Yalaha Bakery

Posted on by Thor

KC Cali, an artist from Orlando came up to Yalaha for a mini sketch crawl. The Yalaha Bakery won the lottery as the best option for a sketch, coffee and pastry. The bakery is Yalaha’s only tourist attraction, other than the multi flavored moonshine available next door.

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 Yalaha 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 ghost walked through classes.

People would arrive at the Yalaha 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.

Sun Eden

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This is a sketch of the entrance to Sun Eden which is my little slice of paradise in Yalaha Florida. This little Fast Food Mart has the best price for gas in the area, so this is where I tank up my Prius after long road trips back and forth to Orlando. The owners of this mini mart must be doing pretty good since they have a large house down by the lake with a large pool. 48 is the busy road in front of the Mini Mart and it is challenging turning into Sun Eden since there isn’t much of a turn off lane and most traffic is going 55 miles per hour. I almost missed the turn the first time I drove into Sun Eden and thought I might slam into the community sign but I braked hard as I swerved right.

After the move I realized a large table I had, just didn’t work in the studio space. Stella Arbelaez had IKEA shelving in the garage that wasn’t assembled yet and we decided it was a much better solution. It was a good choice. I will have to get the same shelving the next time I need to move. It is hard letting go of something that has worked so well in the past. To save weight when I was packing the uHaul to move out of the Chatswoth studio, I left one piece of the table behind. It was a large slab of metal that extended down the middle of the table between the sets of legs. I figured I would have more space to store stuff under the table without that metal piece in the way. Well, when I reassembled the table as the Yalaha Studio  it wobbled like a drunken sailor. Without that metal support the table was useless.

Rather than have the heavy and solid table go to land fill, Stella took a short video and posted it on a community site. The table was free to anyone who wanted to pick it up. I kept it in my Prius as we ran errands.  we were ready to go to the landfill, when a couple expressed interest to the online posting, and arrangements were made to meet in the mini mark lot. I parked near the air pressure station, which I couldn’t get to work. The table exchange happened like a clandestine drug deal but in broad daylight. It felt good knowing the table would have a new life probably sporting antiques or flea market goods.

I made a similar mistake with my Disney Feature Animation table. I left behind the heavy metal hardware that is used for adjusting the angle of the flat desk surface. I figured I don’t use any other angle that lying the desk flat to support my computers, so I could just hammer in some supports myself and spare myself the heavy hardware. It was a stupid decision and I rushed back to Orlando the next day to recover the hardware. Thankfully it hadn’t been removed. On the lawn it liked a bit like a lizard with a large square head. It took me hours to assemble, but I am glad the integrity of the desk remains intact.

Committing to Cremation

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Some junk mail arrived at the Yalaha Studio that offered a free Italian meal to attend a seminar hosted by the National Cremation Society.

I arrived a few minuted late and everyone else had ordered. I had expected a crowded room with a large screen Power Point presentation, but instead I found the presenter George and two women from The Villages. George had the 3 audience members across from him, so it wasn’t an ideal situation to sketch everyone. I focused on George. I had just learned about the “Loofah Code” at the Villages and desperately wanted to ask the women about it but the topic was death and ashes, so I held my tongue.

George was pleasant ind informative. He once worked at Meryll Lynch in the twin towers in NYC. A friend of his was supposed to be in the Twin Towers on the day of the terrorist attack. The meeting was held at a nearby building instead and because of that his friend survived.

Did you know that 57% of burials these days are cremations? Cremation is a more affordable option since there are no expensive hearses or large brick and mortar funeral homes, the upkeep is just to keep a furnace running. From the start I was offered a form where I could commit to cremation which would lock in the price and save any loved ones from having to make plans about what to do with my body. If there is no will and no plans in place, then the body becomes the property of the state and is held in cold storage for months before becoming part of a mass cremation. None of this should of course concern me, since I would be dead. I loved that the woman seated next to me referred to herself in the third person as, “the body.”

Also offered was “the freedom to go with confidence.” This plan cost about $600. If I were to die while traveling in a foreign country, my remains would have to be repatriated back to America which could cost $11,000 and would involve lots of red tape for family. The Cremation Society would handle all documentation and diplomatic issues in getting the body back home. Local Cremation services would run about $2,800, and that includes an alternative cardboard container, packaging, and the shipping of ashes!

This was a lot to think about as I ate my ham and cheese hoagie with onion rings. Everyone else had ordered together and they all had salads. They finished well before me since my right hand was busy sketching. They left and I remained behind alone to finish the sketch in progress and half of my sandwich.

 

Fire Pit

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On the evening before a planned hike in Gainesville, Florida, I sat outside in the back yard of the Yalaha studio at the fire pit and burned some of the refuge from two large pine trees that had been cut down after Hurricane Milton damage. Larger branches were left for edging areas of the yard, but some the needles and small twigs were set ablaze. I love sitting by the fire and watching the flames flicker. I set several other blazes on previous nights because it got arctic cold out all week.

Sitting there I wondered if I could capture the dark silhouette of the building and the warm lighting from inside where I sit at the Disney Animation Desk and work. The scene reminds me of a quote from Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo, “A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.”

Since my virtual classes let out at 8pm, I am starting to think that I may need to start doing nocturnal paintings each night. I had some Masonite cut for a bookcase that was just reassembled and I am now planning to do paintings in oil 15 inches by 23 inches which would fit snugly in the shelves. I may need to make a custom carrying box for the paintings so they can be transported without spearing oil paint everywhere. I’ll need to get more Masonite, plexiglass, a few wood strips to keep the painting from touching the inside face f the box and some sort of hinge. I will have to draw up some schematics. I thought I had a Tupperware oil painting pallet that seals up but for the life of me I can’t find it. I will have to order a new one.

Oddly on this night after completing the sketch and going to bed, I was restless and could not sleep. So much has changed in my life the past month, and thoughts and plans keep racing in my head. I am finally settled with every box unpacked. Now I am searching for a new direction as I acclimate to life in the country. A month’s worth of design and illustration work is about to begin, which will keep me focused and distracted.

Yalaha Florida General Store

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I have started exploring Yalaha Florida. I had to mail some art to a client, so I made a trip to the Yalaya Post Office. The flag was at half mast for former president Jimmy Carter.

I had the art packed in a Priority mail tube and the woman behind the desk told me it would cost $36 to ship. She advised I use another form of shipping that cost $9. I was thankful for the advice. I need to keep researching what shipping method is most affordable while keeping the art safe.

Right next to the post office is the abandoned Yalaha General Store. Now this place had character. If it was for sale I would want to convert this into a working art studio. I am sure it would involve so much renovation work that I would never have time to paint. The other disadvantage is that it is right on 48 which is a highly traveled and very loud roadway. Leaning against a stop sign, I had to deal with the constant roar of traffic as I sketched. One obnoxious UPS truck let off a huge plume of exhaust right in front of me. An X Infinity truck parked in front of the General Store for the longest time. I think they are setting up internet connectivity in the neighborhood behind the store. I debated about including the truck in the sketch but realized they guy was probably just taking an unauthorized break. He left as I was applying watercolor washes to the sketch.

The Yalaha General Store was B.C. Genaral Store and BBQ up until about 2018. It closed after 32 years in business. It was a quirky place that boasted the “best darn BBQ in Lake County. It used to have a screened in front porch with a cut out pic and chicken dancing on the facade. I thought the yellow cement blocks up front must have been for gas pumps but it seems they were at the corners of the screened in porch area. I tried looking up the place on Zillow, but it has no history, it is as if it never existed. An old Florida gem quietly faded into the past, while corporate sprawl expands.

That neighborhood has true old cracker style homes. My plan is to hike back once a day and get a sketch. I may need to bring a hiking stick, just in case people let their dogs run loose. I hike each morning around the block in my neighborhood to the mail box. 3 huge white Great Pyrenees dogs bark at me each morning from behind their fenced in yard. I simply say good morning to them and they seem to be getting used to seeing me each morning. They bark less vociferously.

Crealde Urban Sketching Tent

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One of the first assignments my Urban Sketching students get at Crealde School of Art is trying to sketch this outdoor tent. The day starts with a lesson in 1 point and two point perspective and then we go outside and sketch the tent.

There is a lake behind Crealde and the far shore gives a clear indication of where the horizon line would be in a sketch. Before students get too far into their sketches, I visit each one individually and give them a thumbnail sketch to indicate what features I would look for if I were to attempt the sketch from their angle.

Sometimes we just work in pen and ink and sometimes we push further and use watercolor. It depends on the vibe of the students. Each class tends to focus on one premise which is rolled into what we learned the previous week.

This is the perfect time of year to attend the Urban Sketching Class since the weather is so cool. In most classes we are outside exploring the camp us or heading out to a location to sketch. Past locations have included, a dog park, bowling alley, Panera’s, and antique car meet ups. The possibilities on a Sunday morning could be endless with enough research.

If you are interested in improving your skills and joining an international movement of like minded artists you should come on out. We meet for 3 hours and the goal is always to push the sketches to a level of completion with line, value and color. These are sketches not something for a museum wall. When you stop worrying about the final result you tend to take more chances and surprisingly the sloppy experiments are what works best. In my work the sketches are almost always populated with people, so in one class students sketch one another.

I just got an email from Crealde and unfortunately the January 19 series of classes have been canceled but you should think about signing up of the next series of sessions starting in the spring. I can’t figure out why sketching on location is not more popular in Orlando. I have been sketching everyday on location since 2009. I just did the math, that is 16 years. It is a habit that keeps me motivated and inspired each and every day.

Today I will be unpacking all the sketchbooks I have filled over the past 16 years. They take up a shelf and a half on my handmade bookcase. I also discovered I have tons of wood stretchers and raw canvas. It might be a good time to start working on larger paintings on location. I am now in a rural area town in Florida names Yalaha, so I will soon be hiking into the woods to sketch and perhaps work on larger paintings. This is an exciting time, much like a residency. This new location should inspire me to take more chances moving forward while still working on the COVID Dystopia book.

 

Post Milton

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Hurricane Milton knocked down 4 trees in Stella Arbelaez‘s Yahala studio yard. One tree fell up against the shed in this sketch damaging the roof line but not yet hitting the ground.

I consulted with Paul, the leader of the tree removal crew of 3 and he felt I would be fine sketching from this location.

Paul had a thick utility belt with more gadgets than batman. He clipped on a chainsaw to the belt and kicked the metal cleats on his boots into the thick pine bark.

At the base of the tree a thick rope was braided and tied with a sort of  Tee shaped metal device that the rope could be wound around. Paul made his way up cutting off smaller branches as he went. His goal was to get to the very top and tie another road braid which must have had a pulley set up.

Paul had a blue rope tied to his utility belt. Large branched would be securely tied to the blue rope and at the ground level, a red rope was tied to the blue rope to allow one or two men to use the pulley system to lower the branch to keep it from crashing down at full force. They were a well oiled machine and Paul was always in charge making sure no one was under a branch that might fall. Paul was also always secured to the top knotted rope so he would only fall a few feet and swing rather than fall all the way to the ground. When he came down to climb another tree, he said the trees were swaying at least a foot at the very top. It was a windy day. That is a job I would never have the nerve to do myself.

The most exciting moment came when Paul cut off a large group of branches at the top of the tree all at once. The ground shook when it hit, only a few feet in front of me. After that I decided to pick up my artist stool and move back a few feet. With the largest branches they would do what was called a quarter turn with the red rope which would cause the fallen branch to swing around the main trunk away from Paul. It would then be lowered slowly to the ground by the ground crew.

When all the side branches were down, then the main trunk came down in about 16 foot sections, which fell with brute force shaking the ground each time. They were then cut on the ground into 4 foot sections which were transported to the street. It rained twice, which interrupted the work. It took a day to safely cut down 2 trees. Another smaller tree is slated to be cut down and the large root balls from large fallen trees will eventually be removed with a large crane. A neighbor across the street asked Paul to split the large logs and dump it all on his front lawn. It is a shame this house doesn’t have a fireplace, because nights have been cold this week and it is a shame to waste such a massive source of fuel.

I am excited by the possibilities at the Yahala studio. I’ve learned quite a bit about composing, and the myriad of uses of bamboo for construction. I am going to start making some bamboo path edging soon which should look awesome, while keeping leaves from littering the pathway. While large tree roots were ripped up by the hurricane, I am starting to realize how good it would be to put roots down, and start new growth, through hard work, while using materials already available on the property. Maybe it is just a dream, but it is nice to dip my toe into the infinite possibilities of sustainable homesteading.

Yalaha Florida Studio

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In the driveway of the Yalaha studio is a pile of sand for sandbags acquired before Hurricane Milton hit. That sand will be used to fill the hols left behind once the root balls are removed from the fallen trees.

Stella drives a silver Prius which is identical to mine. Since she was parked a bit in front of my car it wasn’t visible from the spot where I did this sketch.

There is a property right next to this which is completely wild and undeveloped. As I sketched I felt calm and peaceful. Squirrels ran along the fence and birds were chirping It was a rare moment of absolute peace where I feel like I am part of the landscape. I need to search for such locations more often. The former neighborhood in Orlando where I had a studio that always had airplanes flying into and out of the Orlando airport. Being on the approach to the runway the airplanes roared over head.

Since being here I have slept like a baby every night. The only sound in the morning has come from a few cardinals who tap on the glass because of a mirrored surface. Stella purchased little decals that go on the outside of the windows which hopefully will discourage the birds from running into the glass.

Stella showed me around Yalaha. There is a neighborhood behind the post office which has really old cracker style houses that are getting run down. It is a poorer neighborhood, but there are many buildings with plenty of character. I might start hiking out that way for the exercise and to sketch.

Workmen cutting down trees will be in the yard tomorrow, so I suspect I will be sketching men with chainsaws. A new location should bring new inspiration for my daily sketch routine. I still have tons of boxes I still need to unpack but that will happen slowly over the coming weeks.

 

Fallen

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I moved into the Yahala, Florida studio. Most everything is still in boxes but My Disney Feature Animation desk is partially set up and running, so I can sit down and write.

This is a sketch on the side of the property. Hurricane Milton ripped through Yalaha and knocked down about 4 trees. Thankfully none of them fell on the house. All of them fell to the south. On the north of the neighborhood, a few blocks away is Lake Harris which is huge. The winds from the north blew over the lake with no obstructions and then slammed into Yalaha. Since I moved in work had started in cutting the fallen trees. This particular tree was cut into about 5 foot sections and those huge logs were moved to the roadside. It is hoped that they will remove the logs before the job is done. They will be returning to work on the other slightly smaller fallen trees later in the week.

Also visible in this sketch behind the tree is a composing station. This station had 3 stations of hay. Because this big tree was cut back to the roots, there was room to work on the compost pile. The primary composting area had gotten cold and so the compost was no longer breaking down. Also the wood palates that separated the sections had broken down and so it had to be reconstructed. While I broke apart pallets for the wood, Stella worked on rebuilding the bins. The sin set as we were working. I managed to kneel down on a rusty nail. Luckily I knelled down on the head of the nail so I didn’t draw blood. By the time the sun set we had two sections reconstructed.

Stella added new hay to the first bin and dug a hole down to the ground. She compressed the hay out to the outer edged of the bin and then filled the new hole with food scraps. There were lots of scraps since the refrigerator held food that was purchased before Hurricane Milton hit. A whole chicken was added to the composer. I didn’t realize meat could be composted.

With everything inside. Stella spread hay over the top of what was added. A metal mesh was put on top of the pile and held down with stones so no critters could get inside.  The final touch was a thermometer to see how the compost was heating up inside. After a year, the food scraps should break down and then they will be added to another bin. Hay will then be added to the first bin and the process starts all over again.

Milton Damage

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Hurricane Milton caused some major damage in Florida.

Stella Arbelaez, a former Disney Feature Animation effects artist, lives north west of Lake Apopka and I have been helping her constructing a large bamboo sculpture.

There are many tall pine trees in her back yard and Hurricane Milton knocked over a bunch of them. Luckily none of them hit her house, but one is leaning precariously against a shed and several other fell over taking out fencing.

Stella and I both had work accepted at FusionFest over the Thanksgiving weekend. Stella volunteered to paint on location during FusionFest. I thought I had a cold after going to the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival to promote COVID Dystopia. I actually was infected with COVID-19 for the first time when flying back to Orlando on Delta flight 1652. I tested myself the first night back and now know that the test was a false negative. I proceeded to help with Stella’s project thinking I just had a cold. I didn’t feel healthy enough to go to Fusion Fest, so I stayed behind while Stella went to paint in Downtown Orlando.

Later in the day I sketched this tree which had been uprooted by Milton. The ripped open root ball reminded me of how my insides felt. COVID is an airborne vascular disease that affects the heart, arteries and fuses brain cells killing off grey matter. It effects just about every organ in the body. The “cold” had knocked me on my ass. The sun started to set as I worked on the sketch, so I rushed to finish before it got too cold out. The ripped open root ball reminds me of the unseen damage being done to my inner vascular system.