Key West The Newspaper

During a short-film production shoot at the Custom House Museum on Tuesday, Florida Keys philanthropist David Wolkowsky describes the experience of acquiring a collection of Mario Sanchez sketches from a woman who had them hidden under her bed. Sanchez, a self-taught artist born in 1908 in Key West’s Gatoville cigar-making neighborhood, used the sketches, rendered on brown paper bags, to guide the layout of his famed bas-relief woodcarvings. In 1985, the late artist was presented with the Florida Folk Heritage Award by the Florida Secretary of State and the Florida Folklife Council, and today is considered one of the nation’s greatest folk artists. Conceived and underwritten by Wolkowsky, the film examines more than 70 of the remarkable sketches currently featured in an exhibit titled “Pencil Me In” at the Custom House Museum, and will provide a medium with which to share it with the larger public.

Key West Art & Historical Society Curator, Cori Convertito, PhD., and philanthropist David Wolkowsky take a break during production of a short film about folk artist Mario Sanchez at the Custom House Museum on Tuesday. The film focuses on a collection of more than 70 sketches rendered by the artist renowned for woodcarvings that melded art and history to tell stories of old Key West.