The Orlando exhibition of the retrospective was cut to 25 works from the original 68 by the Orlando City Hall gallery staff. They edited out all works with exposed breasts and several with potentially controversial imagery without regard to the purpose of the exhibit. Entire years of my art creation weren’t represented in the exhibit. They apparently edited the show in this way because they were afraid of what Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando that year, would think of the artwork.

Nonetheless, after the edited exhibition was hung, the mayor of Orlando told the gallery workers to take the show down and send it back to the Gulf Coast Museum of Art. He said the art was “out there” and he didn’t like it. He reportedly prefers landscapes and scenes of old Florida. Canceling the show for that reason was not acceptable to the GCMA and after some negotiation, i.e. threats, the show was hung again over a week later. At first they hung 21 of the 25 works, excluding the 4 that the mayor especially disliked. That was discovered by the GCMA and me and I wrote a lengthy note to the gallery director saying they have to either hang the whole show of 25 works together or the show must be canceled immediately. After two days the mayor’s office called the GCMA and said the 4 excluded works would be hung with the others.

There was considerable media uproar regarding the Mayor's aesthetic tastes. Orlando television news covered it as well as the regional newspapers. An AP story on the censorship went nationwide.

The show was shown at the von Liebig Art Center in Naples in September and they hung as many of the original works as would fit without any consideration to the subject matter of the images.

The artworks that were edited out in Orlando are indicated with “Banned in Orlando” on the slide show of the retrospective. Click here to see the works.