Nat Love and Three Little Cowpokes” grew out of my discovery of black cowboys while in graduate school in the 1970s.  Dean Meeker, a University Wisconsin printmaking professor gave me a magazine photograph of Nat Love a black cowboy from the late 1800s. He said that he had the picture for several years with the intension of creating a print about black cowboys, but never found a solution to his aesthetic idea and maybe after research I would have use for it. Prior to that time I was unaware of the existence of black cowboys. I did research at the University of Wisconsin library and was surprised at the volume of information that I found but also like professor Meeker, I had no solution. So, I filed the materials away for use at a later date.

By: Ken Rodgers

For more than three decades Kenneth Falana has been an authentic presence in the Florida art world and in African American art. His life and career have encompassed the pivotal events in late twentieth-century political and cultural history. Fortunately, he chose not to merely be another cultural bystander and became intellectually engaged enough to use visual art as his trumpet. As a draftsman, printmaker, and collage artist he has been a cultural activist conscious of the political world, yet comfortable enough to mesh its nuances with daring aesthetic considerations. His work is imbued with his lifelong passion for nature and a reverence for the dichotomy of Southern life.

At the same time he has been a dynamic teacher who unabashedly advocated the development of students into artists. I have known this since 1973 when I headed South for a teaching position at Florida A & M University and taught alongside Kenneth Falana. In retrospect, the idea that he would go on to make a name for himself in the art world was predictable.