From Skate Haven to the Studio: Corky Hughes’ Life in Music
For more than half a century, Corky Hughes has been the guitarist other guitarists go hear. Ask around the Mobile music scene and the reviews are unanimous — but the…
Three Voices, 400 Miles Apart: The Krickets Keep the Harmony Alive
The word “stunning” comes up a lot when people talk about The Krickets, and it does not take long to understand why. Even apart from the songs themselves, the blend…
Mardi Gras Floats to Fine Art: Mobile Painter Gary Brady Brings a Monochrome Series to Sophiella Gallery
Gary Brady didn’t pick up a paintbrush until his twenties. Today the Mobile native’s work hangs in one of downtown’s most visible galleries, and his path from athlete to classical-trained…
The Storybook Castles of Fairhope: Three Generations of Artists Building a Fairy Tale
On a wooded side street a short walk from downtown Fairhope stands a house that stops first-time visitors in their tracks: a stone castle with towers, a moat, a drawbridge…
Ameri’ca Tickle’s Fairhope: Public Art, Welded Steel and a Childhood on Mobile Bay
The name on the door is unusual; the family history behind it is not unusual at all — for coastal Alabama. Ameri’ca Tickle is a fifth-generation member of the Allegri…
Picker’s Paradise: The Stapleton Guitar Shop That Doubles as Baldwin County’s Bluegrass Living Room
In the middle of Baldwin County, in an odd-shaped wooden building along Highway 31 in Stapleton, sits one of the coast’s most specialized small businesses — and one of its…
Fairhope’s First Friday Art Walk Scene Meets Its Newest Painter: Abi Waller
On the first Friday evening of every month, downtown Fairhope turns into a block party with an artistic bent. Galleries open their doors, bands play on the sidewalks, and families…
Mobile Artist Ashley Terrell Trades Soft Edges for Geometry in a Bold New Chapter
Walk into the homes of many coastal Alabama art collectors and you have probably already seen the earlier Ashley Terrell: ethereal landscapes and abstracts in muted colors, painted with big…
Fairhope Abstract Painter Frances McGowin Turns Retirement Into a Second Act on Canvas
Fairhope has long been a town that draws creative people to its sidewalks and storefronts, and few of its newer artists have arrived at the easel by a less conventional…
Mahjong Is Tiling Its Way Across the Gulf Coast, One Tile at a Time
The tiles clink. The table fills. Someone shouts “Mahjong!” and four players dissolve into laughter and disbelief. Around the Gulf Coast, this scene is repeating itself at a remarkable pace…