LGBTQ+ advocate works to create more art in the community

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Across the Tampa Bay area, local municipalities are removing street art following a state policy change.

That has left some artists looking for other ways to express themselves.

For India Miller, painting is a form of expression.

“I’m drawing the transgender pride flag,” she said.

Which is why she’s painting rocks with LGBTQ+ colors, to then scatter around the community.

“It just gives people hope. I hope that somebody’s walking, just sees it and picks it up, takes it home, or just realizes we care,” she said.

She found herself looking for artistic alternatives after street art was removed last month in downtown Sarasota.

For example, it appears that a rainbow was painted over on one particular crosswalk.

“I’m sad, you know, that our rights to exist and have, you know, freedom and dignity and the same rights that everybody else has, you know, are up for vote,” she explained.

Miller started her own group recently — called ‘Good Trouble’ — that advocates for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as for all artists whose work was once here on a sidewalk that has been scrubbed clean.

“It’s something that says you’re here, you’re valid, we love you, you know. It can be hopeful, or it doesn’t have to be an LGBTQ person — somebody who loves art,” she said.

She is also offering the rock art to local businesses to have inside their shops.

Miller said it’s a way to speak without words.

“I hope it’s, you know, a way to protest peacefully and resist,” she said.

By placing a new form of art where other art was removed.

Miller said that this Saturday at 10 a.m., her group and others will be painting a rainbow at the Harvest United Methodist Church in Bradenton.

She said there will also be opportunities for the public to participate in rock painting.

The next event will be on Oct. 4 at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Trinity.