Easy Living, Texas Gulf Style
Rabbi Matt Cohen lights the Menorah with his wife, Erin, and Shelley Nussenblatt Kessler at the Congregation B’nai Israel in Galveston. This menorah was a gift from Matt Cohen’s past congregation in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s customary for each member of the Jewish household to have their own menorah. Photo by Stuart Villanueva
Balconies offer a bird’s-eye view of all the motorcycles in downtown Galveston during the Lone Star Rally. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds
Artists Najet Ayachi, from left, Aubrey Garcia, Michael Frommer and Elizabeth George have helped turn an old corner store at 1902 Ave. N in Galveston into a thriving studio and gallery. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds
Michael Frommer lives and paints on Galveston Island. He refers to the beauty of the Texas Coast and the rare, historic lines of the city’s structures as “unique wallpaper” from which he pulls artistic inspiration for his work. And the environment he chooses to create his art in is just as unique. [Read more…]
With tweezers and hundreds of shells, Susan Alexander painstakingly creates intricately designed sailors’ valentines, which were historically offered as a sentimental gift from a sailor to his beloved upon returning from a long voyage at sea. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds
Local artisan Susan Alexander finds inspiration for her creative projects from all things Galveston. The Houston-born and raised interior designer and expert shell crafter summered on the island as a teenager and bought the August J. Henck cottage with husband Robert Clarke in 2010. Their East End house in the historic district of Galveston was built in 1897 and serves as a perfect backdrop for her remarkable works of shell art called sailors’ valentines. [Read more…]
Jamie White, director of the Texas Seaport Museum, helps
bring history to life with the 1877 tall ship Elissa. He is a master rigger and spent time
aboard the Elissa in the late 1980s overhauling the ship’s rigging and prepping it for sea. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds
Some think it’s a miracle the tall ship Elissa, commissioned at a time when steamships outperformed sailing vessels for transporting cargo, was ever built. Steamships needed less crew than sailing ships, making vessels like the Elissa less efficient for carrying trade in the late 1800s.