Coconuts Art Studio

Art by Arana is the studio of Arana Glass, in Suite 4 at 86701 Overseas Highway in Islamorada, directly across the road from Rain Barrel Village. She and her husband Randall live on a boat, which tells you something about the operation. The signature work is painted coconuts, faces and figures worked onto the shell, and she has been doing it for more than three decades, having started from a family Christmas tradition long before anybody else in the Keys thought of it.

What turned that into something visitors actually talk about began in April 2020. Stuck at home like everyone else, Arana committed to painting every day, worked through her family as subjects, and then switched to coconuts. Randall started hiding them. Several times a week the two of them leave a painted coconut somewhere around the Keys, at a landmark, a beach, a park, and post a photograph on social media without saying where. Whoever finds it takes a picture with it and keeps it. They have placed them up the chain, into the Everglades and as far as mainland cities, and at least one has gone unclaimed for years in Curry Hammock State Park out on Crawl Key. Randall's description of the point of it is the whole pitch: "every time we put one out there we hope it finds someone who really needs it."

The studio itself carries original paintings and prints alongside apparel, accessories, home decor and gifts, and of course the coconuts, so there is a range from a serious piece down to something that fits in a carry-on. Visits are by appointment rather than walk-in, which is worth planning for, and there is an online shop if your trip does not line up.

If you are driving the Upper Keys with an afternoon to spend, this is one stop and Rain Barrel Village is directly across the highway, so you can do a working artist's studio and a whole village of them without moving the car.