A little local color

Last summer I noticed that someone planted sunflowers in front of their fence on the way to a main road in my neighborhood.  Every time I drove by, I tried to remember when to look to check on them. 


In the last few months I was delighted to see that they were back!  It didn't take long for them to be super tall and blooming.  I made time this week to take a few pictures of them. 


 





The flowers are probably at their peak or maybe a little past it, but there are a few still in work.








I hope they plant the sunflowers again next summer. 

First Fridays at FAVO - something fun to do in Orlando

FAVO stands for Faith Arts Village Orlando.  Here is their pithy description from their facebook page:

Faith Arts Village Orlando is a ministry of Park Lake Presbyterian Church that provides a place where the faith community and local artists can work together to share their gifts of inspiration, beauty, and spiritual expression to promote peace, understanding, and well-being in the larger community.

It takes place in a former hotel/motel in a really pretty area of downtown Orlando.  There are artists who rent studio space full time and there are artists who use their social network to borrow space and show their work occasionally.  On the first Friday of every month, from 5-9, they have food trucks and an open house/open gallery.  Our family has been once before, when our family friend Lisa was showing her work.  I think it was almost a year ago, but it has been on our calendar ever since and we finally got to go back this month.

 
They have food trucks and tables set up, so we got dinner there.  We ran into Lisa again this time.  One of our friends met up with us and he ran into people he knew there too.  I really like that stuff - running into people we know.

There is a kid craft table.  El started this right after dinner and we nudged her along to go look at art and then she came back to work on it later.  There were not quite enough bags for the number of kids. It is an unhosted project that is on the honor system.


It was around this time that I moved my car to street parking - I had parked in a nearby business' lot, and even though there weren't any sternly worded signs, I moved my car closer to my husband's.  On the way in from moving my car, I saw these.  I think there was a silent auction for these huge pieces - they are each approximately dining room table sized, or larger.



This is the one I wanted to take home with me.  It reminds me of a quilt.  And also of coloring on graph paper.  It is by Michael Braaksma.



Finally we looked at all of the studio shows.  El, the 6 year old is a hilarious art shopper.  Thankfully she collected a lot of business cards in her bag.  She loved the pieces at Uncommon Love, but she ended up buying a bracelet for herself from another studio as her thing to get.  La bought a print from a video game drawing from Parker Sketch.  We also got a birthday present for my sister and a father's day gift for Mike there.  I found notecards for my mom that reminded me of the Florida Highwaymen style that she likes a lot.

We tend to approach the shopping here like we do at the parks - who wants to carry a bunch of stuff around all day.  This strategy failed me - I found prints that I would like for my office.  We went back to their studio and they were gone for the evening.  I know we have the card somewhere, but I can't find it right now.  There are so many different styles of art and mediums and personalities there, that it is easy to find something that speaks to you.


Here's the view from the dining area at the start of the evening....


And at the end.....