Orlando Pride just released a new kit design inspired by Mary Ann Carroll, a legendary Black artist, and trailblazer.
Carroll was the only woman in a group of 26 Black American artists known as the Florida Highwaymen who sold landscape paintings of Florida in the Jim Crow South of the 1950s and 60s. They were self-taught artists and entrepreneurs who often sold their work door-to-door and from the trunks of their cars because they weren’t allowed to work in the galleries. Their work has become ubiquitous with Florida and are highly sought after by collectors.
The “Highway Woman” design features a dark purple base with a lighter purple brushstroke pattern inspired by Carroll’s landscape painting work, and it also features an embellishment of a silhouette of a Royal Poinciana tree, which was a regular motif in her works and her signature.
Carroll’s daughter was in attendance at a kit reveal party held on Wednesday, March 23, at 1010 West in Parramore, which featured her work hanging on the walls in honor of the reveal.
Click HERE to read more about the inspiration behind the kit and to purchase a jersey.
