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By Audrey Parente
DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL
September 23, 2004 -- The tropical trees in
his paintings flow right onto the frames. Willie
C. Reagan calls his latest artworks a "reawakening
of Florida."
Yet D'Amico, a filmmaker
who grew up in Gainesville, finds herself an
unexpected expert on the subject.
Reagan—pronounced
"Reeegan" not "Ray-gan"—is
one of 26 artists known as "The Highwaymen:
Florida's African-American Landscape Painters,"
who were honored Sunday at Daytona Beach Community
College for their recent induction into the
Florida Artists Hall of Fame. More than 700
people attended the official state-sponsored
event.
From the 1950s to the 1970s,
the band of black artists used tropical-pink,
lime, blue, orange and bright red oil paints
on inexpensive squares of roofers' board to
re-create images of marshes, inlets, beaches
and waterways. The artworks were sold door-to-door,
sometimes before they were even dry, to offices
and homeowners from Miami to Jacksonville.
Although the Highwaymen's
heyday ended in 1970 when their leader, Alfred
Hair, was shot in a Fort Pierce juke joint,
the Highwaymen's early body of work has become
highly collectible and the subject of a book
by DBCC photography instructor Gary Monroe.
Monroe's book received a
glowing review from The New York Times and has
gone into its fifth printing. The author, who
nominated the artists to the Florida Hall of
Fame, said 20 of the artists still are living.
Along with Reagan, seven
other original Highwaymen attended Sunday's
event with exhibits of current work: Mary Ann
Carroll, James Gibson, Isaac Knight, Robert
Lewis, John Maynor, Roy McLendon and Charles
Walker. The wife and two grandchildren of Al
Black, who is in prison at the Tomoka Correctional
Institution, represented his work.
The artists talked with
visitors about how they had moved on in life
to other things after their Highwaymen days
but how the recent honor has inspired them to
return to their original style of work.
One artist, John Maynor,
56, of Fort Pierce, said he made his living
as a sign painter. He thought being inducted
into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame was "a
prestigious moment in life," which inspired
him to paint again.
"It came back very
rapidly and I intend to take it to the extreme
and get into all aspects of art -- participate
in all of the exhibits and art shows that I
can," Maynor said.
When Willie C. Reagan's
Highwaymen days were over, he played football
for Florida A&M University before becoming
a high school art teacher for 30 years until
he recently retired. He also let it be known
he doesn't intend to remain a has-been.
"For generations to
come, they can look at my (early) work and see
how things were before," Reagan said. "Because
of this movement since the publication of the
book, I am innovating now but it's not a new
idea. It's something I am reinventing."
Muriel Maguire of Edgwater
attended the event, carrying a painting by one
of the Highwaymen, Willie Daniels, which she
bought for $1.99 at Good Will two years ago.
Daniels is living but did not attend, so Maguire
asked Monroe to authenticate the painting.
"He said it's worth
$650," Maguire said.
Inez Stafford of Daytona
Beach attended "as a learning experience,"
and said the artists' recognition was "probably
long overdue."
A movie maker, Gary Propper,
also attended Saturday's event.
"I want to make a movie
about them. I have been following these guys
for more than 30 years, since I was an East
Coast Surfing Champion. I used to trade food
for their paintings," said Propper of Ormond
Beach. "This was so great to have all these
guys in one room."
SOURCE: Daytona
Beach News
