The Art Wine Walk in Lake Mary combined an outdoor art bazaar with wine from local establishments.

Posted on by Thor

On September 24th, I went to Colonial Town Park, (950 Market Promenade Ave #2200, Lake Mary, FL) to experience the Art Wine Walk. Eight artists were listed as vendors so I expected to see a sizable tent city. There were however only two artists tents set up. Earlier in the day it had rained a bit and the sky looked ominous, so I assume artist were scared off by the weather.

The event was $10, and the proceeds benefited Clean the World! Vaughn Belak was one of the two die hard artists with work on display. He does intriguing goth images with sinister but playful undertones. He explained that this used to be a regular event but it was shelved for a while by promoters. He would come out and set up a tent anyway because people that have been drinking and having a good time would be more likely to make an impulse buy.

The bar across from Vaughn’s tent was Liam Fitzpatrick‘s and it was doing a lively business. Other bars in Colonial Town Park include, Graffiti Junction, and World of Beers. With such a concentration of bars, this place must get rowdy by midnight. The Art Wine walk went from 5pm to 8pm, so, just as the street lights flickered on, the two artists tents came down. The Art Wine Walk is listed as happening every 4th Wednesday of each month, but I’m not so sure the momentum is there to keep it going.

Chronic Damage

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I went to the Baldwin Park First Friday Art Stroll for the first time. I bumped into Brad Biggs who organizes the event and he said artists were happy with sales leading into the holiday season. The art stroll used to take place in Ivanhoe Village but since it has moved to Baldwin Park, It has grown in size. Artists set up tables on the sidewalks along New Broad Street. I settled in to sketch the work of Shane Malesky of Chronic Damage. His work is marketed as horrifically delicious. His wife Heather was helping him set up. They found an electrical outlet which meant  they had plenty of light. I liked that he had a bold study of a Vincent Van Gogh painting of the artist walking on the roadside. He explained to a passer by that the image showed the artist forging his own path, even if it was a lonely path.

I rather liked the work because of its bold bright colors and dark subject matter. A human skull with is jaw propped open held his business cards. Artists would visit each others booths. One artist vowed to murder the squirrels in his attic by any means necessary. Next to Shane was Jose Tores who came from Deltona to show his decorative art on wood. He spoke with me for a while about how Japanese animation had inspired him to start sketching. Brian Stuckey had photo prints of sculptures done in a bold cartoonish style. They looked like complete scenes from an animated short. Vaughn Belak was having great sales in October and perhaps his quirky dark imagery will continue selling right through the new year. First Friday’s Art Stroll is TONIGHT starting at 6PM. It is a great place to get some original art. Then again you could just order a print or original from this site.

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.

Ghost Busters

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The October edition of Dr. Sketchy‘s had a Ghost Busters theme. The walls of Tatame Sake Lounge were lined with paintings by Vaughn Belak which all had a macabre, goth, Halloween flavor. Tamara Grey who had run Dr. Sketchy’s since I first discovered it a year ago, moved to the West Coast to work at a visual effects house. Her move happened just days before and so she handed over the reigns to Kristen Pauline and a photographer named Adrienne Frankenfield.

The woman dressed as the Ghost Busters secretary, Jenine Melnitz, was both sensual and awkward with her tight orange mini skirt and wild red hair which almost hid her cat eye shaped lime green glasses. The model wearing the Ghost Busters uniform had gone all out in duplicating the tools of a Ghost Busters trade. His backpack haa blinking diodes, a disk shaped vortex at the base and tubes that went everywhere. That unit would fire off a serious plasma beam.

While all the rest of the artists were struggling with the one and two minute poses, I was focusing my attention on the room and all the paintings. When there was finally a five minute pose, I blocked in the figures quickly and finalized the ink work on Jenine. I then waited for the ghost Buster to take another “shooting” pose. when he did, he was facing the wrong way so I moved to the opposite side of the room to sketch him. Happy Halloween!