Sunburst Celebrity Impersonator Showcase

The Sunburst Celebrity Impersonator Showcase is always a great sketch opportunity for me. As I entered the Florida Hotel and Conference Center (1500 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, 32809) I saw Colonel Sanders in the lobby with an ice cream cone. Jack Sparrow was wearing a Captain America costume. He must have been a celebrity impersonator impersonating another celebrity. Marylin Monroe was putting out buttons on her marketing table. The Queen posed with James Bond, as Donald Trump was adjusting his suit’s shoulder pads for the best effect. He has our lunatic POTUS’s mannerisms down pat. Across the room Breaking Bad‘s Heisenberg was talking to Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Sheriff Rosco from Dukes of Hazard took some interest in the fact that a sketch artist was in the room. For me, this is an annual ritual to sketch the stars in their element.

Celebrity impersonators of legendary actors, singers, comedians, politicians, and sports figures perform, delight, and entertain the masses. Guests can also get their picture taken with their favorite “celebrity” during intermission and following the showcases.

Each year, over 100 of the world’s best professional celebrity impersonators, lookalikes, and tribute artists fly, drive, and cruise into Orlando for the Sunburst Convention to gather, mingle, network, educate themselves, and have an unforgettable time. They are joined by numerous talent buyers, talent agents, producers, and meeting planners from all over the country who are invited to watch the imitators perform live and make a lasting impression.

Sunburst features performance showcases, themed parties, an awards banquet, promotional room, and tons of photo opportunities. The general public is also invited to attend and rub elbows with the “Just About Famous” stars, and with special public access again this year, now even more spectators can enjoy the unique, fun and one-of-a-kind entertainment Sunburst has to offer.

Join the 17th Annual Sunburst Convention and Showcase of Celebrity Impersonators on Saturday, August 31. For more information and to purchase public showcase tickets online, visit www.SunburstShowcase.com.

Tickets range from $15 to $25. 

Weekend Top 6 Picks

Saturday August 31 and September 1, 2019

10am to 4pm Free. Sanford Farmers Market. First and Magnolia Sanford Fl.

10am to 4pm Free. Orlando Elks Vintage Faire. Elk Lodge 1079 12 N Primrose Drive Orlando FL.

10:30pm to Midnight Free but order drinks and food. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801.

Sunday September 1, 2019 Labor Day

10am to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

7pm to 9pm Free. Movie Night. Old Town. 5770 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy, Kissimmee, FL 34746. Sunday nights are movie nights at Old Town with a family-friendly
showing happening weekly at 7pm. These are free to attend, but be sure
to bring chairs and grab snacks from the nearby vendors to complete your
viewing experience. Labor Day Weekend’s showing will be Herbie: Fully
Loaded.  

4pm to 1am Free. Raglan Road. 8th Annual ‘Great Irish Hooley’ Music Festival. 1640 Buena Vista Dr, Orlando, FL 32830. A boutique Irish music festival with a colorful live playlist of
traditional Irish, Celt grass, folk, blues and soul. The festival will
also include Celtic face painting, Hooley-crafted cocktails plus
creative new bites by the pub’s inventive culinary team. The pub also
will introduce a new local craft beer collaboration with Crooked Can
Brewing: the Devil’s Foot Blackberry Golden Ale. And Raglan Road also
will serve the delicious Rollicking Raglan Brunch Saturday, August 31
through Monday, September 2.

FREE Admission, food and drink prices vary

Iowa Baby Shower

Pam’s sister, Jenni Schwartz and Roger Wood, are having a baby and we traveled to Iowa for several baby showers. Jenni lives in Des Moines, Iowa and that shower was held at the Raccoon River Nature Lodge. I was on task to help set up. Pam ordered several dozen tiny wicker baskets which were intended to hold thank you presents for this hot air balloon themed party. She ordered them online and had the boxes shipped to Jenni’s home. The baskets turned out to be VERY tiny only able to hold one candy. In desperation, she made a run to a party store which was going out of business. A few items were on the shelves but many items were scattered on the floor. It was a post apocalyptic scene.She did find some silk gift bags which fit three pieces of ganache and truffles, as opposed to the one that could be held by a basket. She wanted to leave the baskets behind to be returned, but I insisted they were a much needed decoration item.

The lodge had a gorgeous view overlooking a lake to the south. Floor to ceiling windows made the view amazing. We were responsible for all the set up and break down for the event. We rolled out 5 round tables and covered them with white plastic table cloths. Center pieces were rectangular blue place mats with a bowl of caramel/cheese popcorn and the candy bags scattered about. I discovered that the baskets were just big enough to hold 1 Starburst candy, so I raided all the candy to just find the Starbursts.

My main job was to build the balloon arch. I blew up most of the balloons. Jenni blew up the golden balloons since they were easiest to blow up. When they were inflated, golden confetti inside would blow around like they were in a tornado. All the other balloons were blue or white. That is a clue that baby Wood would be a boy. There was one very big blue balloon in the bag, so I tied a basket under it to make it onto a hot air balloon.

Pam designed cute cards with a fox and rabbit riding in a hot air balloon. She brought a stuffed red fox which sat on the serving tables and a metal basket containing baby diapers had balloons attached to it to make it resemble a hot air balloon. We also had paper hot air balloon decorations with a cloud and star hanging below each. I taped them to the blinds on each floor to ceiling window and they were raised or lowered based on how high or low the blinds were raised. The balloons didn’t have baskets, so I placed a basket on the window sill ledge below each making it seem like the balloons had launched without their baskets.

The cake was beautifully decorated reproducing Pam’s fox  hot air balloon cartoon. However the cake imploded when we were transporting it. It had a creamy salted caramel filling which caused the layers to slip like tectonic plates. By the end of the evening the cake had slipped and twisted making it look like a California earthquake had hit. It was still incredible delicious….when eaten with a spoon.

About 35 people RSVP’d to the party, but only 15 or so arrived on this Friday night. When they arrived they were invited to put a fingerprint on a hot air balloon image with the fox and rabbit, and sign it, for it to later hang on the nursery walls. The diapers were to be inscribed with messages so the mother could have a giggle when she had to change them in the middle of the night. I drew a poop emoji and signed it. Some of Jenni’s co-workers were giggling and writing on diapers for most of the party.

History in a Glass Celery Edition

The History in a Glass series, at the Orange County Regional History Center, (65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL 32801) featured three local craft bartenders who competed for
bragging rights by creating libations linked to historical themes and
artifacts. The June edition was about the history of celery in Central Florida. Pam Schwartz, the chief curator made herself a crown of celery stalks for the evening. I set up to sketch backstage behind the bartenders looking out over the crowd enjoying the libations. Lite bites for the evening were supplied by Hawkers Asian Street Fare.

Now on to the history behind the drinks… 100 years ago Sanford, Florida was undergoing major economic shifts. Steamboats were being replaced by steam locomotives and the citrus industry experienced a a series of huge freezes, destroying all the crops. The population plummeted as crops were abandoned.  

I.H. Terwilliger stayed after the freezes and is reputed to have planted
the first celery crops grown in Sanford in 1896. More people came to plant
celery and by 1898 Sanford’s celery was known nationwide. Celery
was being grown across more than 6,000 acres in the Central Florida
area, producing 73% of the nation’s celery. Sanford became known as Celery City. There were roughly 553 celery farms in the area in the early 1900s. That
number dwindled down to just 22 by the end of World War II.

Three downtown bartenders mixed libations based on this history of celery. They were instructed to use celery in their concoctions. After tasting each of the drinks the attendees got to vote on their favorite history themed libation. Justin from, The Courtesy Bar, prepared a cocktail influenced by Central Florida’s resurgence after the death of the citrus industry called Phoenix Rising. The tasty drink included peach and orange blossom vodka, the Florida Key lime, and ITALICUS, an Italian liqueur made with rose petals, and it was this cocktail that earned him the title of  Celery King. 

Gaining Perspective at Elite Animation Academy

After teaching students to draw simple shapes like circles and squares for several days to create compositions, the big challenge is to get them to draw three dimensions shapes like a cube. The first lesson many of them can quickly master, which consists of drawing two overlapping squares and adding lines that connect the corners. The real challenge comes when the front face of the cube is not squarely facing the student. In this drawing each face has more of a diamond shape with none of the lines being parallel to the edges of the page. Since mastering this form doesn’t happen immediately for most students I find excuses to come back to drawing this basic building block of a form again and again.

In this class, my students are drawing from historic models of what Orlando looked like hundreds of years ago. Each building is of course a cube shape and the challenge becomes to fit several buildings on the page and then add some detail. Most students can master this sketch after I do a step by step tutorial in which they do drawings of cubes using one point and two point perspective. Sometimes I do these exercises on the white board and other times on my tablet which is hooked up to the large TV screen. Some students do amazing drawings from this session while others still stumble trying to draw the basic form. It is rare that I get to do a drawing of my students at work since they often need notes and advice every few minutes, but this class had some real focus and that is a joy to see.

Elite Animation Academy fall classes are beginning this September 10th. Should you know of a talented middle school or High School student who wants to learn some new creative skills have then contact the Academy. Classes are on Saturdays. I will be teaching a Story boarding class which should help anyone who loves to tell stories.

Shady Park

I went to Shady Park in Winter Park for what was supposed to be a community market. It was overcast and there was no one in the park when I arrived. It started to rain and I took cover under a gazebo and started to draw this dog made of balls. When the rain let up, a little girl climbed up on the sculpture to ride the dog while her mom shot some photos.

This area was recently gentrified converting this formerly black neighborhood into a posh area of restaurants bars and this park. This problem originated 100 years ago with the practice of geographically segregating populations by race. In recent years black residents have been pushed out of their
historic and family homes due to the rising cost of living, increased
property values, and the pressures of opportunist builders. The rich continue to march west displacing families who have lived there for generations.

Shady Park, (721 W New England Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) is centrally located in historical Hannibal Square next to the
community center. It features park benches and a tranquil sidewalk pathway.
It is perfect for reading a book or hosting a special community event.
It also includes a “spray play” water feature.

Removing the Pulse banner

The City of Orlando had local artists submit work for a banner that went on the fence surrounding the Pulse Nightclub after the shooting. A black fabric had covered the fence and people cut holes in that fabric to get a glimpse of the bullet holes in the walls of the club. The new colorful banner was covered in memorial items and signatures from visitors from around the world by the time it was taken down. I went to the site with the staff of the Orange County Regional History Center and helped clean up the dead flowers and wax while they collected items to preserve in the museums collection.

AS they started to roll up the banner, removing it from the fence I went to the furthest spot to sketch it before it was cone. Channel 9 News had showed up to get footage for their broadcast as well. They seemed curious about what I was doing and I answered a few questions as I continued to sketch. The History museum staff had come in their van and a U-Haul to handle the collections process. The club owner Barbara Poma was also there to answer any questions. The reason the banner was being removed and large items taken away was because an interim memorial with landscaping had been designed for the site. In the following weeks construction would begin on that interim memorial.

The City of Orlando offered to buy the Pulse nightclub for $2.5 million but Barbara decided to keep the property and formed the onePULSE Foundation to create a permanent memorial and museum on the site. $10 million was awarded to onePULSE to break ground on the project. The funds were afforded through hotel-tax revenues by the Orange
County Board of County Commissioners. The
funding, which was unanimously approved by the BCC’s members, will be
used to acquire land and create designs for a proposed museum.

Design firms are being vetted and a site chosen for the proposed museum. Six big name design firms were short listed for the design of the memorial and museum. The teams where found after a two-month search that brought in 68 submissions from 19 different countries. No actual Pulse designs were submitted. The firms were chosen based on past projects.

The finalists are:

Coldefy and Associés with RDAI, Xavier Veilhan, dUCKS scéno, Agence TER, and Professor Laila Farah;

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rene Gonzalez Architect with Raymond Jungles, Inc.;

heneghan peng architects, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Sven Anderson, and Pentagram;

MASS Design Group, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Sasaki, Sanford Biggers, Richard Blanco, and Porsha Olayiwola;

MVRDV, Grant Associates, GSM Project, and Studio Drift;

Studio Libeskind with Claude Cormier + Associés, Thinc, and Jenny Holzer

According to the onePULSE Foundation,
these teams provided the strongest credentials, relevant experience, and
most compelling statements on how architecture can embody the
organization’s mandate: “We will not let hate win.”

The six firms are working on designs right now and their work will be on display at the Orange County Regional History Center in October 2019. The public will be invited to see their work. At that time the final judging will occur to pick the final design.

Carnival of Wonder

I went to a dress rehearsal for Carnival of Wonder which is an interactive spectacle unlike any other, an immersive murder mystery produced by Phoenix Tears Productions. The audience is invited to attend Madam Mystique’s Carnival of Wonder, a place full of games, fun, magic, and on this August night in 1938, a murder! It’s up to each audience member to watch the suspects and solve the mystery.

A bright pop corn machine at the entrance set the carnival mood. The wall to the left was lined with carnival style games. People were invited to knock  over tin cans, for a prize of jelly beans. I was surprised that no one managed to knock them all over. A magnet might have been involved. Other games included flipping a ring on bottle necks and some game involving a fish bowl.

I was mostly fascinated by the Saoirse the Fae Fortune Teller, (Leanna Bailey) who was illuminated in a faint purple glow. She would read peoples fortunes from Cleromancy or the casing of lots. Between clients she spoke with the Dragon Handler, Tarran Rhodes, (Jason Laramee) and things got heated. Charlie (Melissa Riggins) had been demoted to being a game handler. I wondered what had caused her fall. Roulette: Mistress of Blades, (Madison Payne) gently entertained the rubes by juggling colorful silks. Mallory Sabetodos Vance, Jade Roberts and Vex Batchelder ran the games and kept the rubes in line. Elaine Pechacek of Dragonfly Studios also acted as the consummate hostess.

Madame Mystique (Kathy Romero) in a top hat ran the carnies with an iron fist. Late in the evening the Masked Magician (Kate Murray) entered and was much loved in comparison. A hula hoop performance on the main stage by Lil Red (Jacquelynn Allene Powers) gathered the crowd for what would ultimately be the main event. I went in anticipating a murder and had a suspect in mind from the first moments when I began the sketch. Though a wild guess my artist instinct was correct. The person who guesses the killer correctly got to keep the computer 3D printed murder weapon as a prize.

The last show of Carnival of Wonders is Saturday August 24th at 8 PM

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

Dragonfly Studio & Productions

133 W Mckey St., Ocoee, Florida 34761

Weekend Top 6 Picks for August 24 and 25, 2019

Saturday August 24, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. John H Jackson Community Center, 3107, 1002 W Carter St, Orlando, FL 32805.

10am to 4pm Free. Orlando Elks Vintage Faire. Elk Lodge 1079 12 N Primrose Drive Orlando FL.

10am to 4pm Free. Sanford Farmers Market. First and Magnolia Sanford Fl.



Sunday August 25, 2019

9:30am to 12:30pm $255 members, $275 non-members 6 weeks Crealde Urban Sketch Class. I am instructing. Crealde School of Art, 600 St Andrews Blvd, Winter Park, FL.

Noon to 2pm Free but order food and drink. Florida Gospel Jam. Fish on Fire 7937 Daetwyler Drive Belle Isle FL. Every 2nd and 4th Sunday. 

10pm to Midnight. Free but get a coffee. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out and laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Corsets and Cuties 5 Year Anniversary.

Corsets and Cuties a Burlesque Caberet will be celebrating their 5 year anniversary in Sanford at Theater West End (115 West 1st St., Sanford, Florida 32771) on Sunday August 4th from 8 PM to 10 PM. This sketch was done at a birthday celebration fort the founding mistress Lady Jaimz. Blue Star will be joining the cast as a featured Guest for this blow out celebration. Risa Risque and Jenn Thibedeau are joining Lady Jaimz in a number from their first burlesque fringe show from 7 years ago called Redlight.

You can expect a unique blend of laughs and some amazing cabaret singing along with the sensual disrobing. Each performer bring their own unique blend to the show. Corsets and Cuties heating up the night! A little song, a little dance, maybe a Cutie in your lap. Unexpected fun and surprises await!

Lovely ladies and some not-so-gentle men sing, dance, and tastefully strip down for your entertainment pleasure! Whether you’re celebrating with the one you love or out on the prowl, the Cuties are ready for ya! You can be sure of a fantastic night out!

NOTE: The show is intended for adult audiences, as it contains adult content and nudity.

Corsets and Cuties- 5 Year Anniversary, Sanford

Sunday August 25, 2019 8 PM to 10 PM

Theater West End

115 West 1st St., Sanford, Florida 32771

Tickets are  $18