In February of 2024 my brother David asked me if I might like to go see an art exhibit with him at an art museum in Ocala. “An art exhibit?” I asked surprised that David knew an artist. David’s women friends that I knew about were more outdoor, athletic type that he goes on adventures with.

“Yeah,” he explained, “I woman I know is having an art exhibit at a museum in Ocala and I thought you might want to go see it. She’s going to be there for a meet-and-greet and it’s free.”

“What kind of artist?” I asked.

“Your Move”
Larry Mixson, 1970

“She does paintings of the springs. She’s pretty well known, there is one of her paintings in a building at the University.” he replied. I found this surprising for I didn’t think David was all that interested in art, although he knew I was for over the years I had done a number of paintings and had even given one to him many years ago which I titled “Your Move” because I was always waiting him to move when we played chess.

“And you know her?” I again asked skeptically.

“Yeah, I use to deliver mail to her.”

That explained a lot, my brother was a mailman, or “letter carrier” as they call them now, in Gainesville for almost thirty years. I knew he had met some interesting people on his mail route over the years like one of the Florida Gator football quarterbacks, but this was the first I heard of an artist. He went on…

“She lived on my route in Golfview and I recognized her name. I went to high school with her, we weren’t friends, but I knew who she was.”

I knew what that was like, after going to elementary school, junior high school and then high school with many of the same kids I knew many of them, but few were my friends.

“One day she got a package that I had to deliver to her door and when she answered the door, I introduced myself and she remembered me. One time she invited me into her house and she showed me paintings she was working on. Her paintings are huge, like six feet tall and she paints them in her backyard. She also showed me a book she wrote and when I asked about it, she told me I could get it at the Natural Museum at the University.”

Well this was getting interesting, a woman on his mail route invited David into her house, more than once from the sound of it, and liked him well enough to give him one of her sketches. There was an old joke in the family that there were a number of children on David’s mail route that looked surprisingly like David. Could there be some truth to it? I think not but found the thought amusing.

“I’ll bring you the book, it’s about the springs in Florida. So she’s having an art exhibit of her paintings at a place in Ocala called the Appleton Museum and she’s going to be there in March and give a talk about her paintings and I thought we could go.”

“So she’s having an art exhibit of her paintings at a place in Ocala called the Appleton Museum and she’s going to be there in March and give a talk about her paintings and I thought we could go.”

It sounded interesting, I did like art and going to museums, so I agreed to go.  In the next couple of days David brought me Margaret’s book and I looked up the Appleton Museum on the internet.  

Updated: 01-10-2026

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