BUSINESS
N AT U R E + C ULT U R E
THE CREATIVE HEART OF F LORIDA
January 6 – February 26, 2023
DASHBOARD DREAMS:
THE FLORIDA HIGHWAYMEN AND THE AMERICAN ROAD
When a group of painters’ promising talent sparked
ambitions for an emerging new art movement, they
had to hustle. Beginning in the 1950s, the automobile
was the key to finding the audiences who would look
beyond the artists’ race and become enthralled by
their luminous paintings of the Florida landscape.
Dashboard Dreams presents their dreams realized,
the freedom achieved, and the success they
negotiated on the road, featuring more than 50
paintings that first traveled the highways and
byways on their way to history.
Golden retriever Jax
regularly accompanies
Follano while at the
company’s warehouse
in Port St. Lucie.
WIN A MASTERPIECE OF FLORIDA ART
GET YOUR TICKETS WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! LOCKDOWN RESULTS
The A.E. Backus Museum is pleased to offer
“Beautiful Morning,” c.2005, an oil painting by
Sam Newton, Original Highwaymen Artist and
inductee to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame as the
masterpiece for our annual Florida Art raffle!
Visit BackusMuseum.org/raffle or scan the QR
code to get your tickets for your chance to win!
A . E . B A C K U S M U S E U M & G A L L E R Y
500 N. Indian River Drive | Historic Downtown Fort Pierce
772.465.0630 • www.BackusMuseum.org
@AEBackusMuseum
The marketing and sharing on social media began to draw
customers and create a dramatic rise in sales, a consequence of
awareness and demand, coupled with a COVID-19 shutdown
in which people were shopping primarily online from home.
Zerowastestore.com went from $1,000 in sales the first
month, to six figures at the end of the first year. In January
2019, it did $6,000 in sales, $12,000 in February, $24,000 in
March, doubling every month, ultimately achieving $1 million
in sales that year.
And during the heart of the lockdown, “COVID changed
everything,” Follano says. The website began filling 600-700
orders per day. In one particularly robust month it had more
than $300,000 in sales.
Post COVID, the sales have not stayed that brisk, but, according
12 Port St. Lucie Magazine
to Follano, “the growth is ongoing. If you look yearto
year, we’re still growing at 20%.”
The phenomenal evolution of the business is one reason
why Cieslinski and Follano are looking for a funding partner
who shares their sustainability ambitions. A local Florida
investor would be their ideal choice.
Cieslinski, 27, is unwaveringly dedicated to her standards
in shepherding a mission that has captured a like-minded
clientele. They’ve even developed their own line of products
among the 100-plus now available on the website, including
brushes, laundry products, reusable 100% cotton “paper”
towels and vegan bamboo fiber dental floss.
Zerowastestore.com’s biggest sellers are shampoo and >>
/www.backusmuseum.org
/raffle
/www.BackusMuseum.org
/Zerowastestore.com
/Zerowastestore.com