MIA Iconcyclist #1: Julia Tuttle

By Robby Campbell | April 28th, 2011 | 8 Comments

In my ongoing “Good artists borrow, great artists steal” spree (see Miami Missed Connections series), I’ve decided to pilfer and localize an idea from artist Mike Joos, who makes digital prints of pop-culture figures riding apt bikes (Mr. T on a fixie with gold-chain tires, for example). Here we have Magic City mother and citrus entrepreneur Julia Tuttle riding through the city she built on a couple of Florida oranges. I dressed her scandalously because no one has ever thought of the matronly Ms. Tuttle as sexy, and for good reason.

I’ll be posting a new MIA Iconcyclist once a month before every Miami Critical Mass from here on out. Please feel free to suggest my next rider.

Speaking of Critical Mass, I would usually be there with bells on (they alert other riders to my presence), but I can’t make it this Friday. Which means I can’t photograph the ride like I’ve done for the past seven months. While that sucks, it also presents an opportunity to shake things up a bit. I’m asking you, fellow Critical Molecule, to send me at least one picture from the ride to post in this month’s Critical Mass photo essay. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A shot from a camera phone is plenty good. The idea is simply to piece together how different people are experiencing the ride. I think this can be a really cool alternative to the way we normally cover Critical Mass. If enough people take part, we’ll have a photo mosaic of the April ride.

So all you have to do is take a photo at some point during the ride (SAFELY) and then send it to pix@beachedmiami.com before midnight. We’ll take care of the rest. As a sign of thanks, we’re offering a free Wolfcyclist T-shirt (modeled below) to our favorite photographer of the night. The shirt recently made a prominent appearance in Barry Jenkin’s Borscht Film Festival submission, Chlorophyl, so whoever wins will draw stares normally reserved for movie stars.

A big THANKS to all who take part.

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