Lake Eola Farmers Market

Posted on by Thor

Every Sunday from 10AM to 3PM there is a Farmers’ Market at the South East corner of Lake Eola. I am doing oil paintings each morning of Lake Eola with the plan to do 49 paintings all around the circumference of the lake. I assume the fountain will be in each painting. I am not sure if the fountain is a requirement yet for the series. I took a break from the early morning painting session on Sunday and decided to get a sketch done at the Farmer’s Market.

While doing this sketch, the bells of the Greek Orthodox Church chimed for well over an hour. Something about that sound and the bustle of the crowds in the market made me feel very relaxed. For once, I felt at home. I feel very blessed to have this time in my life to focus on the activity and view the lake offers downtown Orlando residents. I have sketched the lake before but now it has become an obsession. The people I meet each morning are helping me feel more connected to the Orlando community.

Four of the tents on the left in my sketch are occupied by artists. One artist, Angelo Vasquez, I had just recently sketched as he gave an interview at the Science Center for the Elegy for the Unseen: The Art of Extinct Species exhibit now on display at the Orlando Science Center through November 15, 2026. Admission is free but museum admission is $29 for adults. Angelo had some large black and white prints on display. He works in graphite doing large renderings. At the Science Center he had an immense rendering of a dinosaur in the group exhibit.

Several artists have a cardboard box with a hole cut in it called a Doodle Box. It was meant to look like a vending machine. I am not sure what a doodle box is or what it does, but I think I need to find out and do a sketch. One artist had a sign saying that if you beat him at the board game he was playing you could win a free print. That is pure marketing genius. I am not great at playing any board game so if I were to use the marketing game technique, I would be giving away far too much art for free.

I was set up on pine needles under large palm trees. White Ibis were curious about what I was doing, and they marched up to me to look at my sketch. Since the colorful surface of my sketch wasn’t food, they soon lost interest and strutted away. They are more predominant in my watercolor than the crowds crushed together on the sidewalks.

After my sketch was complete, I walked around to look in all the tent booths. My hope was to pick up some farmers produce for my fridge. There were trinkets galore and food tents around the large live oak tree, but I didn’t find any farmers produce. I was disappointed that I didn’t find any fruits or vegetables, but I could hike up the block to Publix if I wanted to.

I didn’t buy anything since I had my hopes set on some blueberries and strawberries. I recently had a conversation with Jennifer Gwynne Oliver who said that cash is king. All digital exchanges are being tracked by AI. In this digital age we are constantly being surveilled. I only had two one-dollar bills in my pocket. I need to start carrying more cash for just these occasions. I need to just accept the market for the eclectic mix that it is. Next time I go to sketch, I am getting a coconut milk in the coconut shell and sip it while I work.

Hernia Repair Waiting Room

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While hiking and sketching in Europe, I developed a bilateral hernia below my belly button at the ridge of the pelvic bone. Because I was traveling in Europe for 3 months my insurance had been canceled. When I got back to the states, my first order of business was to get my insurance renewed since I knew that I would need an operation. My primary care doctor with the renewed Ambetter Insurance sent me to a doctor whose consultation made me believe he was an inexperienced butcher. He looked like he was straight out of high school, and his explanation was blunt and less than reassuring.

My sister from Port Charlotte Florida had a hernia several years ago and she had an operation like the Ambetter Insurance doctor was describing. That operation failed and the hernia returned. Another doctor tried to fix the botched operation and his patchwork also failed. She described the results like having our intestines pressing through chicken wire crudely sewn into the abdomen.

My sister then found Dr. Jonathan Yunis in Sarasota, Florida. He performed an intricate operation that was so complex that he invited medical interns to witness the procedure. This operation was a success and has lasted for many years.

I decided I had to have Dr. Yunis perfume the operation on my abdomen. I sketched the waiting room, hoping others might enter who wanted the same operation. I was the only consultation on that morning. Drawings on the wall showed the abdomen and pelvis.

I had just had an operation to remove my prostate gland, which adds enzymes and citric acid to semen, maintaining its fluidity and supporting sperm viability. I had seen electrocardiograms of my pelvis before that operation, so I was very familiar with what that region looked like from the inside. Having my prostate removed left me feeling asexual. I feel a bit like a dog that has been neutered. Finding friendship has become more important that finding a sexual partner.

Dr. Yunis gave a thorough explanation of what he would be doing, and I felt sure this was the right way to go. He isn’t on Ambetter’s list of doctors, however. He doesn’t want to deal with having to answer to insurance companies. Regardless, I moved forward hoping that the insurance would cover some fraction of the cost. They never did. I filled out multiple forms which were all denied. The operation cost $11,000 out of pocket.

The operation was a success. Yunis used a DaVinci Robot to perform the operation under his control. I was shaved completely free of any hair on my chest and groin. Three small incisions were made in my abdomen. Two were for robotic hands and the third for a camera. I wanted to sketch the DaVinci Robot, but I was put under anesthesia almost immediately.

Though this was an outpatient procedure, I was told I could not drive after the operation. My sister pan and her husband Mike were there to drive me back to their place in Port Charlotte Florida. I was told I might be in a lot of pain for several days but honestly, I was fine. It was a rare chance to sit and relax on ac ouch and just watch TV. I did take some Aleve each day since the incisions could be felt, like sandpaper against my belly. There were no stitches. Instead, glue held the wounds closed. I took off the bandages several days later. The three scars made it look like I had been shot in the stomach 3 times. I healed quickly. Today the scars are almost invisible. Despite the cost, I am glad I used this doctor. My instincts told me it is better to get the job done right the first time by an experienced doctor. Now I am biking and hiking around downtown Orlando and I am sure the abdomen is getting stronger.

Waiting for Dr. Rachel Apoo

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After having my prostate sliced out by a doctor using a laser shoved up my flagpole, I then developed a bilateral hernia while sketching in Europe. I noticed the hernia when I woke up one morning in Herdecke Germany. I thought I had it because I had decided to try the coffee in the historic Air B&B. It had developed so fast that I feared I might have to cut the trip short as it expanded. I spent the morning reading online articles about hernias and became convinced that it wasn’t dangerous at the time. I am sure a laser beam had ripped the lining of my lower abdomen from the inside during the prostate operation. I figured lots of hiking around Europe would help the healing process. Perhaps I was wrong.

The doctor arranged a follow-up after the prostate removal operation with his assistant Rachel Apoo. I had consulted with one doctor about correcting the hernia, but his consultation was less than informative or reassuring. He planned to sew plastic mesh on the inside of my abdomen. My sister had a hernia, and she had the exact same operation he described twice and it failed both times with different doctors. She later went to Dr. Jonathan Yunis who used pig’s bladder to correct the hernia. It was this trusted doctor I eventually used to do the operation. It cost $11,000 out of pocket and Ambetter Insurance refused to help with the costs in any way since he was out of network. Health insurance is a scam.

I asked Apoo about the hernia correction surgery. She told me the operation had nothing to do with the hernia that developed shortly after leaving the operating table. That protected the doctor from any possible lawsuits. She also prescribed me a drug which would lengthen the amount of time between bathroom breaks. The whole reason I had the swollen prostate removed was so that I could sit for several hours and finish a sketch or painting before having to run off to a bathroom. In Germany I was peeing everywhere I sketched. I marked trees all along the route of the 75th Infantry Division as they liberated the Ruhr Pocket during WWII. The pills Apoo prescribed were turned down by my health insurance. On a second office visit she prescribed another pill which did the trick. It is called Oxybutynin ER. I ran out of the drug last week and now I have to pee every few hours or so. I get up several times at night as well. I am calling in a refill today. I tried calling in a refill yesterday, but the Walgreens robots put me on hold for an extremely long time and then a human hung up on me. I hope to have better luck today.

Our Dear Dead Drug Lord: Set Build

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Bonnie Sprung designed and built this set for The Ensemble Company in residence at the Imagine Performing Arts Center (1700 Oviedo Mall Boulevard, Oviedo FL). Bonnie created these fun time lapse videos as she works on the set. I saw one of her videos and decided I needed to sketch her at work. She was working on a large tree house set.

The set was for a play titled Our Dear Dead Drug Lord written by Allexis Scheer and directed by Matthew Macdermid. Four high school aged girls formed a pact in Miami where they all worshiped Pablo Ecsobar a drug lord who was gunned down in Colombia. The four girls cast were Sarah Barthelemy, Louise Ortiz-Hernandez, Ana Gomez-Lugo and Maddy Paston.

The four girls, Pipe, Zoom, Squeeze and a new recruit used a Ouija board to summon the drug lord in a seance that morphed from teenage play into a possible supernatural occurrence. The girl’s raw performances explored each girl’s hidden trauma and suppressed rage while they all searched for some form of control in their lives. The performances were mesmerizing and powerful. The play started playfully but ended with a guttural scream.

Bonnie Sprung’s set build was part plan and part instinct. She worked on one side of the set and then the other, using wood for the broad strokes of her constructed composition. The camera she used to shoot a time lapse of the process was right beside me. The main thing was that the set had to be solidly built and safe for the actresses. Once construction was complete it would influence every aspect of the performances.

I felt privileged to see the bare bones skeleton of what would become an amazing set. Bonnie Sprung has worked on set design, scenic painting, make-up and stage management for over 200 productions in Orlando and New York. In this small theater space at Imagine Performing Arts Center, she created theater magic on a tight budget. She showed me what the set would look like when complete. She had taken her concept sketch and fed it into AI and from there a very detailed an colorful rendering was done. I couldn’t wait to sketch the play live.

The Boxer Returns

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15 years ago, I sketched performance artist Brian Feldman at the Beacham Theater. He set himself up inside an Orlando Weekly Newspaper box and distributed papers to people going into the Best of Orlando Party. It was a tough sketching situation and ultimately, I was asked to move along by police. I had already finished the sketch line work thankfully and when the officer left I finished the sketch while standing up. He didn’t return to once again cut off the creative process.

Brian let me know that he was having a return performance at this year’s Best of Party being held in the Plaza Live Theater. The fact that I could sketch indoors with air conditioning was already a plus. I arrived early and Brian had left my name at the door so I could get into the venue. I was given an arm band and let right in.

Brian was set up in the lobby right next to the table that the Orlando Weekly was using to welcome people to the event. I sat in my artist’s stool right across from Brian which offered a good vantage point. This time Brian became a perfect photo opportunity to folks heading into the theater. Before getting into the Orlando Weekly box, Brian met with Production Manager Lee Soule.

Brian hired actress Suzanne Faison who I had just seen at the Orlando Story Club as she told her story for the first time. I had also sketched her at Fringe this year because she performed with the Orlando Gay Chorus, and she had a solo and dance near the end of the show. I sketched her as she got prepared a little off stage. She brought plenty of energy to the performance by offering to take a photo of anyone who grabbed a paper from the boxer. She danced when the music started inside the venue and she crouched like Spider-man always finding a way to grab the attention of folks passing by.

I always like to watch Brian’s facial expressions as people pose. More important are the unexpected moments like a woman struggling to adjust her dress next to the newspaper box before she went inside. Brian’s look of surprise and dismay made me laugh out loud. I kind of wish I had left more room to the right of the box to add some of these moments but my art is a slow burn. Once I commit to a composition, I push through and hope that everything works out.

When my sketch was done, I asked Brian’s Suzanne if she needed anything. I know that Brian never takes a food or bathroom break during a performance. She asked if I could get a couple of slices of pizza from outside. After I grabbed a bit for myself from the table that Maxine’s on Shine had set up inside the theater, I went outside and found the pizza offerings. It was late in the event so there was no line. I grabbed two slices and made my way back inside. I had to go through security, which I didn’t have to do when I arrived much earlier. My art bag had to be searched, and every brush and pencil was a potential weapon. The pizza ultimately did find its way into the Plaza Live, and Brian’s energetic assistant Suzanne was so grateful. I think she had just been running in caffeine up to that point.

The Plaza Theater was the site of the murder of singer Christina Grimmie by a rabid fan the night before the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Grimmie was participating in a meet-and-greet event after her performance, signing auto graphs and selling merchandise, when she was shot multiple times by the suspect, a 27-year-old male. I could not be upset by the heightened security. Orlando lost its innocence in June of 2016.

Brooklyn’s Pizza

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When I lived up in Lake County Florida I used to frequent Brooklyn’s Pizza (27405 US-27 Leesburg, Florida). When I went on a sketch outing with Stella Arbeláez Tascón to Brooklyn’s, we got to meet our server who was also an artist. She had just finished painting the restaurant front window with holiday themed art and it was darn good.

I went to Brooklyn’s Pizza sometimes for their delicious pizza but also for the occasional Alfredo and spaghetti meal. Besides the large plate of rich pasta there were also garlic knots which I could never finish. Brooklyn’s got my business on days where I didn’t have much available in the pantry and I didn’t feel like cooking. I felt comfortable eating on my own because the staff remembered me as that quirky artist who is always sketching. They were always curious to see what I would sketch next.

I can’t offer a biased review of the food at Brooklyn’s because I have just recently switched my diet to only plant-based foods. On my refrigerator is a note that says, “No Dairy, No Eggs, No Meat, No Oils, No Processed Foods”. I have started to read food labels to be sure I am not buying tons of hidden chemicals, salt and sugar. I now spent plenty of time searching for healthy foods which are a challenge to find in a Publix, with rows and rows of brightly colored junk food.

I am following an online course where I get to try out different recipes that are for delicious plant-based meals. Since I just moved onto my new Eola Heights Studio in a gorgeous old historic home, the timing is good, since I can stock my kitchen pantry with only whole plant-based food supplies.

The Alfredo spaghetti at Brooklyn’s Pizza was delicious but it has so much heavy cream which is no longer in my diet. The pizza which was also delicious is no longer something I would seek out when going out to eat. The cheese and white flour are both items that I am avoiding moving forward.

If you want a great pizza, Brooklyn’s is a great place to go. I think I will need to experiment to find a recipe for a great plant-based pizza. The cheese is the thing that will be most challenging to mimic. A healthy and savory tomato paste should be easy to make. I made my own spaghetti sauce for the first time last week. I know Cashew nuts and nutritional yeast have good cheese flavor. Most commercial baked goods have too much sugar and processed flour. As I learn more, I will find out which flours are nutritional and worth using. I have only dipped my toes in the water and taken my first baby steps towards a healthy plant-based diet. I will likely make mistakes along the way. But if I fall off the bike, I just need to get back on.

I didn’t purge my refrigerator and I had a large frozen pork loin left over. I made the pork loin several weeks ago and discovered that it is absolutely exhausting to digest meat once you have started a plant based diet. I actually had to stay in the studio that night and rest although I had plans to do a sketch at an event. I have shopped several times since that experience and no meat has made it back into the freezer.

From My Hometown: An R&B Classic about Friendship

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In the musical, From My Hometown, three young R&B singers met up in NYC in 1980, having arrived there from Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia. They each had superb voices and definite talent and were heading for a competitive audition to nurture their dream of performing at the famed Apollo Theater.

The show was created by playwright Lee Summers, based on a book written by Summers, Ty Stephens, and Herbert Rawlings, Jr., built around their personal autobiographical stories of desiring careers in the music and theater industry. The musical was full of classic soul and R&B songs performed by three enormously talented actors, Adourin Jamelle Owens, Quentin Avery Brown and James White III.

This talented artist had one thing in common, they were all broke and desperately needed to win the Apollo Theater audition. This rags to riches tale and quite a few unexpected twists and turns.

The Winter Park Playhouse production was performed in the Mandell Theater at the Orlando Shakes Theater Complex (812 East Rollins Street Orlando FL 32803) while The Playhouse’s Winter Park location was under renovation.

Listening

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The Winter Garden Theater was shuttered in 2024, reportedly after insurmountable financial challenges. The problem was far deeper than finances, however.

The Winter Garden City Commission unanimously approved a partnership with DNA Event Creative to manage the Garden Theater on Plant. DNA Event Creative is a for profit organization that has had to hit the ground running to bring together a 2026-2027 season in just 3 months. It has not been an easy journey.

This listening session was held at the Foundation for a Healthier West Orange to get feedback from members of the Central Florida Theater Community. From what I had read on a Central Florida Theater Forum online, I went into this meeting thinking that Winter Garden fostered a theater that was not welcoming to performers and technicians who were not white. What happened in the past at the theater has caused a firestorm online that has fostered a lack of trust. Only one woman in the room was black. One person said that other creatives refused to come because they had been burned so many times in the past.

Discussions in this Listening Session hinted at what had happened in the past, but those responsible were never named and the specifics were not discussed. The topic was treated like walking on eggshells. One person described the situation like buying a home and the past homeowner was a horrible person who kicked his dog and annoyed the neighbors. As nice as the new homeowner might be, the home would always be known as a horrible place by all in the neighborhood.

The hope of DNA Event Creative was to focus on moving forward and not making the same mistakes of the past. History tends to repeat itself when history is ignored.The analogy was made that the events of the past were being swept under the rug. Those events were so horrible that it made the rug so bumpy that you would be sure to trip if you walked across it.

One speaker said that he knew what white privilege felt like because he had lived in a city where he was the minority. When the car with him and his high school buddies was pulled over by police, he felt safe but his friends were afraid for their life’s. This room suddenly felt like a circle of white privilege. The moderator who kept the listening session on track was in silhouette. I could never see his face because he was back lit.

The owners of DNA Event Creative were accused of not wanting to hear from the community because they turned off comments on their social media site. They explained that they needed to protect their actors who were getting angry comments for participating in the first theater production. The comments were so angry and vitriolic that they could destroy an actor. The owners felt like parents who needed to protect their kids. Online algorithms are designed to foster conflict and anger. Those emotions generate more clicks.

Live theater is a rare community experience where people gather in a dark room together for a shared experience. What happens on stage can influence how people think of the world. When the world is on fire any production that promotes empathy or compassion is important.

I don’t know the details of what transpired in the past at the Garden Theater. What I have heard is all second hand information. It is clear from things said at this meeting that the pain caused lingers, has spread, and had not been resolved. It was established that the guilty parties were fired and will have nothing to do with any production moving forward. There was discussion that the city itself which owns the theater might not approve of racially diverse productions in the future. The owners at DNA expressed that the city does not take a creative roll in productions.

I feel lucky to have worked with the Orlando Shakes on their posters because their productions always have open auditions and the best actor is picked regardless of race or ethnicity. When a black actress was cast as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, there was online racist comments but the theater protected the cast and refused to allow any further racist commentary.

We are living in a time where racists are emboldened by the actions of the present administration. In such a divisive time live theater is needed more than ever to encourage open thought and dialogue. Criticism is easy but creative thought and action is hard. The enthusiasm of the owners at DNA Event Creative was contagious. He leaned forward in his chair constantly on tip toe. She sat beside him confident and calm. DNA is a woman owned business and these two were pumping their own money into the theater in the hope that it might rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.

The Bug in Mount Dora Florida

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My bike needed a major tune up when I lived up in Lake County Florida. I took it to Adrenaline Bike Works (206 N Highland Street, Mount Dora, FL). They did a great job of fixing a flat and getting the brake pads balanced. It felt like a new ride when I left. A few months prior I had just purchased an inner tube and I replaced it myself. However, I had to drill the hole in the aluminum rim a bit larger to get the valve to fit. I think I must have left a few aluminum shards behind because the next time I went to use the bike the tire was flat.

The time I wanted to use the bike I was going to Stella Arbelaéz’s Graduation. It was a several mile bike ride from the artist studios to the UCF stadium where the graduation was taking place. I was more than disappointing when I got on the bike and found that the tire was flat. It was a moment to shout out and curse the gods. I decided to walk the distance to the graduation ceremony. I was a sweaty mess in my dress shirt and fashionable slacks when I arrived, but I made it in time.

Next to Adrenaline Bike Works was this shell of a VW Beatle which was turned into a menacing metal spider. The sculpture was unveiled in January of 2020. It was built by John Henns who owns the commercial property at Highland Street and 3rd Avenue. The bug is painted an ominous black. Any arachnophobics who happen to drive by might get a fright. The Volkswagen or, translated, the People’s Car was car developed from an idea of Adolf Hitler himself.  To me the VW Beatle symbolized the Nazi ideals which included concentration camps and ethnic cleansing, which makes it all the more frightening.

School must have just let out when I started the sketch, because large groups of school children kept walking past as I worked. One student shouted out, looks great! And I gave him a thumbs up.

First Travel Sketch Class at Crealdé

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I teach a Travel Sketch Class on Sunday mornings at Crealdé School of Art (600 St. Andrews Blvd.
Winter Park, FL). I had eight students for this first class with a wonderful variety of backgrounds and drawing styles. The first class is always fun because I get to introduce myself and introduce the pleasure and minor frustrations of drawing on location.

Instead of taking quick and sterile cell phone photos, it is a real blessing when travel sketching because locals become curious about the tourist who is being still. In Germany a local artist introduced herself and invited me to visit her art studio which was right next to the historic church off of the town square. My German is spotty at best but we both understood each other’s drawings and the challenges of being an artist.

For the first half of the Crealdé class we stayed in the art studio which had air conditioning. I introduced thumbnail drawings as a low stakes way for us all to start putting lines and washes on the page. I introduced my concept of setting the stage and then adding the actors. The actors in this case were arrangements of flowers on the art table.

I tried to stress the idea of having one BIG object and the several progressively smaller objects going back into space. I limited their pallet to just black ink grey washes or Prisma color scribbles and the white of the page. I always stress the idea that each object in the sketch needs those 3 values to feel 3D. I also stress that any object should have 3 sides to appear 3D.

Once most everyone had filled a page with thumbnail sketched, we then went outside to continue doing thumbnail studies of sculptures and objects on the Crealdé property. Many artists crowded under the tent, but some artists branched out on their own to sketch. I always admire these lone wolves.

Outside I did a thumbnail sketch and walked the sketch around to show the student each step in my process. I also used that opportunity to give personal feedback and offer suggestions on how I might approach the composition differently.

Three hours was over in the blink of an eye. I love joking around with the students to let them know that sketching is play rather than hard work. We will be missing next week’s class because of Labor Day. I asked each student to bring in a book or some samples of an artist that they admire in the next class. My hope is to learn what art they love and help it inspire them when they sketch on their travels.

I already feel this is a fun group that embraces the task of sketching on location. There is some uncertainty, but I keep stressing that we are only doing sketches not some important museum painting. On this low stakes first day each student created at least 5 or 6 thumbnails. One student had 11 thumbnails that were bold and easy to read. This is going to be a fun group to work with.