Easter in Orlando

In the easter of 2002 we went to Florida. I had hoped to meet quite a few silhouette artists, since I know Florida is meant to be heavily populated with them compared to the rest of the world, but in the end I met only two. Well, I guess it is a big state!

Kathryn Flocken & Downtown Disney

I sort of knew Kathy already. We met on the internet a couple of years ago, and exchanged silhouettes that way. Here is my latest swap with her:

Me, by Kathy Flocken	Kathy Flocken, by me

Kathy took us all out to Tu Tu Tango in Orlando (on International Drive) where she works as an in-house artist. You'd have to visit to know that means! As you can see she embarrassed me by doing a better silhouette of me than I did of her!

Later I got my own back by doing a full-length version with a paint brush in hand!

Kathy is a talented artist of many years experience with the scissors. Being a left handed artist she had a problem when starting out in that she was firmly givien a pair of right handed scissors. Like many of the Disneyland artists she was taught to cut silhouettes by a senior artist, but in her case her 'teacher' compounded the problem by insisting she cut only the right-hand profile! (Right profiles are easier for right handed artists, so you'd think logic would suggest left profiles should be easier for left handed artists!) The result is that Kathy has a quite unique cutting technique, in that she appears to cut the wrong way round the profile, with the scissors the wrong way up in the wrong hand! Still, whatever works...

The Silhouette Cart in Downtown Disney

Vincent

Kathy shares a silhouette cart in Downtown Disney with another artist called Vincent. Here is a photo of it, together with a silhouette of me by Vince. I did try and cut a silhouette of Vince, but he wouldn't let me, claiming it was bad luck. Bad luck? Hmm, I think he was just shy!

Vince's portrait of me

By way of comparisom, here is the internet swap which Kathy and I made 2 years ago, in June 2000:

Me, by Kathy Flocken	Kathy Flocken, by me

Key West

We drove to Key West, at the end of the Florida Keys, at the end of our holiday. If ever there was a perfect location for a silhouette artist to make a living, this must be the place! Every evening at sundown they celebrate as the sun sets into the Gulf of Mexico, and every kind of street entertainment imaginable gathers at the shore. With so much going on I was sorry not to see a character with a pair of scissors among them, so easy to print a corny card with the setting sun on it, and mount profiles against it! Instead I contented myself with some photographic silhouettes against the setting sun itself, and here they are!:

Kazumi & Nic	Charles & Tasha

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