A tale of a group of black painters who sold their Florida landscape paintings on the side of the road at a time when blacks were not allowed to sell their paintings in galleries.
Behind the silhouette of a lone, bent palm tree, the late-day sun sets the water on fire. Moss hangs from the branches of a cypress tree and the sky glows tangerine. The worn, dark wood frame betrays the painting's age, most likely several decades. The picture looks like something your grandmother might have hung in her living room behind the sofa, or a vintage find buried in a cardboard box at a neighbor's garage sale. It could be just another Florida landscape painting, except for the plain white tag on the upper left-hand corner: "Highwayman J. Gibson $1,250." It's no ordinary painting. It's a part of Florida's artistic history.
The Florida Highwaymen story began in the 1950s in Ft. Pierce. It is the tale of a group of black painters who bypassed the artistic conventions of the segregated South and in the process began Florida's contemporary artistic tradition.
Chris Cruz designs "rideable" motorcycle art in his DeLand warehouse where he hand paints his clients' ideas.
From the Catwalk to the Crime Scene
Forensic photographer Belmarie Campos uses her photography to help solve cases in the Miami-Dade area.
The Shands Arts in Medicine program reaches out to "urgent" patients and helps them to express themselves through art.