MIAMI -- Is it a political statement or is it artistic expression? That's the controversy surrounding a mural painted of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Barack Obama under the 62nd Street overpass of Interstate 95.

The mural was painted by local artist Serge Touisant, who was contracted by the Florida Department of Transportation and Liberty City to spruce up the underpass with his artistry. Touisant said it's his artistic expression.

"It's not political," he said, standing along the wall where the image of Obama used to be. "It's not political at all."

It is an argument that may have gotten further for Touisant had it not been made during a tight race in an election year.

"If you put them together, that become a dream team," he said.

But in a year when endorsements are highly sought by both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the appearance of Obama alongside King was too significant for the FDOT to ignore.

"We have a problem," is how Touisant described the first words over the phone from his contact at the FDOT.

His mural raised some eyebrows, having been paid for with public funds and put up on a public space. So, the FDOT asked him to take it down.

The original contract between the FDOT and Touisant clearly expressed the department's policy not to promote or, by suggestion, endorse any candidate. Touisant, however, saw it differently.

"My inspiration tell me that, 'Serge, slip Mr. Obama into the picture because he's the meaning of Martin Luther King's dream,'" Touisant said.

Political or not, the FDOT said the image was not permitted by the terms of the contract and Touisant had to take it down.

"When I started painting it, I had to start from the bottom," Touisant said. "I wanted to cry."

Using primer, he painted over the Obama image, filling in the face and torso while leaving the outline side by side with the image of King. Some thought his choice of the white-colored primer was itself a political statement.

"I told them it wasn't," he said. "It's just that the primer was white!"

It's a pairing which Touisant said is an obvious one since King represented the vision and Obama represents the manifestation of the vision.

"I think if MLK was alive, he would have been so proud of Mr. Obama," Touisant said. "But yet, they make me take it off."

Touisant said the woman who called him to tell him to cover up the image also mentioned that Gov. Charlie Crist was on a short list to be Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate and that the political climate would not allow for such a mural. Whether she represented the FDOT or a Liberty City neighborhood association is unclear.