Lord of the Shirts

Early on in their professional relationship, Diane Shelly recognized what she liked best about Chad Mize. Something she liked perhaps even more than Mize's artistry, found at ChadMize.com.

“He's a businessperson,” says Shelly, former executive director of the Florida Craft Arts Gallery in St. Petersburg and an organizer of the recently completed, second annual Shine On St. Petersburg Mural Festival. “Quite honestly, that was sort of why we chose the artists to be on the Shine committee. We didn't want a flaky artist.”

In Mize, 42, Shelly got someone who gets the business side of the art industry. To wit: The artist and painter of seven (and counting) large-scale outdoor murals in St. Petersburg's central and downtown business districts is probably best known for the design that doesn't bear his @Chizzy tagline. That would be his best-selling T-shirt, “World Tour.”