October 16th, 2010 – Childrens book illustrator, and one time editorial cartoonist, Stacy Curtis has been posting “Dueling Banjo Pigs”.

Click here to see the art work on Stacy’s site. There is a ton of banjo picking pigs on the site! Be sure to see ’em all!

I’d wanted to add one to his collection strumming in the swamps of Florida. At the Festival of Cartoon Art in Columbus, Ohio, he mentioned folks might be doing their own renditions at the bar of the hotel Saturday evening. So I said, I’m in! That night at the bar I drew the above. Below is a photo of Stacy with the artwork. By the way, in the background is another friend, Frank Mariani.

Above and below are a couple more drawings done at the International Association of Police Chief’s event in south Orange County today.

Later I met up with folks and painted the caricature below.

After Jacob birthday banana splits, I slipped into a local Tea Party meeting to see my friend, Angie Boynton, debate Tom Patrick as they run for the Marion County School Board District 4 seat. Sketches from the meeting above.

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After a meeting in Tallahassee by the state capital I ran around taking photos for Swampy’s Florida. Suddenly I found myself in the midst of an Oktoberfest being set up in Downtown Tallahassee. There I saw an artist setting up his easel. Turns out he was Neil Barnhart, one of the first artists hired to draw caricatures at Walt Disney World. He told me of making his way from the Florida Panhandle to south Central Florida and getting hired to draw. He worked with fellow artists and friends, Marvin Bennett, Harvie Brown and Jack Marler. During his years at the Disney complex he even remembers the person who hired me for my first job, which was drawing caricatures, Michel Hanson (Michael is now a lawyer).

Above is Neil and I and the portrait he drew of me. Below is a view of Barnhart seen by hundreds of thousands during his 40 years drawing people.

As I was taking photos something caught my eye other than the historic architecture of Downtown Tallahassee. It was the book, ’50 Great Walks in Florida’ by my friend Lucy Tobias displayed prominently in the window of the Leon County Visitor’s Center.

I met with my friend Peggy Jo van den Berg to create a painting for another friend, former Orlando Mayor Carl T. Langford at a Perkins in Mount Dora.

Here Peggy Jo is with the final painting.

I love when this happens: 3 friends who have never met, Dick Daniels, Ken Culotta and Peggy Jo van den Berg. We all had a good time at Perkins!

I attended the Orlando Remembered meeting Wednesday morning. Above is a sketch of Peggy Jo van den Berg. Below is a sketch of member, and fellow artist, Ellen Smith.

Above is our Orlando Remembered Chairman, Robert Serros, and our permanent Secretary, Grace Chewning.

We continued the International Movable Feast at the Claddagh Cottage Irish Pub in Orlando. Friends Sarah Butler, James Saunders, Robert Baurle and Allen Currin delved into a bit o’ Irish vittles. Great food! Most go for the bar apparently, but this place has a tasty Irish stew!

Above is a sketch of an area of the pub.

Met friends Robert Baurle, James Saunders and Dena Wild at Cypriana’s Greek Restaurant in Casselberry, Florida. Great food and great company!

Made a trip into Longwood, Florida, to Polonia Polish Restaurant to get with long time friends: Sarah Butler St. Gregory, her husband, David, their children and James Saunders. Below is a photo of us all, minus David, who took the photo. Sorry about the glowing eyes!

Above is a sketch of a bottle of some sort of liquor that I didn’t take note of. Oops! A shelf of the bottles were in Polonia.

Met with Ken Culotta, James Saunders and Robert Baurle at Denny’s in Winter Park, Florida. We talked politics and worked on gags for cartoons. I did a quick sketch there, to the right. The photo below is of Ken and James trying to figure out Facebook.

WOW! I got behind posting the books I’ve read! This should catch is up. To date, this year, I’ve got 25 under my belt.

Here’s this list:
Dade’s Last Command : The non-fiction story of Francis Dade and his soldiers in 1835 and the massacre that followed that started the 2nd Seminole War. Excellent!

Separation of Power: Vince Flynn’s 3rd novel of Mitch Rapp and his war on terrorism. Not the best of the series that I’ve read yet.

The Lincoln Lawyer: A fellow cartoonist recommended author Michael Connelly, so I read this. Maybe I should read another…

Night of Thunder: I continue to read a few contemporary authors and continue to be disappointed. This would have been OK, if I hadn’t figured out the ‘Big Twist’ as soon as the character was introduced.

A Brief History of the Everglades City Area: Good stories, but could have used some fleshing out. The stories are a bit too short. I’m just glad this volume got put together to help document the area in Collier County.

Blackwater Sound: Back to Florida fiction and James W. Hall does it again. I’d put off reading this for a few years and it was great riding an adventure with Thorn again.

True Tales of the Everglades: A fine collection of stories by an author who knows them.

Nuclear Jellyfish: A fun Serge Storm’s story as the serial killer continues his hilarious mayhem across our state of Florida.

Cracker Florida: Don’t know what author Washington was thinking, but most all profiled in this volume are not Crackers. All of the stories are about folks in later years in Florida and what happened from their time moving to Florida or the few with a lifetime here.

The Dreadful Lemon Sky: I bought my friend Jeremy a copy of this book when it struck me it had been 30 years since I read it. So I read it again. WOW! What a difference part of a lifetime makes. Still one of my favorite books, but my understanding and working knowledge of Florida really assisted me in appreciating the story.

Pelts, Plume and Hides – White Traders among the Seminole Indians 1870 – 1930: An excellent examination of the Semino0le and Mikasuki people and their interaction in terms of trade with the white man during the years stated. Terrific book!