At SECAC in Winston Salem North Carolina, I attended Life Disruptions as Opportunities for Artistic Growth, Session I, organized by Stella P. Arbeláez Tascón. The first speaker at this session was Zoe Nestlie from the University of Central Florida whose art is influenced by an emotionally abusive relationship. Her talk was titled, Making the Invisible Visible: Giving Form to Emotional Abuse in Intimate Partner Relationships. The relationship had her questioning who she was as she faced unsteady ground with every interaction with her partner. At first she painted the eyes of her partner in front of an image of a wolf. She felt however that image empowered her abuser.

She switched to creating an alter ego character who navigated the uncertain world of healing after abuse. The character was cartoonish but, in each scene, there were visible hints of the abuse happening. Besides the digital paintings, she began sculpting plush sculptures that hinted at the process of recovering from abuse.

The second speaker, Hallie Bahn from the University of Massachusetts Amherst gave a talk titled, Sand Through My Fingers: The Negotiation of Time, Labor and Control as an Artist-Mother. She was an animator and had given birth. She got a grant to work on an animated film using sand. She wanted to collaborate with her child in the process, but her child was not interested in any form of linear storytelling. Hallie would animate a scene usually with an animal and then she would film her child destroying the final image. The film became a process of creation and destruction. It was displayed in a sand box which encouraged children to interact. The resulting spears of sand she would then reform and use to animate another scene. Having come from a Disney Feature Animation background I had multiple questions, as did Stella. The film is still in production.

Sally Brown from West Virginia University gave a zoom talk titled, The Architecture of Absence: Grief, the “Empty Nest,” and the Generative Power of the Archival Pivot. Sally is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores womanhood, motherhood, and the physical body through drawing, painting, and mixed media. Some of her pieces integrated drawings by her child along with her own drawings, many of which were expressionist self-portraits depicting her own body. Some paintings had breast prints along with drawings of the nude.  She had to deal with an empty nest she was making a major pivot inn her work moving forward.

The last speaker, Paige L Morris from Tyler School of Art and Architecture gave a talk titled, Tending the Rupture: The Politics of Care and Slowing Down.  I identified with her talk on a deep level. Paige is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Philadelphia, PA. Building upon her foundation in glass, Morris utilizes material poetics, sound, and video performances to examine language, the complexities of love, and the human search for truth and meaning. Her practice actively investigates agency and desire as a method for unlearning her patriarchal conditioning.

She expressed the idea that a resume or CV should list things like overcoming grief among the achievements. A CV tends to only focus on achievements like shows. and job titles but life experience and resiliency plays into making someone a desirable hire. Page lost a sister and that grief at first made producing art seem meaningless. The demands of making enough money to survive tended to crush any hopes of creation. She has since become a beacon of creativity in her community by opening a shared art space with other artists which hosts shows. The space isn’t a non-profit, it is just a bunch of artists coming together to split the rent and mount amazing exhibitions. Her story was inspiring. All of the presentations tied together nicely being about motherhood and finding oneself in a patriarchal society while growing as an artist.

I went to a rehearsal for a Betsy Ross & Friends; History as it Never Happened! rehearsal at the Methodist church at 1600 Orange Ave, Winter Park, FL. I was invited to the rehearsal by Candy Dawson, a member of the cast. This was a fun original production written by members of the cast. If you don’t know, Betsy Ross was the woman who sewed the first American Flag. With that historical background, it was clear that this would be a patriotic production mixed with pop cultural references that would ring true with the Baby Boom generation. I am a baby boomer so it hit my funny bone hard.

As with many rehearsals, it felt like the director and stage manager were not entirely sure that all the pieces could fall in place in time for opening night. There is a certain magic that happens on opening night where any doubts disappear and the production happens without a glitch. Of course all in the cast are award of the subtle details that most members of an audience are oblivious to.

When I got to the church the doors were locked but luckily a father who was dropping off a child for the church school let me in and I happened across the church auditorium. All the actors were in the back of the auditorium getting set up with microphones and making sure make up and costumes looked good.

One skit involved Whistler’s mother and I was told the actress was well over 80 years old. She was a fire cracker and held her own acting in the part.  Though Betsy Ross acted as the host for the variety show each act was unique and hilarious. Being a small community production, everyone was excited but also relaxed since the stakes were not too high. Everyone just had fun and it showed.

Candy Dawson was playing the part of Lucille Ball and at first sight she clearly fit the part. She was getting help with her hair as she welcomed me to the rehearsal. Candy was also the author of one of the bits in the show and I was impressed.

The rehearsal was a good run through of the show with only a few pauses. Everyone seemed well rehearsed and they all knew their lines. It was great to sketch the rehearsal, but it would have been nice to see how the jokes landed with a live audience. I have no doubt that the auditorium was alight with laughter during the shows run.

I stayed at a really nice Air B&B in Thornton Park while I was looking for an apartment to rent. It was in the top floor of a 3 story building with a balcony that overlooked Washington Street. There was a bar next door with a UCF banner and I liked hearing all the conversations.

All of my belongings were in a storage container in Lake County Florida. My hope was to find a place in Downtown Orlando. The problem of course was that most places downtown cost a fortune. I know of a place near the Day Building that costs $5000 a month. The building looks like an old Spanish fortress church with the bells removed frm the bell tower, which was refurnished. It has really tall ceilings but I bet the apartments are not that big otherwise. $5000 a month is insane.

The place I was staying in in Thornton Park was right on Washington Avenue a block away from the Falcon Bar and Gallery. I have sketched at the Falcon Bar rather often so I was pleased to be so close. I sketched my view looking towards Lake Eola at night. A small outdoor street festival had just shut down, and the tents were being broken down.

There was a pause in the activity and a family with a dog was talking to a vendor. One block from the Air B&B was a 7-11 which I went to several times for basic supplies. By basic supplies, I mean junk food of course and battery acid Mountain Dew. A Publix was a few more blocks away and I went shopping there for the week’s groceries.

In a few weeks I would be sketching shows at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. I needed a place that was a short distance from the festival since I planned to sketch like a Tasmanian devil. I tried to re-book this Thornton Park place but it had already been booked.

While here I was also looking for apartments. There was a place for rent across the street, so I called to take a look at the place. It was a single room apartment with a kitchen and bath. It had an upstairs attic with a skylight  and I thought maybe I could use it as a studio space. When I got inside I found that the attic ceiling was only 5 feet high at the peak of the roof. I had to duck just to walk down the length of the room. The room was completely unusable and could only function as storage. I don’t have many belongings but this place was waaaaay to small.

From this Thornton Park Air B&B I had to move to a place in Azalia Park. That place was on the landing approach to the Orlando International Airport and the morning planes flying over were an unpleasant window rattling racket. I took a map of Orlando and drew the areas that had the loudest airplane landing noises. That map became my plan for the places I absolutely refused to live.

Prior to moving out to lake County I lived at the Chatsworth Lane house and it was also on a plane landing pattern for the airport. I used to wear ear plugs every morning to try and drown out the noise.

I really loved my stay in Thornton Park. Home process were through the roof and the few rentals I looked at were either too small or too expensive. Finding a place in Downtown Orlando was proving to be a challenge.