The Sketchbook Project

The Sketchbook Project has been traveling the country hitting large cities everywhere. Now it is in Orlando for two more days. I went on Friday, the first day to see what the buzz was about. I submitted a sketchbook and it is part of this national tour. In all there are over 10,000 sketchbooks from artists from around the world. The mobile sketchbook library is being housed at Full Sail Live which is a brand new state of the art performance space on the Full Sail campus. When I arrived, Mark Baratelli and Brian Feldman were in the lobby. The first order of business was to get a library card, so I got in line to pick up my card.

Inside there are about 10 to 15 bookcases full of sketchbooks. My first impulse would be to thumb through multiple sketchbooks until I found one that caught my eye. Unfortunately you can't walk among the stacks and choose the books yourself. The Project staff have to find the sketchbook for you. You can pick sketchbooks by the artist's name or by geographic region or by the theme. I remember my theme was "Faces in a crowd." I asked for two sketchbooks with that theme. One had over rendered pencil drawings of people's faces from family photos. It had little appeal. The second book was covered in foil and had entire pages boldly painted with gouache. It was bold and interesting. Maisy and Ron Marrs showed up so I shadowed them for a bit so I could glance at Maisy's sketchbook. Her work was fun and whimsical and there was a sketch of me in there which was an unexpected surprise.

I started sketching the long line of people waiting to check out sketchbooks. I spoke with Megan Everhart who was waiting to pick up her 2012 sketchbook. She had driven five hours down here from South Carolina to experience the Sketchbook Project first hand. Her work is abstract and she also does murals. Her iPhone had died so she couldn't continue to shoot photos. I offered her my charger but I couldn't find the wall plug piece. It was somewhere in my bag, but I couldn't locate it among all the art supplies. She had a five hour drive back north so she headed out early. A former Disney colleague, Rusty Stoll was checking out sketchbooks, but after four books he was disappointed in the lack of draftsmanship. I saw Tracy Burke with her parents checking out the work. I kept bumping into people I knew, like Bess Auer of "Central Florida Top 5."

All afternoon I checked out sketchbooks and I was enthralled by the wide variety of the work. At 6pm the founders of the Sketchbook Project, StevePeterman and Shane Zucker took to the stage. They were college buddies and the seed of this project started small. They at first only envisioned 100 sketchbooks would ever be submitted. Over time they had to adjust as the numbers escalated. There are 10,000 sketchbooks now being housed at Full Sail Live. It would be impossible to view every sketchbook even if you spent all three days checking out books as fast as you could view them. The sheer volume of art is staggering. Once again the power of the Internet is making art available to the masses. You have to experience the Sketchbook Project to believe it. It is open today (7/30) and Sunday (7/31) from Noon to 5pm. Don't miss it! Listen to what others had to say...

"This event was incredible!! If you missed it today, check out Sketchbook Project this weekend while you can!!
- Tracy Burke

"The Sketchbook Project was one of the best shows I've ever been to for art! International artists and their sketchbooks and the excitement of being able to share it with everyone!"
- Maisy May Marrs

"Just got back from the 2011 Sketchbook project at Full Sail. It was awesome, so many books to look at. If you have a chance to go and check it this weekend Sat and Sun. 12-5pm. Check out Thomas Thorspecken, Peter Soutullo, Maisy Marrs and some other Florida Natives books while you are there. This is taking place here in Orlando, is free and its at Full Sail Live behind the Mickey D's on 436 and University."
- Chris Tobar

Stick Em' Up

The Stick Em' Up event was going to happen at the Cameo Theater, but the Cameo was shut down due to fire code violations. The event was moved to an urban warehouse on John Young Parkway just south of Lee Road. The warehouse is used as a graffiti sweat shop. In the front room rows of spray paint cans were for sale. A robot designed by an infamous NYC graffiti artist named Chico was on display. In the back of the warehouse preparations were underway for a mad party. The large loading dock door was rolled open. The walls were painted black while some old graffiti peaked out above the darkness. In the corner of the room this couple lay comatose in the 69 position. Noel, a hug bear of a man, said, "I just threw them in the corner. That is how they happened to fall." I didn't know if I should believe him. Since I had arrived early, I couldn't resist sketching the couple. They are sculpted from found objects. For instance the women's pants are sofa cushions.

The bright magenta and yellow painting above the couple spells out something. I recruited several other people to try and read it for me but no one could. Other colorful urban art covered the walls. After the sketch was done, I drove up the street to a MacDonald's to get something to eat. I ordered a big Mac and fries but I didn't super size the meal. I rushed back to the warehouse just as it started to get crowded. People who entered the event got "Hello my name is..." stickers. Maisy May Mars and Travis Smith were outside behind a card table with their stickers on display. Stickers are quick, meaningful temporary works of street art that are designed to be seen by the masses. At this event stickers could be bought or traded. Maisy had "Radioactive Snail" stickers. Her stickers are found in cities around the world thanks to the Internet and an active artist community that has helped this artistic craze go viral. Maisy and Travis were selling stickers for just $1. Travis drew a hammer on a "Hello my name is..." sticker. I put it on my bag. I was tagged.

Artists spread out in the parking lot and started making art. I sat next to Maisy's table and sketched an artist as he spray painted intricate yellow circular patterns on a large sheet of canvas. People stood around and watched him as he worked. Inside the DJ started cranking up the volume on the rap and hip hop music...

Sam Flax Grand Opening

Sam Flax moved into a new building just a few blocks east of the old store on Colonial Drive. The building was painted to look like the paintings of Piet Mondrian. The bright red, blue and yellow painted building looks like it is built from Legos. Andrew Spear and business partner Chuck Marklin executed the colorful conversion. To help commemorate the opening day, three mural artists were asked to paint murals on the side of the building in three panels that faced the parking lot. . Since I have to paint a mural myself now, I decided to go to the opening and talk to the artists.

There seems to be less parking available at the new store. I drove around the block to finally locate a spot right on Colonial Drive in front of a martial arts facility. Swamburger was working on a bold panel with a distorted circular fish eye view point. His under drawing was done with bold green brushwork. The face resembled an African mask. Andrew Spear was working on a crosshatched vision of an elephant. I was fortunate that Andrew introduced himself while I was still working on my sketch. I asked him what he used to do the bold line work on his murals. He handed me a Krink marker and explained that he had to order them online since few people carried them locally. I found it ironic that Sam Flax doesn't carry them. Mother Falcon sometimes has them.

I went to Mother Falcon the next day to locate the markers. They had a much thicker marker than the one Andrew showed me but I bought it to try out. I inked in the largest figures on the Mennello Museum mural using that fat marker. I decided to order the thinner marker online and I used that for the next few figures. I am continuing to experiment and play with the ways that work best for me.

The Yum Yum Cupcake truck was there offering free cupcakes to anyone who bought art supplies in the store. A vendor saw me sketching and he offered me several General's sketch and wash pencils along with an art training DVD and several erasers. Score! Maisy and Ron Mars said hello. She was shooting photos of one of her shirts discarded on the ground. This was supposed to be the end of the world and she wanted to leave photographic proof that she had ascended to heaven. The end of the world never came and the next day I had to face my 50th birthday.

Blank Space - Artist Incubator

Every Thursday and Friday, Blank Space is open to artists who would like some studio space downtown. The hours were from 10AM to 11PM. This offers the public a chance to experience and view the artists at work. This move should bring more artists downtown and help enliven the downtown district. When I arrived one Thursday, Tracy Brurke and Maisy May Mars were hard at work.
Tracy does boldly painted portraits which are usually large in size. This day however she was working small and applying the paint more thickly and experimenting more. The painting she was working on was of a fashionable young girl with beautiful lips. She managed to finish up two of these quick studies while I was producing this sketch. I learned quite a bit from watching her work. Maisy was working on a picture of a wide eyed young girl. The eyes were bright green. Her whimsical work is on display now at Blank Space on a central column.
What is odd about the scene is that the women had to set up and paint on the ping pong table. The space isn't quite set up yet with easels or drafting tables. The space is available on a first come first served basis. I sat up on a high stool and started to sketch. In the far corner of the next room a woman was threading thousands of optical threads through a white plastic board to create a light art piece.
Having this space open and available for artists on Thursday and Friday is a great idea. I hope in time more artists recognize the potential and take advantage of the opportunity.

Maisy May Marrs

I fist sketched Maisy May Marrs at an event called Blend. I then saw her at Blank Space where artists are permitted to come in each Thursday to work in an open studio environment downtown. Through Facebook I asked if I could sketch her studio and she agreed. Her husband Ron was home for vacation for a week so we agreed to set up a time around lunch for me to stop by. Maisy had prepared a delicious bean soup and I chowed down before getting to work. The small studio room is known as the Pink Room because the curtains are pink and when the morning sun comes through it makes everything in that room and some of the living room a pink hue. . It is a tiny and intimate space being perhaps a 10 by 10 foot cube. At first I considered sitting in the doorway but I only got a view of Maisy's back from there, so I shoved myself into a corner of the room where she kept her witch's broomstick. She has drawn me several times and I always laugh out loud at the results.
Maisey began to sketch out one of her wide eyed little girls as I began to sketch the studio space. I asked about a funeral urn which was on a top shelf and it turned out to be her mother's ashes. There were dried roses and a high school art piece which was a coffin shaped box with a nude woman struggling against her bonds and a red robed priest inside. Maisy's art on a whole is fun and lighthearted. Some of the pieces look like children's drawings. It was refreshing to see such childlike innocence in her work.
Outside her studio window she can see ducks as they swim around the apartment complex retention pond. it started to rain outside and then the rain slowed. Ron called out from the living room that he was going to get the mail. As soon as he left and got half way to the community's mailboxes, it started to pour. Maisey looked out the window anxiously. When he got back she shouted out, "Did we get anything good?" Ron shouted back, "Some junk mail and pneumonia." I started to run out of time and all the infinite detail in the room was overwhelming. Maisey would peek over once in a while to see what I was up to. She kept the afternoons work fun and light. It was great to sketch and laugh the afternoon away with a fellow artist.