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Key West, a two by four mile outpost of limestone, still retains
the allure and mystique that date from its nineteenth century awakening.
A once remote island set just ninety miles from Havana, in the turquoise
waters between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, Key West
is the last resort in the Florida Keys, a meandering coral archipelago,
and sits 154 miles southwest of Miami.
Isolated from the mainland and approached solely by sea until the
advent of Henry Flagler's overseas railroad in 1912, Key West is
an island dotted with historic structures, weathered by time and
tropics, which maintain an elegance and and grandeur.
Few other island cities can claim the grand heritage and magnificent
wooden architecture, inspired by its New England settlers. From
Victorian mansions to tiny cigar cottages--each home is decked with
a pristine splendor. A sense of timelessness pervades. Key West
is the Last Resort, a tiny outpost of an island, beyond mangroves,
bridges and viaducts that crissross the scintillating blue-green
waters of the Florida Keys. Key West sits surrounded by the emerald
sea beneath the tradewind clouds. Once a smugglers' den for decades
and an artists' colony since the days of the WPA in the Thirties,
Key West is a gingerbread banana republic that's transforming itself
to a chic, trendy and increasingly gentrified island. The southernmost
end of US 1 is here. Latitude 23" 33' North. Brilliant sunsets and
sunrises are celebrated; exotic banyan trees drop their thin roots
into the coral to spread; tropical gardens are bedecked with bougainvilla
and plumeria; fishing and diving is matchless and America's spectacular
176-mile reef predates us all by 500 million years.
Key West is a island chosen by Tennessee Williams, Harry Truman,
Ernest Hemingway, John dos Passos, John James Audubon and Cuban
revolutionaries as home. A place of extremes, and of cats on hot
tin roofs, Bahamian ethnicity, and famous watering holes. This is
a place where LIGHT itself has become a timeless subject....where
reflections and illuminations, dark shadows and rich, bleached colors
have spoken to artists for a century and a half. KW LIGHT GALLERY
seeks to present varied works of art, photographs and paintings,
which capture the essence of light in all its variations.
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