This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:10] Susan Blackwell: When I bump into something that inspires me, I jump in my spark file.

[0:18] Laura Camien: Spark file to be something that I wanna make or how I wanna be.

[0:23] Susan Blackwell: I pump it in my spark style.

[0:23] Laura Camien: Spark.

[0:26] Susan Blackwell: I jump into my spark slide.

[0:32] Laura Camien: Let's open up the spark file.

[0:37] Laura Camien: Welcome to the Sparks File, where we believe that everyone is creative, but smart creative people don't go it alone.

[0:43] Susan Blackwell: I'm Laura Camien.

[0:44] Susan Blackwell: And I'm Susan Blackwell, and we are creativity coaches who help people fear less, create more, and bring their creative visions to life.

[0:52] Laura Camien: If you are an OG member of the Sparkfile community, welcome back, Sparkler.

[0:57] Laura Camien: If you're joining us for the first time, hiya.

[1:00] Laura Camien: Welcome, friend.

[1:02] Laura Camien: Know that just by listening to this podcast, we were joining a warm and wonderful clan of creatives.

[1:09] Susan Blackwell: But hold up, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is a sparkfile?

[1:13] Laura Camien: A sparkfile is a place where you consistently collect all of your inspirations and fascinations.

[1:19] Susan Blackwell: If you're like us and you're making stuff all the time, or you want to be making stuff all the time, you know if you're not careful, your campfire of creativity can flicker out.

[1:27] Laura Camien: But don't despair.

[1:29] Susan Blackwell: We're collecting kindling in the form of fresh ideas, images, and inspiration that spark creativity and pique curiosity to light a fire under our collective asses to make things like this podcast.

[1:43] Laura Camien: Or a prolific body of work that created opportunity and spread beauty far and wide.

[1:50] Susan Blackwell: Ooh.

[1:51] Susan Blackwell: Every episode, we're gonna reach into our spark files and exchange some sparks.

[1:57] Laura Camien: And from time to time, we're gonna talk to some folks who spark us too.

[2:00] Susan Blackwell: That means we have more sparks than we can possibly use in this lifetime, little sparklers.

[2:05] Laura Camien: That's the truth.

[2:06] Susan Blackwell: So if something lights you up, please we beg of you, we implore you, take that thing and make something out of it.

[2:13] Laura Camien: So without further ado, let's open up the Sparks file.

[2:13] Susan Blackwell: The Sparks file.

[2:20] Laura Camien: Yeah, Susan.

[2:25] Laura Camien: Breaking news.

[2:26] Laura Camien: This just in.

[2:27] Laura Camien: We did that whole episode on Wordle.

[2:29] Susan Blackwell: We did.

[2:30] Laura Camien: Last week.

[2:31] Laura Camien: It happened.

[2:31] Laura Camien: And literally days before we're about to like post that podcast.

[2:38] Susan Blackwell: Moments.

[2:39] Laura Camien: We are informed.

[2:41] Laura Camien: Wordle has been purchased by the New York Times.

[2:45] Susan Blackwell: The gray lady baby.

[2:47] Laura Camien: Congratulations.

[2:48] Susan Blackwell: Is it Josh Wardle?

[2:50] Laura Camien: Josh Wardle.

[2:52] Susan Blackwell: Sold Wordle.

[2:53] Laura Camien: Sold Wordle.

[2:55] Laura Camien: For what I understand to be like the low seven seven figures.

[3:00] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, I think that's right.

[3:01] Laura Camien: Yeah, that'll do.

[3:02] Susan Blackwell: You know, it's interesting because that seems like a cultural phenomenon to me.

[3:07] Laura Camien: And I'm like, Yeah, does he deserve more?

[3:10] Susan Blackwell: I have read nothing about this.

[3:12] Susan Blackwell: But it won't stop me from speculating.

[3:14] Laura Camien: Say that Facebook slash meta came to you and was like, I will buy that from you for six million dollars.

[3:23] Susan Blackwell: And the gray lady baby was like, I will buy that from you for the low seven figgies.

[3:29] Laura Camien: I'm gonna go with the New York Times.

[3:31] Susan Blackwell: And the reason I would again, it I mean, we're making this up, but the purity of the game.

[3:36] Susan Blackwell: The New York Times has people who are word game fanatics, and a certain number of them who are behind a paywall, like they pay money just to have access to the games at the New York Times.

[3:49] Laura Camien: Yes.

[3:49] Laura Camien: I don't know.

[3:50] Laura Camien: There's sort of a purity of like a pure love of these word games that it feels like it's the right place to be.

[3:56] Susan Blackwell: Also knowing that it was a game spelling bee or something like that that his partner loves and it sort of inspired him to make the game.

[4:05] Susan Blackwell: It feels like the right place to me.

[4:07] Laura Camien: Will the word all be behind a paywall now?

[4:10] Susan Blackwell: So interestingly enough, he came out with his statement and said, and it's gonna remain free at the New York Times.

[4:17] Laura Camien: And then the New York Times made a clarifying statement and said it will initially be free.

[4:22] Susan Blackwell: Oh boy.

[4:24] Laura Camien: So yet to be seen, you know, what does that mean?

[4:27] Laura Camien: But obviously, they had an agreement that at least for some period of time it would still be free.

[4:32] Susan Blackwell: I don't know how I feel about it.

[4:35] Susan Blackwell: I mean, I feel like there's gonna be a mutiny.

[4:37] Laura Camien: There's so many people that love it.

[4:39] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[4:40] Laura Camien: And I subscribe to the New York Times online because I support journalism.

[4:45] Laura Camien: But I know that, you know, I just think about my mom and dad who enjoy it so much.

[4:49] Laura Camien: And I know maybe I'll just get them a subscription.

[4:52] Susan Blackwell: If it's behind a paywall, I'll just get them a subscription.

[4:55] Laura Camien: Yeah, part of the love of it, I think was also like the purity.

[4:59] Susan Blackwell: So we'll see once it becomes commercialized.

[5:02] Laura Camien: I read in this other article that he's like, you just would not believe the number of people who approach me that are like, you could put advertising on the side, or you could have a sponsor, and they're just sort of obsessed with like how do you monetize this thing?

[5:15] Susan Blackwell: And he's like, I'm not in it for that.

[5:19] Susan Blackwell: So, in a way, for him, like this is sort of like some unexpected icing on the cake to be paid for it, and he can hand it over to the New York Times and just let it go.

[5:29] Laura Camien: Let it let the world enjoy it, and not think anymore about like some ongoing monetization of it.

[5:36] Susan Blackwell: There had to be a bidding war.

[5:37] Laura Camien: I didn't see any in the movie version of my mind and that screenplay.

[5:41] Susan Blackwell: There's definitely a bidding war.

[5:42] Laura Camien: Who else?

[5:43] Laura Camien: You think like Facebook or I feel like Facebook, they just want to purchase everybody else's creativity.

[5:48] Susan Blackwell: They do, they want some people to come back.

[5:50] Laura Camien: Barrett Foa, who you might enjoy on NCIS, told me the story that he was at a restaurant and he overheard a woman, like an Upper East Side woman.

[5:59] Laura Camien: I'm probably getting this wrong.

[6:00] Laura Camien: I'm on Spacebook.

[6:02] Laura Camien: My grandson is on Facebook.

[6:04] Laura Camien: And whenever I hear Facebook, I always think I'm on Facebook.

[6:08] Laura Camien: My grandson is on Facebook.

[6:12] Laura Camien: We're all on Facebook.

[6:14] Laura Camien: We're all on Facebook, or we're not.

[6:16] Susan Blackwell: Oh, that's amazing.

[6:19] Susan Blackwell: That was your wordal update.

[6:20] Laura Camien: Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

[6:22] Laura Camien: Laura, are you ready for a spark?

[6:24] Susan Blackwell: I'm so excited for a spark.

[6:26] Laura Camien: What you got for me?

[6:28] Susan Blackwell: I feel like this spark is going to be right on time.

[6:33] Laura Camien: Sure, you think that, and then next week the New York Times is gonna buy it.

[6:37] Susan Blackwell: I don't think the New York Times is buying the spark.

[6:39] Laura Camien: Who knows?

[6:40] Laura Camien: They might.

[6:40] Susan Blackwell: You think you're right on time.

[6:42] Susan Blackwell: I'm just gonna tell a little uh telling tales out of school.

[6:45] Laura Camien: Okay.

[6:46] Susan Blackwell: Right before we got we pushed record on this episode of this podcast, right before we jumped into it.

[6:53] Susan Blackwell: You started talking about you recently relocated from Florida to New York.

[6:59] Laura Camien: It's true, and you were talking about how much you miss the nature of Florida, your trees, the sound of the owls.

[7:08] Susan Blackwell: I started to cry.

[7:09] Laura Camien: And you started to cry.

[7:10] Susan Blackwell: I cried because I heard something outside that sounded like maybe an owl.

[7:16] Susan Blackwell: And then I reminded myself that was not an owl.

[7:19] Susan Blackwell: One of those New York City owls.

[7:22] Laura Camien: On this street, there are no owls.

[7:25] Susan Blackwell: And then that led to just my memory of every time we would hear an owl, we'd go, did you hear that?

[7:32] Laura Camien: I love that.

[7:33] Susan Blackwell: And there were so many trees, and when it was windy, it sounded like the ocean.

[7:39] Laura Camien: So we would sit out back and just listen to the sound of the trees.

[7:44] Susan Blackwell: And I love where we live in New York.

[7:48] Susan Blackwell: Like I truly love it.

[7:50] Susan Blackwell: But I gotta walk a few blocks to see a tree.

[7:54] Susan Blackwell: Like I gotta go visit them.

[7:56] Susan Blackwell: This has to be a special trip of like, I'd like to see the trees today.

[8:00] Laura Camien: Right.

[8:00] Susan Blackwell: And I go to a park nearby and soak it all up.

[8:04] Susan Blackwell: But it it's not it's not like Florida.

[8:07] Susan Blackwell: There's there's just the nature everywhere.

[8:09] Laura Camien: And how long did you live in Florida, Laura Camien?

[8:12] Laura Camien: Well, you know, I never fully lived there.

[8:14] Laura Camien: Like I was we had a home in Florida for 10 years.

[8:18] Susan Blackwell: You were bi-coastal.

[8:19] Laura Camien: I was bi-coastal on the East Coast, two places on the East Coast, New York and Florida back and forth.

[8:25] Laura Camien: And ironically, it wasn't until the pandemic that I was like fully 100% in Florida.

[8:32] Laura Camien: I was not like traveling anymore, going back and forth to work in the big city.

[8:37] Susan Blackwell: So you were a part-timer in Florida, but for how many years?

[8:41] Laura Camien: For like 10 years.

[8:42] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[8:43] Laura Camien: So you've you've clocked some Florida time in all your time in Florida, enjoying all of that nature, like you do.

[8:52] Susan Blackwell: Have you ever heard of the Florida Highwaymen?

[8:55] Laura Camien: No.

[8:56] Laura Camien: What are the Florida?

[8:58] Laura Camien: Who are the Florida Highwaymen?

[8:59] Susan Blackwell: Have I got a spark for you?

[9:02] Susan Blackwell: You it's not haunted.

[9:04] Laura Camien: Why are you trying to make this a land spark?

[9:06] Susan Blackwell: I don't know why.

[9:09] Susan Blackwell: I think maybe because the highwaymen sounds like they could be bandits or they could be from like some old ghost town.

[9:16] Laura Camien: Or like a Stephen King novel.

[9:17] Susan Blackwell: Or a Stephen King novel.

[9:19] Susan Blackwell: Well, it's none of those things.

[9:21] Susan Blackwell: Um, but I do think it might just like scratch a little Florida itch for you.

[9:26] Laura Camien: Oh, I'm excited.

[9:27] Susan Blackwell: So it's a little bit timely that you were just crying.

[9:32] Susan Blackwell: Before we record it.

[9:34] Laura Camien: I'm such a baby.

[9:36] Susan Blackwell: No, it's sweet.

[9:38] Susan Blackwell: Um, so we frequently talk about how sparks are everywhere and how spark seeking you can really cultivate that as a default setting.

[9:48] Susan Blackwell: Case in point, I stumbled upon this spark on eBay.

[9:53] Laura Camien: What?

[9:53] Susan Blackwell: I was looking for landscape paintings on eBay.

[9:57] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, you were.

[9:58] Susan Blackwell: So I could paint monsters into them.

[10:00] Susan Blackwell: As you know, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, I like to take a landscape or a tablescape painting that I buy at the thrift store or online, and then I like to paint monsters into them.

[10:11] Susan Blackwell: So, like if it's a picture of the ocean, I like to paint a little sea creature, or if it's like a snowy mountain, I'll paint a little snow yeti in there.

[10:20] Laura Camien: It's just my favorite yeti.

[10:22] Susan Blackwell: A little snow beastie.

[10:23] Susan Blackwell: So I was on eBay looking for some great landscapes that I could drop a little monster into, and I came across a listing for a landscape painting done by one of the Florida highwayman.

[10:37] Susan Blackwell: And I it just caught my attention and it piqued my interest.

[10:41] Susan Blackwell: And so I wanted to bring it to y'all via the spark file.

[10:47] Susan Blackwell: And here I go.

[10:47] Susan Blackwell: So sources for this spark include Florida Highwaymen.com, an article on Garden Gun.com by Chase Quinn, a PBS documentary series called Florida Frontiers, a post on the FSU Special Collections blog, an article by Anthony Westbury for Treasure Coast Newspapers, an article by Gordon K. Heard in the New York Times, and audio and video pieces by Jackie Leiden on NPRs, all things considered.

[11:18] Susan Blackwell: Those are me sources.

[11:20] Susan Blackwell: Let's get into this.

[11:21] Susan Blackwell: So to tell this story, Laura, gentle listeners, we're gonna travel back in time.

[11:28] Susan Blackwell: Oh Laura, I'm taking you back to Florida, but but also back in time.

[11:33] Susan Blackwell: So this is like awesome.

[11:35] Susan Blackwell: We're going to the 1950s.

[11:36] Laura Camien: Is it awesome?

[11:38] Susan Blackwell: The Jim Crow laws are in effect.

[11:40] Laura Camien: Okay, not awesome.

[11:42] Susan Blackwell: Not great.

[11:42] Susan Blackwell: There's segregation, there's voter suppression.

[11:45] Susan Blackwell: And for a lot of people who were black, they were looking at work in citrus groves and working in packing houses and other hard labor.

[11:56] Susan Blackwell: So during this time in the 50s in the segregated South, a young black man named Alfred Hare was in school at Lincoln Park Academy, which was a high school.

[12:08] Susan Blackwell: So Alfred Hare is a very gifted young man, described as not arrogant but gregarious.

[12:15] Susan Blackwell: His brother Donald said Alfred didn't have a mean bone in his body.

[12:19] Susan Blackwell: If he had $20, he'd gladly give it away.

[12:22] Susan Blackwell: He knew he could make more.

[12:24] Susan Blackwell: He was just unique.

[12:26] Susan Blackwell: So by all accounts, Alfred Hare, super nice guy, fun, unique, generous.

[12:33] Susan Blackwell: Alfred Hare's ambition was to be an artist, and his dream was to be a millionaire by his 35th birthday.

[12:42] Susan Blackwell: Okay. So that's a little bit about Alfred Hare. Giving his $20 away.

[12:44] Laura Camien: Yes.

[12:47] Susan Blackwell: But still generous, but also ambitious. And he has all those qualities. And in addition, all due respect, Alfred Hare was also a historical hottie.

[12:52] Laura Camien: Respectfully.

[13:01] Susan Blackwell: Who would play Alfred Hare in a movie?

[13:03] Laura Camien: I'm gonna say, like a young Leslie Odom Jr.

[13:07] Susan Blackwell: Oh.

[13:08] Laura Camien: So cute.

[13:09] Susan Blackwell: I'm looking at his picture right now. So historical hottie. Cute and so talented. So Alfred Hare had an art teacher named Zenobia Jefferson.

[13:21] Laura Camien: And Zenobia Jefferson could see that Alfred Hare was talented.

[13:25] Susan Blackwell: And I just want to take a moment and talk a little bit more about Zenobia Jefferson because here at the Sparkfile, we love a great teacher.

[13:25] Laura Camien: We love teachers.

[13:25] Susan Blackwell: We love a great teacher. Zenobia Jefferson was described as a beautiful spirit, always the teacher. To Alfred, she was the best artist, and she taught him how to be the best you can be.

[13:46] Laura Camien: He really loved her.

[13:47] Susan Blackwell: She truly was a beautiful soul. Those words were from Alfred Hare's wife and the mother of his children. So in 2003, Zenobia Jefferson told a reporter, so now we're traveling forward in time, not all the way to the present, but to 2003.

[13:53] Laura Camien: Zenobia Jefferson told a reporter, it got to the point that we couldn't offer Alfred much more at Lincoln Park Academy.

[14:09] Susan Blackwell: They didn't have the facilities, but I knew Beanie Backis. Enter the character of A.E. Bean Beanie Backus. Beanie Backus was an established white painter of Florida landscapes.

[14:19] Laura Camien: Okay.

[14:26] Susan Blackwell: Beanie Backis's work, he was a beautiful painter. And in the early 50s, at Zenobia's urgings, Beanie Backus met Alfred Hare, determined that this young man had talent and agreed to give Alfred art lessons.

[14:41] Laura Camien: So thanks to Zenobia Jefferson, for the last year or year and a half of Alfred's high school, Alfred Hare was working and studying with this established Florida landscape painter in his beautiful studio.

[14:56] Susan Blackwell: And again, you have to remember the historical backdrop. In an essay on the website, Florida Highwayman Paintings.com, they said this in the segregated world of 1950s Florida, not many opportunities were available for African American artists.

[15:12] Laura Camien: Unable to show their work in galleries, which were typically whites only venues for both customers and artists.

[15:19] Susan Blackwell: Black artists had few options for marketing and selling their work. So that's what we're dealing with here. That is the historical backdrop. You could be the most talented artist in Florida, but because of the segregation, you couldn't show your work in a gallery.

[15:35] Laura Camien: You couldn't even visit a gallery as uh just to visit or potentially to buy if you were black.

[15:41] Susan Blackwell: Oh, think of all the artwork that no one saw.

[15:46] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[15:47] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[15:48] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[15:49] Susan Blackwell: Okay. Take heart.

[15:51] Laura Camien: Take heart.

[15:52] Susan Blackwell: Okay. Okay. That's right. We're not done.

[15:54] Laura Camien: We're not done yet.

[15:55] Susan Blackwell: Because Alfred Hare had an idea. He saw that Beanie Backis, this white Florida landscape artist was selling his paintings.

[16:04] Laura Camien: Beanie was selling Beanie's paintings for $250 a piece.

[16:10] Susan Blackwell: Alfred had a thought if he painted 10 paintings and sold them for $25 a piece, he could make what Beanie made on a single painting. And so that's what he did.

[16:23] Laura Camien: Oh, gonna make those millions.

[16:25] Susan Blackwell: That's right. Alfred Hare was painting on what is called upson board, which is typically a builder's material. He would buy a four foot by eight foot sheet of upson board, which was about three dollars or three dollars and fifty cents per sheet.

[16:41] Laura Camien: And then he would cut it up and he would get 20 paintings out of that without wasting any material.

[16:49] Susan Blackwell: Whoa!

[16:50] Laura Camien: Uh-huh.

[16:51] Susan Blackwell: And then he would frame the art with carpenter's trim or crown molding, which he could purchase for seven cents per foot at the East Coast lumber yard, which you could imagine is a lot more affordable than going to a framer.

[17:05] Laura Camien: And he would take that framing material and he would maybe paint it white, maybe a little gold highlighting.

[17:11] Susan Blackwell: So just like creative limitations on a budget.

[17:15] Laura Camien: Yes, so smart.

[17:17] Susan Blackwell: And then Alfred created his own approach to painting, which he called his fast style. So he would have 20 or 30 paintings that he was working on in his backyard, and they would be propped up against the trees or tacked onto the trees with nails, and he would just crank them out in an assembly line, just methodically and quickly moving from one canvas to the next, and he would like to fill in the foreground, foreground, foreground, foreground, and then he'd do mid ground, mid ground, mid-ground, and then go background, background, background, and he'd fill in the skies and the waterways and create these vibrant landscapes for each unique work.

[17:57] Laura Camien: I also read that he would work by color.

[18:00] Susan Blackwell: So he would be like blue, blue, blue, blue, blue across all 20 paintings, and then be like green, green, green, green, green across all the paintings.

[18:07] Laura Camien: And the speed at which he was painting factored into the style of the art that he was creating.

[18:14] Susan Blackwell: Alfred Hare was selling as many as 50 paintings a week and earning a considerable amount of money for the time, enough to buy himself a Cadillac.

[18:25] Laura Camien: So he was just like cranking Marshall Adams, the executive director of the Bacchus Museum and Gallery.

[18:32] Susan Blackwell: So this is Beanie Bacchus's sort of legacy museum and gallery. The executive director said of Alfred Hare, he had the game plan, the vision, and the business sense to monetize his creative talents.

[18:45] Laura Camien: Undoubtedly, he could have painted slower, but he decided to streamline many aspects of Bacchus's paintings.

[18:52] Susan Blackwell: His critical review was whether people bought them or not.

[18:56] Laura Camien: So basically he's saying Alfred Hare had a plan, he had the vision, he had the business sense.

[19:02] Susan Blackwell: He could have painted slower, but he decided I'm gonna streamline this, I'm gonna paint very quickly.

[19:14] Laura Camien: So just commercial, like I'm not trying to prove to some art critic somewhere.

[19:18] Susan Blackwell: If this resonates with a human being that's willing to pay me $25 for it, boom.

[19:24] Laura Camien: Yes.

[19:24] Susan Blackwell: That means that the painting was a good painting.

[19:26] Laura Camien: That's right.

[19:27] Susan Blackwell: So then Alfred Hare would put those paintings into the trunk of his car, and he would go and he would sell them.

[19:35] Laura Camien: The art historian who is expert on this school of painting is this guy named Gary Monroe.

[19:40] Susan Blackwell: Gary Monroe literally wrote the book on the Florida Highwaymen.

[19:45] Laura Camien: And Gary Monroe said he didn't think that Alfred Hare ever sold a dry painting.

[19:51] Susan Blackwell: They were sold before the oil paint had time to cure.

[19:56] Laura Camien: So this is how fast Alfred Hare is working and how fast these paintings are being sold.

[20:02] Susan Blackwell: Like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And that crown molding, those frames that I was telling you about earlier.

[20:08] Laura Camien: Uh-huh.

[20:09] Susan Blackwell: They didn't just frame the painting. Because the paintings were often being transported in the artist's car to be sold before the oil paintings were dry.

[20:18] Laura Camien: The frames would sort of act as this structure to protect the painting so that it it not only was a frame, but it also was sort of a separator to keep the paintings from like scratching each other, the wet paint or you know.

[20:31] Susan Blackwell: Wow. Just so Alfred Hare had a plan.

[20:34] Laura Camien: Wow.

[20:35] Susan Blackwell: Those paintings will be sold out of the trunks of cars, up and down the highway. First by the artist who had painted them, in this case, Alfred Hare, and then by a team of salespeople.

[20:47] Laura Camien: And this artwork was sold to banks and motels and doctors and lawyers' offices and restaurants and businesses and the general public throughout Florida.

[20:59] Susan Blackwell: And those paintings sold the same day they were painted, oil paint still wet, would go for $25 to $35.

[21:06] Laura Camien: Even to the places like you said, banks and hotels and whatnot.

[21:10] Susan Blackwell: It's interesting. We'll get into it a little bit. Um, this isn't in my spark, but there was one of these guys who I believe he's still alive, and he was sort of the top salesman of these paintings.

[21:23] Laura Camien: Uh-huh.

[21:24] Susan Blackwell: And he had a deal with the artist where he was like, I forget the exact numbers, but it was like the artist will get 70%, and I'll get 30%.

[21:32] Laura Camien: But if he could get the sale price up, he would keep the difference.

[21:37] Susan Blackwell: So the artist would be happy and still get their 70%.

[21:41] Laura Camien: And the salesman would get a little more off the top because he got the price up.

[21:44] Susan Blackwell: Wow.

[21:45] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[21:46] Susan Blackwell: So everybody was sort of thriving around this.

[21:49] Laura Camien: Wow.

[21:50] Susan Blackwell: So around this same time, Beanie Backis, the white Florida landscape painter, was also mentoring another black artist named Harold Newton, who was, according to everything I've seen and read and heard, a wonderful artist.

[22:08] Laura Camien: And it is said that he was just a natural talent who was painting long before Alfred Hare.

[22:17] Susan Blackwell: And his paintings are beautiful.

[22:20] Laura Camien: They are beautiful.

[22:21] Susan Blackwell: Laura, now I now I feel like since you've been pining for the nature of Florida, we're gonna have to talk about getting you a Florida High Women painting.

[22:30] Laura Camien: I'm on their website.

[22:33] Susan Blackwell: I'm looking at images as you describe the image. Like it's really wonderful.

[22:36] Laura Camien: I highly recommend it if you're listening right now and your computer's there. Like just pull up the Florida Highwomen Paintings.com.

[22:45] Susan Blackwell: For reasons that we'll get into, there's a pretty wide span of almost like styles within them.

[22:52] Laura Camien: But we'll talk about why that is.

[22:54] Susan Blackwell: So back to Harold Newton, parallel to Alfred Hare, Harold Newton was experiencing a similar level of success.

[23:04] Laura Camien: Harold Newton followed Beanie Backus's advice to focus on landscape painting.

[23:10] Susan Blackwell: And Harold, like Alfred Hare, had quickly realized that there was a demand for this romantic Florida landscape painting.

[23:19] Laura Camien: And Harold Newton also began selling them on the road, door to door.

[23:23] Susan Blackwell: It's my understanding that he would sometimes do it on from his bike.

[23:27] Laura Camien: He would sell paintings from his bike.

[23:29] Susan Blackwell: Oh my God.

[23:31] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[23:31] Susan Blackwell: It's unclear whether Harold Newton or Alfred Hare first began selling their paintings from their cars, or if it was an idea that the two materialized together as they worked under Beanie Backus's mentorship.

[23:45] Laura Camien: That's sort of a little bit fuzzy in history.

[23:48] Susan Blackwell: But unlike Hare, who remember had his fast style.

[23:52] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[23:53] Susan Blackwell: Harold Newton was a slow and exacting painter.

[23:57] Laura Camien: And he kept his production to a staid four paintings a day.

[24:03] Susan Blackwell: Listen to me when I say that.

[24:04] Laura Camien: By comparison, he was only making four paintings a day.

[24:08] Susan Blackwell: It takes me months to make a painting.

[24:12] Laura Camien: Months.

[24:13] Susan Blackwell: As I said, Harold Newton's paintings are beautiful. Because he was only doing four paintings a day in comparison to Alfred Hare, that may seem like less, but because Harold Newton painted for decades, his output was impressive.

[24:26] Laura Camien: His brother, Lemuel Newton, said there's gotta be a lot of them.

[24:30] Susan Blackwell: Like there's a lot of these Harold Newton paintings in circulation.

[24:34] Laura Camien: You think so?

[24:35] Susan Blackwell: I do.

[24:35] Laura Camien: You think there's a lot of Harold Newton's in circulation, even though he painted less than Alfred Hare.

[24:42] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, because he painted for so long.

[24:45] Laura Camien: Okay.

[24:46] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[24:47] Laura Camien: Okay. More on that in just a moment.

[24:48] Susan Blackwell: Okay. So according to Wikipedia, Harold Newton is recognized by fellow artists for his technical inspiration, while Alfred Hare is considered the leader in the catalyst who set the tone for this group that was forming in the 60s.

[25:07] Laura Camien: Word of what Alfred Hare and Harold Newton were doing and the success they were having soon spread, and an ever growing circle of friends and family started joining them.

[25:18] Susan Blackwell: Some people were assisting them with their paintings, others were painting on their own.

[25:24] Susan Blackwell: Still others were devoting themselves to building frames for the artists.

[25:28] Laura Camien: Other people were taking on the role of the salesman.

[25:31] Susan Blackwell: This expanding circle of friends, acquaintances, and family members continues to grow.

[25:53] Laura Camien: Hells yeah.

[25:54] Susan Blackwell: So decades later, in 1995, the director of Florida's Museum of Art and Culture, a guy named Jim Fitch, dubbed this movement the Highwaymen Painters.

[26:07] Laura Camien: Gary Monroe, again, this is the guy who literally wrote the book on the Florida Highwaymen.

[26:11] Susan Blackwell: Gary Monroe would identify 26 artists, 25 men and one woman named Mary Ann Carroll as the key members of the Florida Highwaymen.

[26:23] Laura Camien: 26, you said?

[26:25] Susan Blackwell: Uh-huh.

[26:26] Laura Camien: 26 artists.

[26:27] Susan Blackwell: And I think it's worth noting, I think that Alfred Hare and maybe a little Harold Newton were the only highwayman painters to receive formal training.

[26:37] Laura Camien: Interesting.

[26:38] Susan Blackwell: And the rest learned like from them.

[26:40] Laura Camien: Yeah, exactly.

[26:41] Susan Blackwell: And they so they knew each other as well.

[26:45] Laura Camien: And kind of all worked together, the two of them.

[26:48] Susan Blackwell: They weren't like two competing artists.

[26:50] Laura Camien: No, it seems sort of like this loose collective.

[26:53] Susan Blackwell: And what I can gather is if you expressed interest, say you were walking by and you saw that Harold Newton or Alfred Hare was painting in the yard.

[27:05] Laura Camien: There's a thing, I think it was uh Mary Ann Carroll talks about how she noticed the flames on this guy's car.

[27:14] Susan Blackwell: Mary Ann Carroll is again the one woman artist amongst this group of Florida Highwaymen. She noticed the flames on this guy's car and she was like, those look cool. And the guy was like, I'm an artist. I painted them. And reached into the backseat of his car and picks up a painting and says, I did this, like I'm an artist. And just because she expressed interest, that guy was like, Do you want to do this? Do you want to learn how to do this? And that's how Mary Ann Carroll started painting with the Florida Highwaymen.

[27:44] Laura Camien: Oh.

[27:45] Susan Blackwell: Because she was like, that's cool. Who painted those flames? So I feel like there was just opportunity there.

[27:52] Laura Camien: Wow.

[27:52] Susan Blackwell: It seemed like there was a lot of mutual support.

[27:56] Laura Camien: It sounds like that.

[27:57] Susan Blackwell: And it sounds rather than like a scarcity mindset, it was the opposite. It was like this can lift us all up. Let's all do it. Let's do it together. That is the impression that I get from reading about it.

[28:12] Laura Camien: But has it been romanticized?

[28:15] Susan Blackwell: Has it been romanticized? Has have aspects of it been lost to history? I'm not sure, but it seems as such. And again, how did this group of people expand? Some people learn directly from Alfred Hare. Some people learn from watching Harold Newton paint. Some of these folks who became painters started as salespeople, and they would take a little paint kit with them on the road in case any of the paintings got scratched when they were wet before they could sell them, so that they could repair them instead of bringing it all the way back to the artist, having the artist repair them and taking it back. So they learned how to paint first by doing repairs on the road so that they could sell the paintings. But that's how they learned how to paint. And they continued on and became painters themselves.

[29:04] Laura Camien: What was the time period of them, the Florida Highwaymen painting? Or did they pass it on and now they're and they're still painting?

[29:12] Susan Blackwell: Um, new generations of Highwaymen are painting. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say it's been passed on, and there's people who are still doing this.

[29:20] Laura Camien: Not as many.

[29:21] Susan Blackwell: Uh-huh. It's not as prolific, but I think it's still it's still happening. There's some children of highwaymen that are still painting.

[29:29] Laura Camien: Uh-huh.

[29:29] Susan Blackwell: Daughters that are still painting, that sort of thing.

[29:32] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[29:33] Susan Blackwell: So Gary Monroe, who's that highwayman expert, told the New York Times in 2019 it was like spontaneous combustion. Alfred Hare encouraged and welcomed all who had an inkling or expressed an interest in painting. There was no organization, no rules, dues, or business plan, just like-minded 20-somethings coming together.

[29:55] Laura Camien: So that sort of speaks to what you're talking about.

[29:57] Susan Blackwell: Well, yes, and also, I'm just, I'm kind of astonished because, in general, regardless of any of these details, the idea that like so many people are out there buying art, you know, that you could go door to door and be like, hey, buy a piece of art. That seems extraordinary and unique in its own right.

[30:17] Laura Camien: Do you know what I mean? It's a little bit of a different time, like the idea of a door-to-door salesman.

[30:21] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[30:22] Laura Camien: Yeah. And I mean, now you could definitely like you could buy art at TJ Maxx, or you could buy art for your walls, like kind of anywhere. But just this idea that people enthusiastically from like individuals to like hotels and banks and businesses, yes, to all of it. It just it's very exciting. I love it.

[30:43] Susan Blackwell: I love the entrepreneurialism of it.

[30:46] Laura Camien: Uh-huh. I love the creativity of it.

[30:48] Susan Blackwell: Yes. I love the creative limitations, working within creative limitations of it all. I love that, you know, these are folks, again, black people who are living in the segregated Jim Crow South. And without this creativity, they would be consigned to working in a citrus processing plant, like backbreaking work. And I just love that. Again, I don't want to romanticize it, but I love uh I just love the creativity of all of it.

[31:20] Laura Camien: Well, the ingenuity and the inventiveness of um how fast can I do these and still, you know, be proud of the work and and still create something that people would want to buy and figure out a sales system. It's all extraordinary.

[31:36] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So this I feel like touches on what you were expressing before we started recording today. The art of the Florida Highwaymen appeals to many people because it depicts a natural Florida that is disappearing or has disappeared due to development.

[31:56] Laura Camien: And in the PBS documentary series, Florida Frontiers, Highwaymen artist Isaac Knight said that a lot of things that they painted and paint don't exist anymore. That for the painters who are still alive and painting, it's done from memory. Those landscapes they used to paint are now Walgreens, CVS, and car dealerships. So they've captured a lost time and lost landscapes from the 60s, which I think is one of the reasons, Laura, that they have this gorgeous mid-century quality to them.

[32:34] Laura Camien: They sure do. There's one that I will show you, and maybe we can put it uh up on social with the episode. Actually, it's not just one, there's several of them that I'm just like, it captures something that is so beautiful.

[32:47] Susan Blackwell: There are so many. And yes, Suze, I mean, okay, I'm really gonna out me and Wes and our nerdiness. So here we go. We were just talking the other day about this very thing where our home was in a little area outside of Orlando called Winter Garden. And in the time span that we lived there, there was this bike trail that went like 30 miles in either direction. It was beautiful.

[33:14] Laura Camien: But when we first moved there, if you went one way down the bike trail, it was literally like riding through these canopies of trees that were, it was just nothing but trees and brush on both sides of the trail.

[33:27] Susan Blackwell: Beautiful.

[33:27] Laura Camien: Yeah. You could go miles like that. And then by the time we left Florida, like all along that trail, four miles on both sides of the trail had been cleared out of trees and homes built because people wanted to live right on the bike trail.

[33:45] Susan Blackwell: Oh my God.

[33:46] Laura Camien: And I was like, oh, everyone wanting to live right on the bike trail changes the bike trail. I definitely had days where I would go for these bike rides. I'd come back in tears because I would be like, babe, they took down a whole nother, there's a whole new section of you know big homes and condo buildings going up, et cetera. To bring it back to the Florida Highwaymen, this was their stock and trade. This is what they were capturing in these paintings.

[34:15] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[34:15] Laura Camien: And it it's really fun to look at these paintings and just see all the different kinds of trees and vegetation and oceanscapes and sunsets and blue skies, and I just love them.

[34:30] Susan Blackwell: The different kind of trees too, like there's the palm trees, but there's also like hundred-year-old oak trees and cypress trees and exquisite, exquisite trees. This PBS documentary, again, Florida Frontiers, in their episode spotlighting this, these this group of artists, they shared this. While the highwaymen are recognized as noteworthy artists, there is also the story of creative people making economic opportunities for themselves in a difficult period of racial segregation.

[35:04] Laura Camien: And in that same doc, uh, one of the original Highwaymen artists named R. L. Lewis said, The way I look at it is this way. If you gotta survive, you'll survive. I don't care what it is. Tough times don't last, tough people do. The art that you see was not art for the sake of art to put beautiful stuff up. It was art for the sake of, in some cases, survival.

[35:32] Susan Blackwell: Which I have to say, like I oh my God. I don't love that people were in a situation where they felt like they needed to create to survive. But again, I love the creativity, the entrepreneurialism of it all. Like they turned to art to survive is I just love it. I just love it. You just don't hear that that often that it's like, well, I really needed to survive, and so I turned to my art.

[35:59] Laura Camien: Yes.

[35:59] Susan Blackwell: You are you hear the opposite. You're like, I have a survival job.

[36:03] Laura Camien: That's right.

[36:04] Susan Blackwell: And then I I try to do my art outside of that.

[36:07] Laura Camien: That's right.

[36:07] Susan Blackwell: Exactly. So it is estimated that collectively the Highwaymen painted and sold more than 200,000 paintings.

[36:17] Laura Camien: Oh my God.

[36:18] Susan Blackwell: And those paintings that once sold for 25, 35 dollars out of the trunks of cars, paintings that you might have been able to snag at a yard sale or a thrift store for just a few dollars. Today, those paintings sell for as much as tens of thousands of dollars and hang on the walls of the likes of Michelle Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, Jeb Bush, and Steven Spielberg.

[36:43] Laura Camien: Sadly, Alfred Hare did not live to see how honored and valued his art would become.

[36:50] Susan Blackwell: In 1970, at the age of 29, he was shot and killed by a man in a bar.

[36:57] Laura Camien: Oh, and he left behind his wife and five children.

[37:01] Susan Blackwell: Oh.

[37:03] Laura Camien: And there's a lot of speculation. There, there's actually a beautiful painting of the bar where I love this painting so much, but uh at the bar where this took place. And um, there's a lot of speculation about why that happened. And it was speculated that he was shot and killed by this field hand. And it might be because Alfred Hare, again, historical hottie, very easy with people, very easy with the ladies, and very successful that somebody just took it the wrong way and got violent.

[37:42] Susan Blackwell: So in 2019, the New York Times published a series called Overlooked. And the article begins: These remarkable black men and women never received obituaries in the New York Times until now. We're adding their stories to our project about prominent people whose deaths were not reported by the newspaper, which I love.

[38:03] Laura Camien: I love that overlook series.

[38:06] Susan Blackwell: I loved seeing Alfred Hare in there. I was just like, oh, I wish that he could have seen like the impact that he had.

[38:14] Laura Camien: Yeah, what he created. So, according to the website, Florida Highwaymen.com, the Florida Highwaymen, a group of 26 African Americans, broke convention to paint beautiful iconic landscapes, originating in the mid-1950s, an era marked by racism and poverty. These self-taught entrepreneurs mentored each other while they painted on basic materials like ups and board for canvases and crown moldings for frames. Local galleries shunned their work, so they peddled their art from car trunks along area roadways, hence their name. Their art freed them from work in citrus groves and labor camps, and they created a body of work that has become not only a timeless collection of a natural environment, but a symbol of determination and belief in oneself.

The surviving Florida Highwaymen, now in their 70s and 80s, are an important chapter in America's culture and history, indeed, a national treasure. Their self-determination in the face of adversity remains an important story of perseverance, inspiration, and creativity.

[39:22] Susan Blackwell: And you have to know Laura Camien and the Florida Highwaymen are currently receiving national acclaim.

[39:29] Laura Camien: Yay.

[39:30] Susan Blackwell: Um, from a piece on all things considered in NPR back in 2013. I heard that as of 2013, Al Black is one of the few Highwaymen artists who still paints outdoors, several canvases at a time, and it's this kind of assembly line technique that makes certain people question whether this is really art. But Al Black is certain that it is. And Al Black said, these paintings, these are some good paintings because I'm putting my heart into them. He also said that he can be down and I love this. He can be down and out, but if he gets up and gets out and starts painting, things start coming to him and make him feel really good. And I was like, that is a good painting.

[40:14] Laura Camien: Yes, that is a good painting. Make some art, change your mood. We put the strangest criteria on things, like in order to make, I think the definition of art so elusive. On the one hand, it can't be fast, it can't be like that easy or simple, or else that's not like sophisticated art with a capital A. But on the other hand, there's just as many people who are like, if it doesn't come easy to me, then I must not be meant for this. Like if it is too hard to do, it's just sort of like, my God, we just keep moving the target. You know, I didn't write about it in my Sparks, but those pieces on all things considered are really good because they talk about how to this day there's still these shadows of segregation and how people dismiss or diminish this work because of the way that it was made. And I'm like, that is some old fucking racism. It's some bull fucking shit.

[41:21] Susan Blackwell: Yes, it that is some bullshit. I am not arguing with you that there's some racism there 100%. Um, but I also think like it's just part of this game of art. Who gets to say what is art, who gets to define who's an artist? Yeah, fuck that's whose permission you need, and then who gets to sort of put their stamp of approval based on how you made it or who you are or the color of your skin or how old you are. I mean, it's all there's a lot of bullshit. I could argue that this art has even more value because of who made it, how they made it, and not only is it beautiful work, it also created so much opportunity for a growing community of people. When you if you like believe that you put an artist puts their heart and soul into it, think of just how multidimensional that soul was that created that piece of art. There's so much going on there.

[42:23] Laura Camien: Yeah. And there's so much that they're experiencing, and there's so much that they're overcoming, and it's all in there.

[42:28] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So what do we make of it, Laura Camien?

[42:31] Laura Camien: What do we make of it? These are some things I make of it. I love using thrift store paintings as a departure for other work. For instance, if you go to a thrift store and you see something and it has a great frame, but you don't necessarily like the painting, you could use that, even if it's just a print on paper. I've seen outsider artists paint over that and use that as their canvas. So it's a source for affordable materials. But if you're lucky, keep your eyes open. If you live in Florida, you might also get a like a real masterpiece. You might find a real gem. So don't paint on that. Don't put a monster in it. But um I again I'm a big fan of affordable materials. Um creative limitation, getting resourceful, yes, 100%.

The other thing that this reminded me of, and I've I always think of this with Linda Berry, who I is an artist who I admire greatly, who I've studied with, and her teacher Marilyn Frasca have sort of handed down thinking about creating that I think is so wonderful. And when Linda Berry was in college at Evergreen State, studying under Marilyn Frasca, Marilyn would have them making something like five paintings a week, in addition to like all this journaling. So they just had to make, make, make, make, make, which seems like when I first heard that, I was like, geez, that's so much. But when you think about what Alfred Hare was producing, there's something about making a lot of work will improve your work.

Even if you're not doing it under a teacher or a guide, just making and making and making a lot of work will improve your work. I think whether you're a painter or a writer or whatever your work, a dancer, whatever it is.

[44:26] Susan Blackwell: Agreed. I think it improves your work. I also think it improves your mindset because we have seen people pour one thing, believing like this is my masterpiece and I'm gonna obsess over every detail of it. Yeah, versus the when you're moving quickly, and you're like, I really don't have time to obsess and overthink and question myself. I gotta keep moving. Just as a painter, or if you draw your muscle memory in your hands, they will gain confidence as you work. And to Laura's point, create it will make you feel better. Get you out of your head.

[45:06] Laura Camien: Yeah, get you out of your head. There's another thing, another what if we make of it that really stuck and lingered with me from the Florida Highwaymen. It seems like so much of the monetary value of art is determined by the story around it. So interest in this Florida Highwaymen landscape art escalated when Jim Fitch coined the term Highwayman in 1995. So this was well after the biggest heyday. If you think about one of the very first sparks we ever did on this podcast, I talked about Hilma af Klint. At the time before Mondrian and Kandinsky were painting, Hilma af Klint was painting. But Mondrian and Kandinsky, who are considered two icons of abstract art, they died with their legacy secured because they lobbied for it during their lifetime.

So it's a little bit who lives, who dies, who tells your story. Eventually talent will out. And you know, uh, we all saw Hilma af Klint's work at the Guggenheim, and her story eventually did get told. But there's something about the story around how you share the light of your work that makes people value it in a different way and assign like literally a different monetary value to it.

[46:30] Susan Blackwell: True. But I wonder this this guy, Jim Fitch. Jim Fitch, was he a white guy? I don't know. Because I do wonder if, like, you know, when he came along, again, like, is there racism at play? Because did he come along and give them a name and a story and package it? Like a stamp of approval.

[46:46] Laura Camien: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[46:47] Susan Blackwell: I mean, and I want the paintings to be valued, but I'm just saying, like, again, who lives, who dies, who tells your story. And they had a fascinating story the whole time.

[46:58] Laura Camien: Yes. Someone sort of packaged it.

[47:01] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So those are just a few, what have we make of it's. And I love Al Black saying he can feel down, but he comes out and starts painting and it really helps him feel good. And also his assessment is these are good paintings because I put my heart into them. I just love that. I feel like I should stitch that on a pillow. These are gorgeous paintings. And they do capture the sense and the feeling of Florida and the mid-century. And I'm also just like, when you've been like in that Florida weather for a period of time, like I'm I can feel it in my body, this sense of being outside all day long and painting. It's a very particular heat and the sun. And that these guys spent the day out there making 10 to 20 paintings is astonishing.

[47:53] Laura Camien: Yeah. And a beautiful thing.

[47:56] Susan Blackwell: Suze, this was an amazing spark.

[47:58] Laura Camien: That's my spark. That's a little Florida spark. I hope it scratched a little Florida itch for you, Laura Camien.

[48:04] Laura Camien: Thank you. It did.

[48:05] Susan Blackwell: Timely.

[48:07] Laura Camien: It did. I do want one of these paintings.

[48:10] Susan Blackwell: You better save your money because now they're expensive.

[48:16] Laura Camien: I know. I see these prices. I see these prices. But I'm just like, I can get lost in one of these just looking at them and just full of happy Florida memories.

[48:28] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So, friends, I guess that's it. This episode of The Spark File was made on the lands of the Lenape people. And as always, we hope it put another bunch of sparks in your file.

[48:40] Laura Camien: Hey, if there's a spark you'd like us to explore, or if you'd like to learn more about how to coach with us to bring your creative ideas to life, you can email us at thesparkfile@gmail.com or submit it through our website at thesparkfile.com.

[48:54] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. And I just want to point out though, we're we're recording on the lands of the Lenape, but we just were speaking about the Seminole and many and many others, but I just know that I lived on Seminole Land.

[49:07] Laura Camien: That's right.

[49:08] Susan Blackwell: And we'll even take your feedback. But you know the price of admission. First, you got to share a creative risk that you've taken recently. You can follow us on social at The Spark File. And be sure to subscribe, rate, and five star review this podcast. It really, really, really helps other listeners to find us. Also, if you like this podcast, we do hope you'll share it with people you love. And if you didn't like it, we hope that you turn off this podcast and just take a long, peaceful drive down Highway One, just like straight into the no.

[49:43] Laura Camien: Don't listen to that.

[49:46] Susan Blackwell: Don't even listen to that. Hey, but if something lights you up and gets your creative sparks flying, we are writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door. It's your turn to take that spark and fan it into a flame. You know you gotta take it and make it bye.

[50:10] Laura Camien: Oh, love you, Florida friends.

[50:12] Susan Blackwell: Love you, Florida.

[50:13] Laura Camien: Support local artists. Bye.

[50:15] Susan Blackwell: Bye.

[50:16] Laura Camien: When I bumped into something that inspires me. I dump it in the spark files. Spark could be something that I wanna make or how I wanna be. I'll pump it in the spark files. I jump into my spark files. Spark file. Let's open up the spark files.