On August 17th, The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, Fl) showcased a documentary by Heather Godwin about cowboy, poet Sean Sexton. Sean is a fifth generation Florida cowboy. Before going upstairs to the screening room, Sean read some of his poems which were about cowboy life in Florida. The exhibit at Avalon was art that w as about Florida. A model of a Kennedy Space Center rocket could be seen through the doorway. The still life painting had a cow’s tongue and a human skull.
Woodruff Laputka showed a piece from his micro-documentary series, “Picture Book”.
Robert Bartlett showed his documentary photos of Florida cattlemen making sugar cane syrup.It turns out that cattle with horns are not prized. The horns are sawed off of male cattle because if they had horns they would fight all the time, goring each other. If you see cattle with horns they are usually female cows. The evening was a look back at old rural Florida which still exists today just a short drive from Orlando. I tasted cane sugar for the first time and it was delicious.