Plein Air Paint demonstration Frank Ferrante

On Saturday June 15th there was a free Plein Air Paint demonstration by Frank Ferrante at the Cottage, located on beautiful Lake Lily Park in Maitland. I walked all the way around the lake, figuring a plein air painting demonstration would be outside. “En Plein Air” after all is a French phrase meaning “in the open air”. I finally discovered a small sign that pointed to the cottage. Perhaps ten to fifteen artists had gathered to watch Frank work.

Frank is originally from New Jersey and three other artists were from the Garden State as well, myself included. He now lives in Port Orange, Florida. Frank studied painting with John Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Institute. He painted every Sunday with John Osborne outside for many years. The methods he learned were handed down through several generations of artists having begun with American Impressionist Frank Vincent Dumond who taught at the Art Student’s League in NYC. Dumond died in 1961, the year I was born.In 1966 Frank Ferrante was stationed at Paris Island and he joined the Beaufort Painting Association.

The demonstration focused on the formal elements of painting composition, color values, structure and form. Emphasis was placed on composition, capturing light and dark shapes, atmosphere and mood while using strong color harmony. Frank utilizes what he calls the prismatic palette which mimics the prismatic effects seen outside. The ROYGBIV colors of the rainbow were arranged across the top of the palette. Anything upright in a landscape would catch the sunlight to become orange. The sky is like a big blue lamp and water reflects the blue of the sky. Frank began with a very rough valve study in which he scumbled blue grey paints onto the canvas to find the darks of the scene. He was painting a path that lead back into a palm tree filled grove.

He then put up a canvas of the same scene that was much more developed. He talked about folding darks into lights and lights into darks. His brush strokes were X’s and he worked moist oils into moist. His brush gets plenty of abuse and it’s flat shape becomes warn into a point by the time he is done with it. Studies that he does on location are usually smaller and only one in thirty ever becomes a studio painting. He stressed that the darks in a painting are very important.  I discovered that I didn’t have my brushes in my bag to finish my sketch! I started putting in some darks using graphite. Then I took everything out of my bag and discovered one abandoned brush in the bottom of the bag. My sketch was saved. The demonstration was much shorter than I expected. After the demonstration, I joked with Frank that his demonstration was like one of those cooking shows in which the finished cake was already baked and under the counter. We both laughed.

DRIP Fairy Body Paint Jam

Mark your calendar, on August 1st there will be a Fairy Body Painting Jam after the Drip show. Drip is located at (8747 International Dr. Suite 102, Orlando, Florida, Behind Denny’s). Come see the show and stay for the body painting or just come for the after party body painting jam.

Small Body or Face Painting will be available for guests.

Admission for after party is $5.
Tickets for the show available at www.ilovedrip.com.

Celebrate Mandi’s Birthday in style with a paint slinging dance show, some colored beer and body paint!!

DRIP is an in-your-face explosion of color and movement backed by a live rock band, all in an industrial dive bar. You may get wet … you may get messy … you WILL have an awesome time.

Painters start time is 7pm, All other guests should arrive at around 10 pm.

Painters include:

Mandi Ilene 

Lori Babson Jessup 

Tanisha Morgan 

Tracy Purple 

Cody Saults

Marriage Equality Rally

On June 27th, members of the LGBT community and supporters came together for the Marriage Equality Rally in Orlando Florida. The “Paint It Red Orlando” event pulled in thousands of supporters, for speeches from community and political figures. There was for food, drinks, music which made for a fun filled night at the band shell at Lake Eola, in Downtown Orlando.

Volunteers helped create the red paper bag luminaries and distribute them around the lake. Each bag had an electric candle and a tag that listed a gay couple that had been married. The wind kept knocking over bags so small sticks were added inside the bags to add weight. It was an impressive sight to see the bags surrounding the whole lake. They symbolically “Painted the Town Red”. It was a visually stunning
moment to celebrate Marriage Equality, the work that has taken place to
get to the Supreme Court, and to reflect on all of the struggles thus
far, as well as the work yet to be done.

 Speakers included representatives from Federal, State, and Local Government, local clergy,
activists, entertainers, a celebrity or two, and community members! Blue Starr was the Master of Ceremonies. This was a pep rally and celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave federal benefits to legally married gays.While praising the decision, celebrants also expressed hope that same-sex marriage will one day be legal in Florida.

There were food trucks, a beer garden and a full bar. Signs on barricades listed “Rules of Conduct.” I didn’t quite understand the need for barricades but I suppose officials felt the need to limit beer consumption to the designated area around the band shell, much like the Fringe green lawn of fabulousness. Several buildings downtown and around the lake had red spotlights. The town was literally illuminated red. I had on my bright red shirt just by luck. I’m seldom one for preplanning when it comes to fashion. The huge crowd was fun and festive, partying late into the night. I walked around the lake reading all the names on the bags that celebrated love and life.

Paul Joachim chocolate sculpt

On April 15th I went to Bar Harbor (2000 Premier Row, Orlando FL), to sketch Paul Joachim as he worked on a life sized chocolate sculpture. Bar Harbor turned out to be a seafood restaurant and I found the sculptor hard at work after I made my way through a maze of hallways and plastic covered entries. Paul’s assistant was Jennifer Mendez. She was spray painting food ties onto the sculpt. A paper sign taped to an electrical cord said, “No Pictures Please! Secret Project.” It didn’t say “No Sketching” so I was good to go.

This top secret project was being done for two giants in the confections industry, Zane Beg, was carrying Norman R. Davis on his back. Zane was just named one of the top 10 cake decorators in the country. It was Norms birthday and it was the Mother of Cake’s 1st Anniversary. Zane and Norm have been working together for over 16
years. Norm is small, around 5’2 and Zane is well over 6 feet. The
owner of Mother of Cake’s and Paul, the sculptor, thought it would be a lot of fun to have a
life-size cake of Norm on Zane’s back piggy backing, all just for fun and to
celebrate their friendship and cake business partnership.

On top of all that, the sculpture was filmed for A&E’s Shipping Wars TV show. Paul confided as I was leaving that he was concerned about transporting the sculpt in an unrefrigerated truck. I know from one photo, of the cake decorators viewing the sculpt, that it did arrive in one piece.The episode is called “Punch Drunk Love” and it just recently aired allowing me to finally share this sketch. I was going to see an premiere screening of the show at a Universal Studios Hotel but changed my mind when I discovered I would have to pay $8 to self park. I had already done my sketch for the day, so I left. If anyone has seen the Shipping Wars episode, let me know what happened!

ReThinking the City: Main Streets and Town Halls

ReThinking the City is a monthly symposium on new ideas and updates in urban ism held at Urban ReThink ( 625 E. Central Ave, Orlando, Florida). The June 25th meeting featured a remote presentation by Hesse McGraw, curator of the innovative Carver Bank Town Hall Project in Omaha Nebraska, which seeks to create a space for public participation and creativity. Also presenting was Pauline Eaton, curator of Orlando’s Main Street USA program, on how the program is developing and helping local communities. Eliza Harris tried to get the Skype hook up working but there were several tech issues that kept us from connecting to Omaha.

Pauline Eaton stepped in and told us about the Main street USA program while folks struggled with the computer. Founded in 1980, there are now 2000 Main Street programs nation wide.  There are about 5 different neighborhoods that are a part of the Main Street USA Program, like, Ivanhoe Village, Mills 50 District etc. The Milk District is spearheading its own neighborhood initiatives, learning from the developments in other neighborhoods. The point of the program is to improve the urban feel of the neighborhoods. It can be as simple as adding a bike rack to painting utility boxes pretty colors. The “BAT Team” is the mayor’s better assistance team. The dream of pie in the sky ideal initiatives and then settle for what can be done with the present politics. Pauline joked that the “R&D” department, (Rip off and Duplicate) will take ideas that work in other cities and hope to duplicate them in Orlando. Orlando is a urban area designed for keeping automobiles moving quickly. The primary concerns are usually automotive sight lines. There was some lamenting that sometimes the only way to make improvements is to wait for incumbent politicians to die or leave office. Scottie Campbell who works for Ivanhoe Village was surprised to find that there are Main Street groupies who admire the work that is done. He felt like a rock star for the night.

The computer link to Omaha started working and Hesse McGraw showed us a slide show of the renovation to the first African American Bank in Omaha. Volunteer labor was leveraged to bring the building back as an active creative community hub. Old high school gym flooring was used to cover all the floorboards.. Slate from chalk boards was also used throughout the 100,000 square foot space. The building now offers residencies for artists. There are 15,000 applicants a year for 35 spots. The residency challenges artists to think of how their work effects and engages the community. Lamont Hamilton took 75 photo portraits of living artists he considers iconic. There is a sandwich shop inside and a mix of gallery and office space. I couldn’t help but think of how similar the place sounds to the Urban ReThink ideal. Eliza spoke to me about her hope that someday local artist’s work would welcome people arriving to Orlando in the airport. It would be awesome to get work in front of so many new fresh eyes. Now the work starts researching how to make that vision a reality.

Blue Moon Artfully Crafted Box Party

The Blue Moon Artfully Crafted Box Party was held at The Hammered Lamb (1235 N. Orange Avenue Orlando, Florida in Ivanhoe Village) on June 26th. Orlando Weekly and Blue Moon Brewing selected 3 local artists to turn once nondescript street boxes into awesome works of art! I put on a Blue Moon T-shirt and went to sketch.

Austin James Art, Wolfrich and Kittens Of Industry were competing and painting LIVE at the Grand Finale Party. I cased the event trying to decide which artist to sketch working. Austin James’ box was outside on the patio and it was essentially done already. I never actually saw him at work. Kittens of Industry was also outside. She didn’t know where the finished boxes would end up.

Wolfrich was the only artist working inside with the crisp cool air conditioning running. The AC swung my vote. I was sketching inside. Wolfrich had all the large areas of color blocked in and the night of the event he used Krink markers to add black outlines to eyes and brows. He had a tiny blue garbage can which I thought was for tips, but now I think it was votes. Austin James Art won the voting when all the ballots were counted at the end of the evening along with votes from a panel . In case there is a recount due to hanging chads or unclear votes, I hope judges will count my sketch as a vote for Wolfrich. He worked his ass off that night. There was free Blue Moon beer, free Hors d’oeuvre and crazy Happy Hour specials. Anytime a train passed by, everyone would get a free shot. The Hammered Lam gets my vote for a great place for Happy Hour.

AADW Weekend Top 6 Picks

AADW Weekend Top 6 Picks

 Saturday July 27, 2013

10am to 3pm Free National Dance Day Orlando. Main Hall of Orlando Ballet Dance Exhibition Parking: Lake Highland Prep’s student parking lot on Alden Rd. by the softball field. Free dance classes will be held in the Main Hall of Orlando Ballet on July 27. Instructors and performers of professional Orlando-based dance companies will share different styles of dance with the attending dance community throughout the morning and afternoon.

Free Community Dance Classes

10am-11am: Barre and Stretch with Charlotte Stewart

11am-Noon: Contact Improvisation with Rokaya Mikhailenko

Noon- 1pm: Contemporary with Mary Love Ward

1pm-2pm: African Jazz with Samuel Andrade

2pm-3pm: Hip Hop with Clarissa Crox Turner

7pm to 10pm National Dance Day Orlando Exhibition (pay-what-you-wish / $10 suggested donation). Dance Exhibition Parking: Lake Highland Prep’s student parking lot on Alden Rd. by the softball field.

Performing Companies:

Canvas Creative Movement Coalition

Coby Project

DRIP

Emotions Dance Company

Mary Love Dance Projects

ME Dance

Orlando Ballet

Orlando Chapter of USA Dance

Studio K

Valencia Dance Theatre

Voci Dance

3pm to 5pm $10 Sing Along with The Muppet Movie. Heather Henson’s IBEX Puppetry presents Sing Along with The Muppet Movie! Children and adults alike are urged to yell out famous lines, blow bubbles, play with along with a goodie bag full of props, dance in the aisles, and of course sing along with this classic movie from Heather’s father, Jim Henson. Two shows available on Saturday, June 27th only!

3:00pm Hosted by David Schweizer & Sunny Raskin.

7:00pm Hosted by Heather Henson.

Sunday July 28th, 2013

10am to Noonish Super Joy Riders. Eastern entrance of the Lake Eola Farmers’ Market. Participants dress as superheroes and ride en masse around the city as they check off their scavenger hunt-like list of Do Gooder Duties; collecting litter, helping senior citizens cross the road, returning shopping carts, basically performing small acts of kindness for an hour and a half of hilarity and love.

The Super Joy Riders: Do Gooder Bike Ride is an exercise in community organizing and active engagement. We hope to use the ride as an opportunity to show how helping people can be simple, fun, and easy, especially while wearing a cape.

You + Superhero Costume + Bike = Best Sunday Ever.

We are inviting Orlando to come with us on a fun filled bike ride of awesomeness on the last Sunday of the month. Dress like a superhero, hop on a bike, and follow our scavenger hunt list of Good Deeds as we all try to save the world with small acts of kindness. http://www.superjoyriders.com/

Noon to 3pm Donation. Music at the Casa. Casa Feliz, (656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789). Classical Guitarist Christopher Belt.

9pm to 10pm Solo Acoustic Spoken Word. Natura Coffee (12078 Collegiate Way Orlando FL). 407 482-5000

Sanford Art Walk

On every fourth Friday between 6pm and 9pm, there is an Art Walk in Downtown Sanford that features fine and funky art. I went to the June Sanford Art Walk with storm clouds looming. As I walked down 1st Street it began to pour, so I slipped inside the Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Galley (211 East 1st Street, Sanford FL). As I was looking around, the woman behind the counter asked if I was Thor. It was Mary K. Shaw. I had sketched her once as part of the Sketchbook Project Library which was set up for a few days at Urban ReThink. I had never met her in person, yet she was a Facebook friend. Since she knew of my sketch a day project, I felt comfortable asking her if I could sketch the gallery to promote the Sanford Art Walk. It was hard to find a spot where I wouldn’t be blocking any art. I snuggled up next to a water pipe and got to work.

There are artist’s studios all around the outer edge of the gallery. I particularly liked the work of Cherie Dacko. Her ” Bent Realism” distorted faces as if using the liquefy filter in Photoshop. Features melted and swirled. She also incorporated fabric that gave the work an added dimension. I got to meet the artist and she used to work in the front studio that had a window to the street. Passers by would actually stop in to complain saying they found her work disturbing. That is a major accomplishment to get such a visceral reaction.  She now has a studio upstairs where she can work in peace. I purchased a bottle of “Cheer Wine” which is actually a local soda that I have never been able to find in a supermarket. I met Joe Waller, who makes “Cheer Wine” in his home state of North Carolina But I never had the chance to taste it. Now I knew what all the fuss was about.

For the Art Walk, two Folk Artists were exhibiting their colorful work in the far corner of my sketch. That evening there was also going to be shuffleboard matches at the Sanford Senior Center with vintage attire encouraged. The shuffleboard is rain or shine, thanks to covered pavilions, so
anyone can come out and rattle the sticks and pucks tonight. Free and
fun til 9pm.
A small French Bulldog named Frankie was the welcome ambassador to the Folk Art. He slobbered on my bag and checked on my progress fairly often. A Day of the Dead mask of Lady Catrina was made by an artist who wears it in October and walks 1st Avenue to promote the gallery. This is the place to be come Halloween. There were $20 magnets by Artist Carl Knickerbocker. I had one of these on my car once but it was stolen. Tin can fish swam through the cavernous gallery and black face iron sculptures stood behind an ancient travel chest.

The theme for the month at the
Sanford Welcome Center
was,“Art Show About Nothing”, abstractions abounded, they didn’t care what it was, as long as it was NOT SOMETHING. It’s a different theme
each month.
A small card on the counter had a map that showed all nine stops on the Art Walk. Having experienced just one venue, I have every reason to go back. Tonight’s Art Walk (Friday July 26, 2013), theme is “Breakable”- a tribute to all things breakable, broken or pieced back together. This is Central Florida’s only monthly juried art show with both a “Best in Show” award chosen by a panel of judges and a “People’s Choice” award chosen by the attendees of the show. Head to downtown Sanford, pick up a map at any gallery, and mingle with the artists as you enjoy live music, food and lots of ART. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

Auditions

Beth Marshall Presents held auditions for the 2013-2014 season at the Garden Theater in Winter Garden on Saturday June 22nd. Productions she was holding audition for included…

The 2013 Play-in-a-Day 2013 Season kickoff in partnership with Lake Howell High School and Penguin Point Productions September 7th.

Alice Lost in Wonderland (a world premiere) written by Rob Winn Anderson and Beth Marshall, October 18-November 3 at the Garden Theater.

Beatnik, a multi-media art evening of poetry music and dance in collaboration with VarieTEASE. December 3rd at the Venue.

33 Variations by Moises Kaufman, directed by Aradhana Tiwari, March 13-30 at the Garden Theater.

Touring shows include,

Commencement written by Clay McCleod Chapman, directed by Brenna Nicely, Starring Beth Marshall at Fringe, or  The Venue.

The Books, written by Michael Edison Haydon, directed by Beth Marshall for Fringe or The Venue.

Actors gathered in the lobby of the theater and they entered the theater in groups of four or five. Actors read monologues and occasionally sang. I sketched actress Becky Lane since I knew her from some incredible performances in the past. Some actors read beat poetry but it just didn’t have the swaggering flow of 50’s beat angst.

That changed when writer, Tod Caviness and his new bride, dancer, Christin Caviness took to the stage. He recited a poem completely off book with the furious confidence of a generation reaching for a new understanding of what it is to live. Christin danced with sweaty abandon rising and receding with the tide of the poem. Garments were tossed aside as needless encumbrances to the need to move. I was swept along enthralled. I stood and applauded. This could be the corner stone for an amazing evening of Beat madness. What an incredible collaboration, a true marriage of two art forms.

A thunderstorm sent loud rain hammering down on the theater’s metal
roof. Beth considered it good since it would force actors to project. As
one actor was on stage giving a monologue, the lights of the theater
went black. The huge empty theater went silent. In the darkness he muttered, “Well I guess that’s a sign
that I didn’t get the part.”

Deja vu

ME Dance Inc. presented their Season Finale, Deja vu at the Winter Garden Theater. This was the second to last stop on the Orlando SketchCrawl. Two other artists joined me to document the performance, Dana Boyd and Gabe Caroll-Dolci. I saw Marshall Ellis the dance company’s founder, and shook his hand before the show. He has built up this dance company from scratch over the last several years.

The first half of the show had dance routines with titles like, Love, The Passion, The Knowledge, Stand by Me and Lust.  The Passion performed by dancer Shannon MacLaren stood out in my mind. The dance began with Shannon seated on a stool, she arched her back and pointed her toes then spun into motion. Her dance began to remind me of Jessica Rabbit a cartoon that couldn’t help but be sultry. By the intermission, my sketch was done and I put the sketchbook away for the second half of the show.

Dance numbers combined video, and spoken word. The announcer sounded a bit too much like the announcer for the Disney Monorail and some people chuckled. One number had dancer, Alexandra Schudde, addressing the audience as if they were World War II soldiers. The spoken sentiment missed the mark, but the dance rang true. All of the dances were undeniably well choreographed  and executed. Journey had the dancers performing to Faithfully, and Don’t Stop Belevin’. Wearing loose 70’s era clothes the dancers rejoiced in the retro flavored routine. They threw everything they had into the dance, pushing the envelope of exhaustion.

The audience, that seemed full of young dancers, stood for a standing ovation. I stood and clapped loudly. As the audience exited the theater, someone tripped and fell back into an ME Dance promotional screen sending it toppling. Marshall rushed in to make sure the supports didn’t hit anyone. There is never a dull moment with live theater and dance.