Spotlight: GLOLANDO brings light art to dark places

Sometimes in Orlando, art pops up where you least expect it.

In the case of GLOLANDO, that means an unusually dark Mills Avenue bar with high artistic ambitions called Grumpy’s.

Leona Gold is with a non-traditional arts movement called ArtArmy. She says she’s heading up a gallery of glowing artwork to help bring creative light to a world that feels a little gloomy.

Leona Gold:GLOLANDO actually is a gallery exhibit. Well, I guess it's an experience. I've been thinking about how I wanted to do a show for this particular place for a long time - they've been asked me to bring art and bring artists forever, I just never saw the right fit for it. Then I thought about the place and how it is on Mills/17-92 area if you know it. Well, the milk district is all about art. So I just thought about how I would reach out to artists to get the exhibit put together. And I want it to be more than just another gallery show. So if it glows, it shows - LED, one girl wanted to put a mannequin together, painting, a body art competition, as well as having people walk around in the glow. On top of that, from 6p to 8p will be the gallery viewing where you can meet the artists. [After that] you can go in there any night of the week and see the art, purchase art, or supporting artists in your area. But on this particular night, we're going to have a glow after-party too and experience everything glow.

Nicole Darden Creston:So what is it about the glow for you?

Leona Gold:Well, this particular venue is just a very dark place. I thought it was the right fit for that venue in place and space and time. But it was also a way to reach out to particular artists. As you go to concerts or raves or festivals or things, I always see glow art and glow artists as a particular type of artist. We've got 3d art now, we've got LED art, we've got body art, we've got all of these components in all of our communities already. It was just something that I knew was going to grab a certain type of artist. There's going to be live music performances, as well as DJs for the glow party. We're still taking artists for body art competition, and we want people to submit more than paintings. So if it glows, it shows. We want to embrace all of the glow artists, not just painters.

Nicole Darden Creston:I'm struck by something that you just said which was something along the lines of art glowing brighter in a place that is dark. That's kind of poetic.

Leona Gold:Well, the place is called Grumpy's for a reason [laughter]. You know, it's kind of a grumpy little vibe and dark in there and it's right in the heart of Mills downtown. So it's literally across the street from Wally's. I just love the crowd over there. I love the people. I grew up over there. I graduated from Boone High School and grew up in the downtown area.

Nicole Darden Creston:Is this the first GLOLANDO? Is this going to be an annual thing or is this just this is this a one-off?

Leona Gold:This is just one now, but as it's growing and I'm seeing the possibility for it, we have had talk of registering the name and finding a bigger venue for next year, so we can integrate more glow, and show more artists, more musicians, more community.

Nicole Darden Creston:Have you gotten a lot of submissions?

Leona Gold:We do we have a lot actually. I'll be reviewing all entries and letting people know who's made it in and doing our drop off times and starting to get everything ready within the next two weeks for the show.

Nicole Darden Creston:Tell me about ArtArmy. You are ArtArmy Mount Dora. Tell me all about ArtArmy.

Leona Gold:ArtArmy is was started by the Central Florida artist Parago. He is predominantly working out of Daytona but travels worldwide and has been traveling worldwide and doing art in communities for decades. When he was younger, started going around building "outposts" literally bringing the principles of community, with artists being able to reach out to their communities and find things going on in their communities and how to get involved. Now there are literally over 100 outposts all over the world. Any artist can log in and just type ArtArmy in their city and find an outpost and get involved.