Siblings bring art, collaboration to Oviedo

An Oviedoan’s vision for a public art installation centered on native Florida plants will soon take shape along Oviedo Boulevard thanks in part to a collaboration with his sister.

The City of Oviedo selected Keegan Ford’s proposal for a landscaped semi-circle near Center Lake Lane, approving a design that combines a circular brick archway, native landscaping and references to Central Florida’s indigenous history. The project is described as a “living sculpture,” and was developed with artistic and cultural input from Keegan’s older sister Ashley Ford.

A sibling dynamic

The siblings grew up in Boynton Beach and later attended UCF. Ashley graduated in 2006 with majors in fine arts printmaking and psychology, while Keegan earned a degree in aerospace engineering in 2007.

The duo said this project marks the first time they have collaborated on a project of this scale.

“This is a first,” Keegan said. “Our career paths have been so wildly different, and our brains are so different.”

Keegan’s proposal ranked first among seven submissions reviewed by the city’s Public Arts Board and was later approved by the Oviedo City Council on May 18.

During a June 17 Public Arts Board meeting, Keegan told board members the project grew from conversations with his sister about how to create something that reflected both Oviedo’s natural environment and its history.

“She and I were talking about how to approach this project that caught my interest because it was dealing with the flora and fauna of Oviedo,” Keegan told the board. 

The sculpture’s rendering shows a brick archway rising from the landscape of native grasses and flowers, with a stone path walkway beneath it, inviting visitors into the installation to admire the native plants.

“If you have seen me at City Council meetings, I talk at length about native plantings around Oviedo, so that’s what really caught my attention on this project,” Keegan said. “We got together and started researching the area, and the research into Oviedo went really in-depth.”

Rooted in local history and nature

The project began as a simple concept, focusing only on native plants. It evolved when Ashley proposed bringing in the architecture of the Central Florida area’s Mayaca and Jororo tribes, Keegan said. 

According to the Florida History Blog, the Mayaca lived along the upper St. Johns River, including present-day Seminole County, while the closely related Jororo occupied territory stretching from the Orlando-area lakes south toward the Kissimmee River valley. The two groups relied heavily on hunting, fishing and gathering resources from the region’s rivers, lakes and wetlands. Historians have described them as closely connected peoples whose presence once extended across parts of what are now Seminole, Brevard, Highlands, Lake, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Polk and Volusia counties.

Ashley said the connection between native plants and the people who once relied on them felt like a natural extension of the original concept.

“It seemed like such an easy connection to me, because [Keegan] came to me with this idea of native landscaping, and I am very much into native landscaping, as well as foraging,” Ashley said. “Plants have really shaped our culture, the way we eat, the way we use medicine and even the way we decorate the landscape around us.”

“It was really interesting to see everything that happened going all the way back to the native tribes that inhabited this area a long, long time ago,” Keegan said. “We tried to incorporate as much of Oviedo’s history as we possibly could, and that’s where the archway started to evolve.”

The siblings said their different backgrounds ultimately strengthened the proposal.

“I can dream it up, and he can tell me whether it will work or not,” Ashley said. “I think it’s a great left-brain, right-brain situation.”

Growing support from the community

The project has gained support from the Oviedo Garden Club, which plans to assist with plant selection and maintenance.

Oviedo Garden Club President Hope Scheller said Keegan first approached the organization last fall about partnering on the project.

“We’re going to help him with plant selection,” Scheller said. “We have native plant experts in the club, and we think this is a great opportunity to showcase plants that belong here and can thrive in Central Florida.”

The club has also committed to helping maintain the landscaped portion of the installation after it is completed.

Scheller said the installation could also serve as an educational tool for residents interested in landscaping with native species.

“There is beauty in the natural plants that grow here in Florida, especially Central Florida,” Scheller said. “A lot of people don’t realize how many attractive native plants there are.”

Ashley said she hopes the installation encourages residents to think differently about landscaping in their own yards.

“I would love to see more communities be inspired by this project to do more native planting, to understand our local ecosystems and how important it is to stop importing invasives and embrace the local plants,” Ashley said. “Maybe you don’t need so much grass, and maybe some natives that are low-maintenance and actually beneficial to your local ecosystem are a better alternative.”