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Mystery and history

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A Mardi Gras mask made from peacock feathers was the first mask Mary Branum purchased from a shop on Royal Street in New Orleans. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Locals collect Mardi Gras masks for their beauty and intrigue

It is as if a cage sprang open and the subsequently freed birds found perches on the walls inside Mary and Lee Branum’s historic island home in the 3400 block of Avenue L.

Granted, they represent fowl never before seen, each unique in the true sense of the word, birds disguised as Mardi Gras masks. [Read more…]

Grand design

By on Filed Under: Features, Frontpage 1 Comment

The Grand 1894 Opera House’s stage is one of the largest in Texas and features rounded walls for enhanced acoustics. The painted stage curtain depicts the poet Sappho daydreaming in a boat while nymphs on the shore called her to prepare for a performance in the theater across the lagoon. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

How islanders rallied to revive a faded theater

As actress Marie Wainwright took her bows on the evening of Jan. 3, 1895, before exiting the stage of Galveston’s Grand Opera House, a writer for The Daily News hustled around the corner to the paper’s offices to type up his review of the theater’s inaugural performance. [Read more…]

Raising the dead

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Bob and Allison Brown, both members of The Barquentones, work aboard the tall ship Elissa at Pier 21 in Galveston. The group is known for their sea chanteys and maritime folk songs. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Island band preserves the memories of a long-gone seafaring era

Deep in the aft hold of the majestic sailing ship Elissa lies an exhibit devoted to a musical relic of a time when vessels truly sailed the seven seas, their sails luffing in vagaries of the breeze. [Read more…]

‘A sacred space’

By on Filed Under: Art 5 Comments

Island artists take glass to a spiritual level

Lynn Nielsen and Barbara Parker are drawn to estate sales, always with an eye out for glass vases.

Nielsen and Parker subsequently smash the vases, some heirlooms, to smithereens — all in the name of art, mind you. [Read more…]

Born on the Island

By on Filed Under: Food & Drink 6 Comments

How a man bottled his love for salsa and his hometown

John Collins wears his Galveston-born pride not on his sleeve, but on his right-hand pinky in the form of a bronze ring with block letters avowing he was BOI, local code for Born on the Island.

And he runs a photography studio called BOI Images.

So, it’s no surprise that the logo branding another of his endeavors, J.C.’s Salsa, proudly notes that it, too, was born on the island. [Read more…]

American graffiti

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Graffiti artist Gabriel Prusmack works on a mural titled “Sunrise to Sunset on the Dike” at the Texas City Dike. It is one of several of his spray paint murals around Galveston County. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Once a rebel tagger, artist finds success in painting murals

Gabriel Prusmack exults in his faith, professing a belief in God that he credits for transforming him from a repentant tagger to a gifted artist. [Read more…]

Joint venture

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Twin brothers Andrew and Chris Orton, 14, have begun to craft heir own custom fishing rods. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Island twins embrace the Gulf and build custom rods

On a recent weekend, bruising waves, bullied by a hard, northerly wind, pummeled the length of the Galveston Fishing Pier, which juts out 1,100 feet from the seawall into the surf at 90th Street. [Read more…]

Taking the bait

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Brenda Nelson scoops up 2 pounds of bait shrimp for a customer at Smitty’s Bait House in Galveston. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

From live to fresh dead, these shops supply the serious and casual angler

Bait camps, freshwater and saltwater alike, sprang up during the Great Depression, when money was hard to come by but fish were not. [Read more…]

Soul brothers

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Tom Vaughn, left, and business partner Billy Ray Wagner are the duo behind the SaltWater Soul brand. The Galveston-based apparel company celebrates the Gulf Coast culture. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

How two islanders captured the Gulf culture with a logo

When Billy Ray Wagner showed up at his soon-to-be business partner’s door 10 years ago, all he brought with him was a concept that embraced his love for the Gulf and the culture that lies just beyond its surface. [Read more…]