By Thomas Thorspecken

KC Cali, an artist from Orlando came up to Lake County for a mini sketch crawl. I discovered during my visits to help my friend Stella P. Arbelaéz Tascón with her installation work. The Yalaha Bakery won the lottery as the best option for a sketch, coffee and pastry.

It was a super foggy morning. I thought it was raining at first when I stepped outside for my morning walk. I heard drops intermittently splashing to the ground. It wasn’t rain, but the dew dropping from the branches from the thick fog’s condensation. Such pea soup morning fog is a new experience for me.

I thought about sketching the exterior of the Yyalaha Bakery building which has interesting German themed murals, but it was still foggy and grey out, so the main pastry counter inside had afar more appeal. I ordered a Coconut Delight and an iced Vanilla Latte. That delight had to be one of the most delicious pastries I ever ate, but that is what I thought last time I was at the bakery and had a German Strudel.

On the morning my mother died  I was 10. My father told me the news as I was getting ready for school. I didn’t cry. I disappeared into the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror, numb. I decided I should go about my day as if nothing had happened. I always walked to school with a friend down the street. On that morning, his grandmother had made apple strudel. She gave me a warm freshly baked slice and said to me in her thick German accent, that she had heard about my mother and was so sorry. I took a bite of the strudel which was delicious. At that point I lost my composure and broke down and cried. She held me close, she was round, soft and enveloped me. When I recovered, my friend and I walked to school. At school, some kid told me that his father, who worked at the hospital, knew my mother had died long before I found out. What was the point in telling me that? I drifted from class to class like a ghost.

People would arrive at the German Bakery to get pastries in waves. Seriously bus loads of people must have entered the establishment to all order together. Sketching such a crowd lined up at the counter was a challenge, I chose to just catch a few. Beside the table was a large HEPA filter, which I appreciated. It exhaled heavily in our direction with its top flap sighing up and down, like a respirator. Oh that reassuring filter labeled VAGKR1, was actually a space heater, whoops, I just looked it up online. For some reason I had jotted the name on the back of my sketch.

It was a relaxing morning of conversation and sketching which left me feeling refreshed. Sketching is usually a very solitary experience but being able to share that experience, even sharing something as simple as a pencil is thrilling.  Life can be overwhelming at times, but taking the time to create, and learn from another artists life experiences, does ease the burden.