The talk with Mary Ann Carroll will begin soon.
She is now doing an interview with @CBC
More than 50 people are waiting for the talk to begin.
She is taking the mic as the crowd is greeting her with applauses.
"We were told to respect people", she says talking about her childhood memories of her first exhibit.
When she got to Florida and got married, she said her life was not like most people. She worked in a nursing home.
"I always liked things that looked different."
She said she used to sell her painting at the court house, police offices, etc.
I thank god from where he brought me to from where I was she said while the crowd applauses.
She now talks about her trip to Washington four months ago when she met the first lady.
Very emotionally and as the crowd giggles, she said she doesn't know what they saw in her to be invited.
Her story is so amazing and she's able to make the crowd laugh about anything she says.
"She is R-E-A-L" she says talking about the first lady.
Her painting are inspired by nature and landscape she has seen.
She can do a painting in less than a day if she stays working on it.
One of the Highwaymen passed away yesterday. His name is John Maynor.
The highway men painted together sometimes.
She is now taking questions from the audiance.
"My mother was always happy about anything I did constructive," she says.
She said she wouldn't sell her paintings on the road, because she was a lady. She would sell her 18 by 24 paintings for $12,50 back in 1950s.
Because so many people were moving to Florida back in the 1950s, it gave her a market.
Back then, people who would want to sell their houses in Florida would buy her paintings and leave it in the house for the new landlords once the house was sold. She said it was a great market for her.
With her seven children, it was very important for her to sell her paintings.
Back during the segregation, people would buy black people's paintings and expose them in galleries like it was theirs.
"I did not care back then, I would just make another one and sell it again."
The crowd is listening, laughing, and enjoying.
Under the applauses of the large crowd, it is now done!
As part of Black History Month programming, the U.S. Embassy, Ottawa is organizing an exhibition of paintings by the Florida Highwaymen at SAW Gallery from 5 – 29 February.
