushered her son out the door. Wanda explained that people often dump their shit on the people closest to them. She said her performance art was about intimacy. In one performance piece she invited people to lie in bed with her. In the quiet moments, some people cried.


Jessica Earley who yarn bombed the front of Urban Rethink discussed her art. She is soft spoken and began her talk by warning us of her shyness. As she discussed her art, she was never at a loss for words. She gazed at the far wall of the room as she spoke. Her thoughts and passions rang true. The projector wouldn’t work but Dina Mack helped her get it running. Jessica showed us some of her more controversial paintings that she had done. One painting she did was actually censored by a costumer in a local restaurant. Her paintings often visualize woman’s issues. Some show a woman’s longings to someday have a child. A painting showing a nude woman and child couldn’t be hung. The woman had some knitting covering her lap and a single strand of yarn lead to a baby who had on a knit cap and diapers. Black crows then flew up from the child’s head towards a flaming blue cell. Jessica has been painting for the past three years and her work is astonishingly intimate and sincere. A common thread through the evenings discussions was that artists love to experiment and explore different mediums. Jessica wants to continue performance art, music, dance, installations and visual art. Self expression can come in many forms.

The Corridor Project – Walk on By

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The Corridor Project’s  first show, titled “Walk on By” was spearheaded by Patrick Greene, the events coordinator at Urban ReThink. Over night almost 100 art installations popped up all over Orlando. The largest concentration of artwork appeared along Mills Avenue in the Mills 50 District. I knew that artists were out between 4AM and 7AM installing their work but I wasn’t sure where the pieces were being installed. I set my alarm for 5AM but swatted it off and fell back to sleep. The next day I decided to sketch this sculpture installation by Bethany Mikell outside Wills Pub (1042 N Mills Ave, Orlando). Painted silver, this modern looking couple is covered in metallic nuts and bolts. The piece exudes fashion with a chic industrial flair. Even the chains holding the couple to the site have an industrial fell.

Walk on By functions as a temporary, clandestine art museum with no fixed location. The works are site specific using empty storefronts and public spaces. In the past, Orlando has promoted public art in the form of decorated fiberglass Gibson Guitars and lizards.  These juvenile displays limit artist expression, forcing the work to be decorative. Even the decorated Mills 50 power boxes seem to lack any bold artistic vision. When public art is needed, as in the case of banners to hide the Dr. Phillips Center of the Performing Arts construction site, children’s art is used. If you have ever gotten a ticket in Orlando then you have been blessed to see the children’s art decorating tiles outside the parking ticket payment office. Walk on By has finally allowed local and international artists the ability to openly express themselves in an urban public setting. Finally the art is meant for a mature, enlightened, adult audience. It isn’t watered down for a Disney, white bread, homogenous, world view. This seems like a bold first step towards a city that can take spontaneous chances.

The art isn’t just for high society gallery gawkers. It is for anyone walking or driving by. Keep your eyes open and be prepared to be surprised. Some art performances happened only at 8:30AM on September 5th while other art pieces will remain on site until they decay. So turn off the cell phone and TV and get out to Walk on By. This gallery has no walls.

Yarn Bombing

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Jessica Earley hosted a Craft Society Meeting at Urban ReThink, (625 E Central Blvd, Orlando), where she introduced participants to the elusive craft of Yarn Bombing.  Yarn Bombing is a global urban phenomenon in which crafty people are covering urban blight with colorful knitting. It is a soft comfortable form of colorful creative graffiti. A hardcore group of four or five women and one man showed up to knit or crochet the pieces that would ultimately be used to encase the bike rack outside Urban ReThink. As Jessica said in her invite, “Come get your granny on.”

Each person knitted and/or crocheted individual granny squares, or rectangles and then those pieces would be sewn them all together to make one large collaborative piece to cover the earth with. She had a yarn bombing book which showed entire trees covered in a tight warm cozy. The guy was taught a way of knitting in which he simply looped the yarn around his fingers. The result was a loose knit square. Jessica had strips of fabric which were given to each participant so they knew the correct width for each knitted section.

With my sketch done, I went outside where Jessica was sewing the pieces together around the rack. There was a light drizzle which discouraged me from starting a second sketch. A couple had stopped to ask Jessica about what she was doing. He joked, “It would be hard for anyone to complain about what you are doing. Of course if you were feeding people, then you might get arrested.”  Knitting is a slow process but by the time I decided to leave, at least a quarter of the bike rack had been converted into a colorful piece of urban art. Jessica will continue bombing in preparation for “The Corridor Project” which will be sweeping into various Orlando locations soon. Details to come…

Sunday Afternoon Music Improv

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SUNDAY AFTERNOON MUSIC IMPROV featured musicians from Central FL, Jax, and Miami. The session was on August 18th from 3-7PM at Urban ReThink (625 E Central Blvd, Orlando). When I arrived, Dan Reaves and Lucy Bonk were performing on stage using electronics and a wide assortment of found objects. Lucy used several kitchen bowls, using them like gongs. Dan’s instruments were gathered on a sheet of corrugated steel. He used a foot pedal and a dial with his right hand to modulate the electric sounds which sounded like someone scanning a short wave radio for a signal. Several large nuts on a screw were turned and he had a cow bell, a brass bell which he would use for percussive effects. The performance was on the edge of absolute dissonance. At times the beat and rhythm was mesmerizing to sketch to. When they were done, the electronic sound persisted making it hard to know when, or if, to clap.

Four musicians set up on stage with more traditional instruments. They were Dan Kozak, Kris Gruda, Jim Ivy and A.S. Herring. They had a game show spinning wheel which could be spun to decide if the piece performed would be a solo, duo, or quartet. Large foam dice would be rolled just to pick which musician would spin the wheel. A laptop displayed a visual representation of the next performance but I never got a glance at the screen. Various sayings were used to inspire the performances. For instance one was, “Life is a lamp flickering in the wind” and another was “The fallen flower never returns to the tree.” It was a fun idea to help structure the improvisation adding chance and luck into each piece. Perhaps ten to fifteen people were in the audience with new arrivals all the time. As I was getting ready to go, Chris Belt who organizes the Accidental Music Festival ran into the room drenched head to toe from the rain. Nothing will stop people who want to experience something new, cutting edge and different in Orlando.

Tr3, Vaughn and Jen Outside Urban ReThink

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I went downtown to Urban ReThink, (
625 E Central Blvd • Orlando), to sketch a hacker sound workshop. The workshop offered musicians an opportunity to create instruments from old electronics. I imagined a sketch with tables loaded with old discarded electronics. As I walked towards Central Boulevard, I heard, “Thor!” echoing down a long apartment causeway. I backed up to greet Tr3 Harris who was also on his way to Urban ReThink. I told him about the exciting workshop, but when we went inside, the place was deserted. Joyce Mallon was behind the counter of The Spork Happy Food Cafe. She confirmed that the workshop was scheduled but that only one person showed up. He waited around several hours and then left.

Tr3 had a table set up outside to sell some art, so I decided that would be my sketch opportunity for the day. I decided to order something sweet from Spork as well. Joyce suggested a build your own waffle. I decided on peanut butter and chocolate chips as my toppings. I also wanted plenty of caffeine to get my fingers twitching. I sat outside and Joyce brought out the waffle when it was ready. It was a scorching hot Saturday. Vaughn Belak was there with his girlfriend Jen Woolf selling his macabre paintings. Some of his pieces were prints on canvas that he could sell for incredibly cheap. He in fact sold a piece to a passer by for $40. I didn’t catch Vaughn in the sketch. He stood behind the red table to the right much of the time. Tr3 worked on a painting as he waited for costumers. The bike rack stood empty.


The sky grew dark and ominous. Jen checked a weather app on her cell phone that predicted rain. The tables were broken down and the art packed away in a matter of minutes. The chocolate chips had melted on my forgotten waffle. I continued adding color to the sketch long after the actors left the stage. The rain held off long enough for me to finish my sketch. It started to rain as I drove home.

Broomstick Pony Workshop

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Preparations are underway at Urban ReThink for Orlando’s first ever Broomstick Pony Derby. Megan Boye, from Ibex Puppetry, brought along a wide assortment of materials for people to use to create their own broomstick pony. I was most impressed when she lugged in a huge military knapsack that was bulging at the seams. It turned out that the knapsack was full of fluff which would be used to stuff each horse head.

I followed a mom and daughter team as they created their red striped pony. In the conference room all the supplies were spread out on a long table and people were free to pick anything they wanted for their creations.  The room was a constant flurry of activity as head patterns were cut, hot glued and sewn. Every horse head was unique.

Orlando used to host fun quirky events like the Cumquat Parade. The Broomstick Pony Derby is  attempting to bring back that fun, civic minded, artistic sense of community. Folks of all ages will create and race handmade broomstick ponies, zebras, ostriches, aliens, you name it. Spectators will enjoy light-hearted races with whimsical outcomes. The Derby celebrate community and creativity and will raise funds, friends, and awareness for enhancing Urban ReThink’s operations and programming.There is one more pony making workshop on August 16th at 6:25PM to 9PM. There is a Broomstick Pony Showing, TONIGHT from 6:25PM to 9PM. The Derby will take place on Saturday, September 22, 9:00 to 11:00 am on Central Boulevard outside of Urban ReThink. May the best horse win. Broomstick pony galloping to local businesses will continue after the big race!

The Audacity of Play

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Urban ReThink is about Collaboration, Creativity and Transformation. Nothing exemplifies these principles better than the playful mural titled GoogliAnn and the Audacity of Play. now adorning a wall near the Spork Happy Food Cafe. Artist Graci

Ann Spath’s Self-Portrait explores the construction of self within the context of elementary society. Completed in September 2011, just prior to her 5th birthday, Spath offered the work as a gift to her uncle, Urban ReThink’s Founding Director, Darren McDaniel. McDaniel imagined the piece in giant format on the Urban ReThink wall and, in particular, the reaction it might trigger in his niece. Yet, upon seeing his first Photoshopped rendering, Spath quickly dismissed its authenticity. “It’s not real.”

McDaniel held fast to his vision of the giant googly-eyed girl on the
wall. In the weeks that followed, he came to see the possibility of the
piece as a perfect complement to the Urban ReThink environment—a
constant reminder of the spirit of play and possibility, bringing
together collaborators from multiple disciplines, not to mention
generations.

The Audacity of Play is a 10’x10′ expression of the piece
created by Orlando artist, Carolyn Schultz. The larger-than-life mural
features functional googly eyes concocted by Urban ReThink resident
creative, Kathryn Neel, and empowered by Zach from Hicks Electric. The small crayon drawing by GraciAnn is on display on a small pedestal in front of the mural. A remote control inflated fish floated through the room.

I went to the unveiling of the mural. This was to the the first time GraciAnn saw her small creation blown up larger than life.  When she arrived with her family, she didn’t notice the wall at first, but when she did, she ran to her mothers arms for support. Darren addressed the gathered crowd and got quite choked up when he said how important his nieces and family were to him.

Accidental Fundraiser

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The Accidental Music Festival returned to Urban Rethink to present a performance of Terry Riley‘s seminal work In C, often cited as the first major minimalist work. The piece features a group of musicians (in our case a mixed ensemble of 12 players, many from UCF) performing a series of 53 musical ideas, each player moving through the sequence at their own pace. The melodies and rhythmic riffs flow in and out of sync according to the whims of the players, chance, and inspiration, so the piece can take anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours. The mood can become meditative, thrilling, and even ecstatic; it’s never the same twice.

In conjunction with the performance, there was also be a silent auction of prints and other small art pieces by local visual artists, with most items priced at $50 or less. The artists will donate a portion of the proceeds to presenting the 2nd annual Accidental Music Festival this November.

The Accidental Music Festival is a marathon festival of concerts and educational programming sponsored by the Timucua Arts Foundation. The festival is primarily dedicated to presenting modern and contemporary music of high artistic quality by living composers and engaging the community in a dialogue about the value of artistic, creative, and avant-garde music.

When I arrived, Mat Roberts was sitting alone on stage holding a potted cactus next to a microphone. He plucked the needles and the cactus sang like a harp. He used a bowl of nuts as an instrument as well. One nut thundered to the floor in an unexpected improvisation.  Yellow pencils poked into green Styrofoam balls stood topiary style in a pot beside him.

On the day of the fundraiser, Chris Belt the festival’s founder, was concerned that the performance at Urban ReThink didn’t generate the funds expected. I’m happy to see that the 2011 Kickstarter Campaign was a success. Hopefully this years fundraiser will also be a success. The Festival will take place November 8-18th at Urban ReThink and at the Timucua White House. I for one look forward to the new and unexpected. If anyone would like to bid on this sketch, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Accidental Music Festival. Consider the comment section on this post to be a silent bid sheet. Highest bid wins.

There Will Be Words

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On the second Tuesday of every month authors gather at 7PM at Urban ReThink, (625 East Central Boulevard), for a literary prose throw down called There Will Be Words. The event is hosted by J. Bradley and judged by three unsuspecting audience members picked at random. Most of the people who pack the audience for There will be Words are authors who are themselves competing. It is an event that I am now addicted to, since listening to stories told live seems far more interesting to me than watching reruns on TV or watching movies where computer effects are the star attraction.

On this evening, I sketched James Fleming,  who read a highly entertaining and funny story called, God Damn Bears. It was an excerpt from a memoir called Too Much Sunshine, Memories of a Boyhood in the Age of Regan. You should listen, it really is hilarious. Warning however, it wasn’t very politically correct. It is a strange story in which fear becomes legend in a small rural town. Bears, get a bad wrap.

Authors spared head to head in heated literary heats until at the end of the evening, a victor was announced. I didn’t really follow the scoring, anyone who listens in, wins. As the light outside faded the stories gained heft and weight. If I remember right, J. Bradley won that night. I don’t see the point in judging. It is simply enough to expose the creative culture that continually bubbles to the surface here in Orlando.