Mobile Bay Magazine - September 2019

Mobile Bay THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES

SUSIE BOWMAN LEAPS INTO LIFE AS A STUDIO ARTIST

CONRAD ALBRIZIO SAVING HIS MOSAICS FROM DESTRUCTION

September 2019

PINKY BASS

CELEBRATING A LIFETIME OF THE AVANT-GARDE

OUTSIDE THE LINES SQUID INK

THE ARTS ISSUE with Mobile’s own Sarah Otts at her new gallery pg. 33

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PANINI PETE’S NOD TO MOBILE’S HISTORIC FOOD CULTURE

ELIZABETH SMART

BRINGS HER EMPOWERING MESSAGE TO MOBILE

40 UNDER 40

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 10 YEARS OF WINNERS

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CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXV / ISSUE 9

SEPTEMBER 2019

MOBILE MUSICIAN SYMONE FRENCH AT DAPHNE’S LA-LA LAND BOUTIQUE. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

36

Delightfully Unexpected One of Fairhope’s most eclectic residents looks back on a life of artistic and personal discovery

40

Create Community At a church in Midtown, an unexpected community of artists has found the perfect space to grow, encourage and create

48

On the Rise These five musical acts are all on the verge of something new, and a growing Mobile music scene is more than ready for it

 Don’t miss our “On the Rise” concert at The Steeple on September 5, from 7 - 10 p.m., featuring the five musical acts profiled on page 48.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door or by clicking the Events tab at facebook.com/MobileBayMagazine.

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 5

CONTENTS | VOLUME XXXV / ISSUE 9

SEPTEMBER 2019 20

22

ON OUR COVER Sarah Otts, artist and author, pauses to enjoy her new gallery space in the heart of Spring Hill.

80

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

9 EDITOR’S NOTE FAIRHOPE POTTER SUSIE BOWMAN / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU SEAFOOD PASTA AT SQUID INK / PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU DETAIL OF A MOSAIC BY CONRAD ALBRIZIO / PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

10 REACTION 12 ODDS & ENDS 14 ARCHIVES Breaking down a work from the collection of the History Museum of Mobile

22 BAY TABLES A potter’s potluck dinner, with Susie Bowman

16 MIXOLOGY Take a step back in time 28 SPOTLIGHT Elizabeth Smart to visit with this pre-Prohibition the Port City for the Focus raspberry gin cocktail Women’s Conference 19 THE DISH 33 SPOTLIGHT Artist Sarah Otts on 20 TASTINGS Welcome to Squid Ink, her children’s book, “To Be A Line” LoDa’s new gastropub

70 SEPTEMBER CALENDAR 74 BAY LIFE Where are they now?

Catch up on the where- abouts of eight former 40 Under 40 winners.

78 LITERATURE Local writer Audrey McDonald has an arbor and wants you to know she flat loves it

80 THE ARTS Can we save the Civic Center mosaics from demolition?

84 ASK MCGEHEE The history of Mobile’s cannon 86 IN LIVING COLOR Mobilian and baseball legend Satchel Paige comes to life

 While taking part in military exercises with the French army in Sicily, Henri de Tonti, a 17th-century explorer buried near Mobile, is said to have lost his hand in a grenade explosion. Learn more about de Tonti and his iron hand in “Analyzing Art,” page 14.

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september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 7

Mobile Bay VOLUME XXXV

No9

SEPT 2019

PUBLISHER T. J. Potts Stephen Potts Judy Culbreth

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Maggie Lacey MANAGING EDITOR/WEB Abby Parrott

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amanda Hartin PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Virginia Mathers

ART DIRECTOR Laurie Kilpatrick

EDITORIAL INTERNS Noah Harrelson Emma Newell

ASSISTANT PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

ADVERTISING S R. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Joseph A. Hyland Anna Pavao ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jennifer Ray

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

ADMINISTRATION CIRCULATION Anita Miller ACCOUNTING Keith Crabtree

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Audrey McDonald Atkins, Eleanor Inge Baker, Mallory Boykin, Frank Daugherty, Catherine Dorrough, Meg McCrummen Fowler, Joshua Givens, Tom McGehee, Breck Pappas CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Carl Calderone, Justin Cordova, Matthew Coughlin, Devin Ford, Elizabeth Gelineau, Chad Riley ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES

3729 Cottage Hill Road, Suite H Mobile, AL 36609-6500 251-473-6269 Subscription inquiries and all remittances should be sent to: Mobile Bay P.O. Box 43 Congers, NY 10920-9922 1-833-454-5060 MOVING? Please note: U.S. Postal Service will not forward magazines mailed through their bulk mail unit.

Please send old label along with your new address four to six weeks prior to moving.

Mobile Bay is published 12 times per year for the Gulf Coast area. All contents © 2019 by PMT Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the contents without written permission is prohibited. Comments written in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ownership or the management of Mobile Bay. This magazine accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. All submissions will be edited for length, clarity and style.

PUBLISHED BY PMT PUBLISHING INC .

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EXTRAS | EDITOR’S NOTE LOCAL CLAY I LOVE THE NEW FRUIT AND NUT SERIES

BY POTTER SUSIE BOWMAN, ESPECIALLY THIS BLUEBERRY POT. IT’S PERFECT FOR STASHING TINY TREASURES. SUSIEBOWMANPOTTERY.COM

Peer pressure

P

eer critiques are rough. Especially for artists, where you are literally putting your heart and soul and sweat and tears out for the world to see. And occasionally, to rip to pieces.

I vividly remember my first peer critique. I was a freshman in college studying art history and minoring in studio art. My oil painting professor gave his students a 14” x 18” canvas board and told us to create a painting of our choice to bring the first day of class. We sat in a circle, nervously clutching our works, and held a formal critique. Terrifying, right?

Although everyone was kind to their fellow classmates, even constructive criticism can hurt. The most talented artist in the bunch was put on the spot to dissect my painting, and I remember her using, among other things, the phrase “paint by number.” Ouch. Unless you are running a vintage store, those are not words you want to hear. But I moved on and worked hard and because of the tips and positive feedback I received on a daily basis from my peers, my work improved. Very few of us work or create in a bubble, and sometimes it takes the fresh eye of a fellow artist to move a work forward or take it to the next level.

Our staff was blown away by the positive peer environment being built at the Central Arts Collective in midtown Mobile. Central Presbyterian Church opened its doors and rented its rooms to more than 18 local artists, all of whom have together built a community of supportive peers. Many of them work alone on a daily basis, but when it’s time to step back and get the big picture, take a fresh look and dig deeper, the other artists are there for feedback and encouragement.

Although the styles and methods vary greatly from studio to studio, the support these artists give to one another is a true gift.

And all their art is the better for it.

LOVE THIS ISSUE WALK THE LINE AT FIRST GLANCE, A LINE IS PLAIN AND SIMPLE, BUT JUST WATCH ALL THE WONDERFUL THINGS IT CAN BECOME! I LOVED READING SARAH OTTS’S INSPIRING NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK TO MY GIRLS — THEY TOTALLY GOT IT. “TO BE A LINE” BY SARAH OTTS • $30

NEXT ON MY LIST I’M SAVING UP FOR ONE OF THE BOLD OIL PASTELS BY AUSTRIANTURNED-MOBILIAN BARBARA KUEBEL. “THE HEAVY HUG” BY BARBARA KUEBEL • SOPHIELLA GALLERY

TURNED ON I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THIS QUIRKY HANDMADE LAMP, SEEN PEEKING OUT FROM ONE OF OUR FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHS. PUNK ROCK BUST LAMP • LA-LA LAND BOUTIQUE

ATTENTION HOG MUSICIAN MELODY DUNCAN AND HER PET HEDGEHOG, ALBERT EINSTEIN. THE SPINY MAMMAL TRAVELS TO MOST OF DUNCAN’S SHOWS. PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

Maggie Lacey EXECUTIVE EDITOR

maggie@pmtpublishing.com

ON THE RISE: A CONCERT OF MUSICIANS TO WATCH ONE NIGHT ONLY! WE’RE CELEBRATING THE LAUNCH OF OUR SEPTEMBER ARTS ISSUE WITH AN UNFORGETTABLE CONCERT FEATURING BUDDING BAY-AREA MUSICIANS. DON’T MISS PERFORMANCES FROM SYMONE FRENCH, LAURIE ANNE ARMOUR, MELODY DUNCAN, WENDELL KIMBROUGH AND YEAH, PROBABLY. THE NIGHT WILL CLOSE WITH A SET FROM THE MARLOW BOYS! THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019 • 7 PM - 10 PM TICKETS $20 ON EVENTBRITE.COM OR AT THE DOOR

SIT BACK AND RELAX JEFF BUTLER FROM LA-LA LAND BOUTIQUE, WHERE WE PHOTOGRAPHED THE MUSICIANS TO WATCH, SOURCES MIDCENTURY GEMS FOR CLIENTS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. I’M HOPING HE’LL FIND A VINTAGE PAIR OF WIRE ARMCHAIRS FOR A SONG. PLATNER ARMCHAIR BY KNOLL

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 9

EXTRAS | REACTION

Tell us how you really feel ...

DOGGONE CUTE

DAY TRIPPIN’

On July’s cover, featuring dogs Hamp and Banks’ life on Dog River

On July’s feature of a day spent in Pensacola

Looking dapper pups!

This is great! So glad you included End of the Line Cafe. It’s my favorite.

- Sydney Rumsey Atchison

- Susan Baldwin Kumar

Best cover yet.

What a glorious article. Thank you SO much for showcasing our gorgeous slice of heaven.

- Kristin Hardin So stinking adorable.

- Debby Cullum

HAMP & BANKS PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GELINEAU

- SOGO District Pensacola

WHAT ‘ANN’ HONOR A GARDEN OF MEMORIES

On July’s “Amazing Life,” featuring politician and philanthropist Ann Bedsole

On July’s “Spotlight” of Bill Barrick’s tenure at Bellingrath Gardens and Home Bill Barrick is the consummate professional, and he and Jessica are leaving an incredible legacy. The Bellingraths are smiling. Best wishes, my friend.

INSPIRED TO READ

- Bill Tunnell

On July’s “Spotlight” of Mobile native Michael Knight’s book, “At Briarwood School for Girls”

FEELING PERKY

My book club is reading this for September.

On July’s “Tastings,” featuring Nova Espresso

- Margaret Bramlett

Sweetest people, awesome location and great coffee.

I bought the book after reading your article.

- Meg McCrummen Fowler

- Ryann Lee Check out the best coffee shop in downtown Mobile.

SIZZLED AND SERVED

- Lisa Morgan Roseberry

On July’s bite-sized piece about unexpected grilling ideas

I love neighborhood businesses, and this neighborhood is so charming.

- Tim Burt

My favorite [is grilled romaine] with anchovy dressing!

- Lucy Wright

Such a beautiful tribute to the amazing Ann Bedsole. Her inspiring story and lasting legacy reverberates throughout our community. Heartfelt gratitude to her and her family for all they do to make Mobile Bay a truly lovely place to live and raise a family.

- Rebecca Byrne

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES On July’s “In Living Color,” a 1920 colorized photo of Star Fish and Oyster Company This was my grandfather’s family company. Thanks, Papa, Arthur S. Gonzales Sr., for all those years of hard work and dedication.

- Jay and Lillie Torrans I used to purchase from Star Fish and Oyster Company for restaurants I was working in.

- Gabriele Landau

 Want to share your thoughts and reactions? Email maggie@pmtpublishing.com.

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[MORE ONLINE]

Find additional local stories on mobilebaymag.com.

Here’s what’s new on the website!

40/40 Nominations Open We are accepting nominations for the 2019 class of 40 Under 40! Go online to submit a nomination. All entries are due by Sept. 18.

Ticket to Rise Tickets for “On the Rise,” our upcoming concert at The Steeple on Sept. 5, are still on sale on Eventbrite. Get yours today!

Welcome, Caitlyn!

Meet our new online columnist, designer Caitlyn Waite! Each month, Caitlyn will share tips and advice for bringing fresh design to your space.

Soundtrack of Mobile Sing along while you read!

Follow us on Spotify (search “mobilebaymag”), and enjoy our playlist filled with tunes from our favorite local musicians.

Join Our Email List Finally, an email you actually want.

Get the latest in fashion, food, art, homes, history and events delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for our email list at mobilebaymag.com.

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 11

EXTRAS | ODDS & ENDS

An Autumn Palette text by MB EDITORIAL STAFF

82 YEARS

OF POLAROID

This month in 1937, physician Edwin Herbert Land founded the Polaroid Corporation to be a pioneer of polarizer technology. In 1944, Land conceived of the idea for the instant camera when asked by his 3-year-old daughter why she couldn’t see the picture he had just taken of her.

Beatles album

ABBEY ROAD

was released in the U.K. 50 years ago this month

[ SEPTEMBER 23 ]

AUTUMN EQUINOX The official arrival of fall will take place in Mobile at 2:50 a.m.

ECOR ROUGE

The Eastern Shore’s red clay bluff is the highest coastal point between Maine and Mexico. Local potters reap the benefits of living in one of the largest clay deposits in the Southeast region.

4th Friday of September

NATIVE AMERICAN DAY 12 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

50 years ago this month

1969 Chemical Bank installed the first United States ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York.

[ NOTABLE OPENINGS ]

MAPLE STREET BISCUIT COMPANY is finally opening in the Rester Brothers Garage on Old Shell Road

“It’s different from home, where we barely have any autumn at all, where the leaves all give up the ghost on account of the never-ending heat... ” Writer EUGENE WALTER, comparing the weather in Chicago with that of Mobile

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HISTORY | ARCHIVES

Tonti of the Iron Hand The story of how a prized portrait finally and fittingly made it to Mobile is as fascinating as the subject himself. text by MEG MCCRUMMEN FOWLER

O

f the 117,000 objects in the History Museum of Mobile’s collection, the most prized portrait depicts French explorer Henri de Tonti (about 1650 – 1704) and his iron hand.

Italian born, de Tonti spent his career in service to the French crown and was instrumental in the success of better-known explorers like La Salle, d’Iberville and Bienville, who sought and established settle-

ments along the Gulf Coast. Working from Mobile to Canada, de Tonti built ships, constructed forts, negotiated with Native Americans and survived gruesome injuries.

Falling victim to Mobile’s first yellow fever epidemic, de Tonti died in 1704 and was buried at Old Mobile. Even into the 20th century, de Tonti remained popular enough to star in romance novels.

The fame of the artist who created the portrait might surpass even that of his sub-

HOW IT CAME TO MOBILE A dive deep into the archives of the History Museum of Mobile uncovers the unlikely story of the 44 years and over 175 people it took to bring the portrait to Mobile.

For centuries, “Tonti of the Iron Hand” was unknown, tucked away in the private collection of the English Maryon-Daulby family.

Fate intervened in 1930, when native Mobilian and art appraiser Herndon Smith befriended the owner in New York City, learned of the portrait and arranged for it to be exhibited at the Mobile Public Library in 1931. Efforts to purchase the portrait for the city were short-lived in Depression-era Mobile, but the owner, Edward Maryon-Daulby, wrote again in 1945 to offer the painting to the city for the second time.

Having lost some of his fortune in World War II, Maryon-Daulby appealed to Mobilians’ civic pride, writing in a rather zealous letter that “if there is one spot on Earth where, above all others, this portrait belongs, it is where Chevalier de Tonty (sic) made his last stand, created the foundations of your city, died, and was buried there!” A second attempt to muster $20,000 to buy the portrait in 1947 was again unsuccessful, which the eccentric Englishman took as a personal insult. The following year, he sold the portrait at auction in New York City.

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ject: The portrait is attributed to Dutch painter Nicolaes Maes, who was Rembrandt’s star pupil and, upon Rembrandt’s death, the most celebrated portraitist in late 17th-century Amsterdam. Portraiture, at this point in time, was less about representing a subject’s physical likeness and more about conveying an ideal self. Subjects were encouraged to picture themselves as they wanted to be seen and then to model their behavior to match the image.

Unbeknownst to anyone in Mobile, however, the new owner’s will granted the City of Mobile first right of refusal to the portrait. In January 1974, the portrait of Henri de Tonti travelled once again to Mobile, and the Museum of the City of Mobile (as the History Museum was then called) launched a public subscription to raise the $10,000 then being asked for the oil painting. This time, Mobile rallied to the cause. Donations poured in over the next six months from almost 200 citizens — five dollars, 10 dollars, 25 dollars at a time — until the full sum was reached. Today, the portrait is on permanent display at the History Museum of Mobile, living a couple dozen miles from the place de Tonti died.

Meg McCrummen Fowler is director of the History Museum of Mobile. She earned her M.A. in History of Art at Tulane University, where she is currently completing a Ph.D. in Art History & Society.

DUTCH PAINTER NICOLAES MAES PORTRAYS HENRI DE TONTI

POSTURE De Tonti’s posture is meant to communicate both the worldliness and restraint prized by his peers.

Like Rembrandt, Maes paints his subject with a cool correctness, appropriately distant, but also with a direct gaze that engages the viewer.

FASHION Although previously thought to signify an order of chivalry, these shoulder ribbons, new research suggests, were a fashion statement, popularized for a few decades by aristocratic men at Louis XIV’s Versailles.

GESTURES Certain gestures were considered refined, conforming to a code of civility and connoting education and wealth. Dutch painters consulted manuals of elegant gestures, which recommended that spread fingers would signal good breeding.

PHYSICAL IMPERFECTIONS It’s curious that de Tonti gestures towards the missing hand, but then that iron hand is marginalized and hidden in shadow. Dutch painters and their subjects frequently obscured any deformity or physical imperfection, believing they detracted from the ideal image of self. In this case, though, the missing appendage is important in recognizing “Tonti of the Iron Hand,” so we are seeing a tension between identifying and downplaying the prosthetic hand.

TEXTURE Patterns of tiny cracks, called craquelure, are normal in an oil painting of this age, and tracing the web of fine lines can help determine if parts have been overpainted. There is no craquelure in the left background of the painting, including the stone wall, which suggests it was touched up in a restoration.

SYMBOLISM Depending on the date of the painting, the ships in the background are either a generic reference to his career in the French navy or a nod to his shipbuilding on the Great Lakes.

STATURE Like fellow Dutch artist Anthony Van Dyck, Maes paints his subject sharply from below to enhance de Tonti’s stature.

REVERSE IMAGE? Most sources say de Tonti lost his right hand on a campaign in Sicily in the 1660s. If that’s true, the portrait’s missing left hand might be explained by the use of a camera obscura (a pinhole camera). We know optical experiments were popular among 17thcentury Dutch artists, and if Maes was working from a sketch of de Tonti, the pinhole camera would reverse the image. *

*Thanks to Dr. Rebecca Williams, owner of Iron Hand Brewing, for this insight.

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FOOD | MIXOLOGY

Flip Out This pre-Prohibition cocktail was created at the eponymous Philadelphia men’s club, Clover Club, and soon made its way to the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Chic bars all across America soon added it to their offerings. The ingredients are simple, but the egg white feels unexpected and a little daring in today’s world.

While the egg does not affect the flavor, it gives the cocktail a smooth consistency and a fun, foamy head.

photo by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

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Clover Club Cocktail 1 ounce gin 1/2 ounce dry vermouth 1/2 ounce simple syrup 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice 2 dashes raspberry syrup* or grenadine 1 small egg white

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for several minutes until the egg white gets frothy. Add ice and shake again to chill. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and serve. *Raspberry syrup can be made by simmering 2 parts fresh raspberries with 1 part water and 1 part sugar for 5 minutes.

Strain to remove solids. (You can also substitute 1 teaspoon of raspberry preserves.)

We recommend using the freshest local eggs available for a truly great drink. If a raw egg makes you nervous, you can buy pasteurized egg whites at the grocery store.

However, the whites will not froth as well as fresh eggs.

Don’t have vermouth on the bar? Leave it out and double the gin.

DOWNLOAD MIXEL LOOKING TO GET CREATIVE? If you want to branch out from the usual gin and tonic but don’t know how to do it, the Mixel app will point you in the right direction. With an index of over 600 ingredients and 1,700 recipes, Mixel will show you cocktails you can make with ingredients you already have on hand.

Created by Brewton natives Mitchell McMillan, brother Malcolm McMillan and Roy Brown, the app is set to go global.

The Mixel app can be downloaded on Google Play and the Apple App store.

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 17

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FOOD | THE DISH

Bite of the Bay MB’s contributing food fanatics share the local dishes that made them hungry for more.

MARY RISER, Festival Director, Fairhope Film Festival

REGAL RED CURRY AT TEAK HOUSE “It was difficult for me to choose from Teak House’s selection of pad thai, noodle soup, Siam soft-shell crab and other delicacies, but I ordered their regal red curry — my favorite. I went with the traditional: tofu, eggplant, bamboo shoots, bell pepper and basil, and I was not disappointed. I like it ‘hot,’ and it was exactly that.”

TEAK HOUSE • 1703 U.S. HWY 98 EAST, DAPHNE • 625-8680 • TEAKHOUSETHAI.COM

FRENCH TOAST BATONS AT RUBY SLIPPER CAFE

NICHELLE RODGERS, Marketing Specialist, USA Health

FRENCH TOAST BATONS AT RUBY SLIPPER CAFE “Ruby Slipper Cafe has just found their most loyal customer. I visited the restaurant one Sunday morning for brunch and decided to try the French toast batons. Man was I in for a treat! They were delightfully crunchy, yet irresistibly soft in all the right places. Covered in cinnamon-sugar goodness, I caught myself craving another order the next morning. They were that good!”

THE RUBY SLIPPER CAFE • 100 N ROYAL ST. 355-0448 • THERUBYSLIPPERCAFE.NET

ROBERT BROWN, VP, Pitman Brown Building Company

RACK OF LAMB AND RISOTTO AT THE ALLEY BISTRO “This month, I chose a new restaurant in downtown Fairhope, The Alley Bistro, which is run by the owners of another downtown restaurant, Locals. The food was fantastic! I went with the New Zealand rack of lamb. The temperature and flavor were superb. Coupled with the mashed cauliflower and risotto, the meal gets a big thumbs-up. Fairhope is lucky to have another great restaurant.”

J.C. BARKER, General Manager, Mobile Symphony

SCALLOPS AT SOUTHERN NATIONAL “I chose two small plates at Southern National: the seared scallops and the arugula and beet salad. I was leery of the scallop combination, served with carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, cranberries and turnips, but, as usual, Chef Duane Nutter knew what he was doing. The salad was also an unusual mix of pickled fennel, pecans, goat cheese and tarragon. I’ve resolved to never doubt any ‘strange’ combination that might raise my sometimes provincial eyebrow.”

THE ALLEY BISTRO • 312 FAIRHOPE AVE.,

SOUTHERN NATIONAL • 360 DAUPHIN ST.

FAIRHOPE • 517-7225 • THEALLEYBISTRO.COM

308-2387 • SOUTHERNATIONAL.COM

 What dishes made you drool and left you hungry for more? Share them on our Facebook page! september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 19

FOOD | TASTINGS

Squid Ink text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

THE IMPOSSIBLE BURGER

I

t shouldn’t be difficult for Mobilians to make the connection between such disparate dishes as a burger with brie and shallots, paella balls with romesco and deep-fried Scottish eggs. The entire menu at Panini Pete’s newest restaurant, Squid Ink, takes its inspiration from the cuisines of our founding nations: France, Spain and England. It’s a veritable menu “under five flags,” with a strong dose of salty seafarer thrown in for good measure.

Pete Blohm, best known as the mugging chef who visits overseas troops with the Mess Lords, rubs elbows with Food Network’s Guy Fieri and makes a mean batch of beignets, recently opened a new lunch and dinner spot with a top-notch bar on Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile. Together with partner Nick Dimario, Blohm created a menu that is varied and inspired, if not a little all over the place, that guarantees to have something for everyone in your party.

They’ve got comfort food, a good dose of hearty and healthy options and even things to tempt the most adventurous foodie.

“We put real food in our food,” says Blohm, “and real drink in our drink. That’s it.”

The cocktails are bang-up, so expect a strong after-work crowd looking for snacks and small plates that satisfy. The vibe is a little more rock ‘n’ roll than Blohm’s other addresses, with plenty of nods to the tattoo cultures of yesterday’s sailors and today’s cool kids.

Blohm had fun with the decor, plastering quotes from famous Mobilians over the unisex bathrooms and enlisting local artist Hannah Legg to craft a mural of a giant squid practically engulfing patrons as they enter the front door.

The hubcaps adorning the main wall come from several decades’ worth of Cadillacs — an homage to explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac — and the image of a tall ship being consumed by a creature of the deep was charred into wood by Patrick Parker of Alabama Burning. Interesting fact: Blohm had Parker use a drawing of the Clotilde as inspiration for the work. Around the top of the brick walls are the logos of every restaurant that has come before them, painted by local sign painter Andy Scott. “102 Dauphin Street has been a restaurant for more than 100 years,” Blohm says. Looks like Squid Ink is in good company. MB

 Squid Ink Eclectic Eats and Drinks • 102 Dauphin St. • 405-0031 • squidinkeats.com 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 2 a.m. Friday – Saturday (kitchen closes at midnight) 20 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

[ ON THE MENU ]

CALAMARI A LA PLANCHA Known in the kitchen as SOS (squid on a shingle), this delicious dish is not for the unadventurous. Grilled calamari, garlic, chili flake, lemon, parsley, butter and toasted breadcrumbs are piled over charred toast.

SEAFOOD PASTA

AVOCADO TOAST

CADILLAC BURGER

Spanish influences shine in this dish (pictured on page 6), where Gulf shrimp, calamari, mussels, white wine, fresh tomato, garlic, basil and more are swirled with delicate fettuccine and served with grilled bread.

A rustic, grilled multigrain bread is topped with crushed avocado, a squeeze of lime, cilantro, crumbled Cotija cheese, sliced radish and a punch of chili lime seasoning. It’s healthy and fresh with an edge.

Vive la France oozes with torched brie, Squid Ink’s signature burger sauce, addictive shallot bacon jam and all the traditional fixings on a toasted potato bun. This burger is true royalty and is served with shoestring fries on the side.

AVOCADO TOAST

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 21

FOOD | BAY TABLES

Designed to Nourish A potluck gathering is just what the potter ordered. text by MAGGIE LACEY • photos by ELIZABETH GELINEAU

T

here is something elemental about working with clay. A mass of earth is formed with wet hands, turning over and over, around and around, until it is molded and shaped into a thing that will hold water, serve food and nourish life. The artists who work in this medium share ideas, camaraderie and many a meal around their fired pieces of clay in a way that no other medium seems able to capture.

It is a true family of creators.

At least this is the way Fairhope artist Susie Bowman describes the experience she has had in the world of pottery over the past 20 years. And as the now-former owner of The Kiln Studio in downtown Fairhope, she has certainly seen her fair share of clay come and go. The small gallery has a dozen wheels and three kilns, where local artists can create, together or alone, depending on their preference, and sell the finished pieces in the gallery. Bowman has acted as mentor, counselor, assistant and friend to any number of artists who have come through the doors of The Kiln over the years. She has brought countless national artists to town for workshops, always putting them up at her home where the group shares meals and exchanges ideas, supporting one other’s efforts and practices.

She has led group trips to Japan to study the iconic blue and white porcelain, an experience she describes as “mind blowing.” And she has collected pottery — lots and lots of pottery. All the while, her own studio work has been pushed to the side with the hectic schedule of running a successful business. Until now.

Bowman recently sold The Kiln Studio to local pottery professor Megan Gulland Shifflet and her husband James to pursue life as a full-time studio artist. “I’m ready to hone my skill,” she explains as she unpacks work from a recent artist-in-residence program at the University of Montana at Missoula.

Small acorn-shaped containers, satsuma salt and

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pepper shakers, and blueberry serving plates are all perfectly formed and ready for firing as part of her Fruit and Nut series.

During her five-week stay in Montana, Bowman says she hiked the mountains, floated the river and worked with clay. “I don’t know another field that does it like ceramics, giving you an opportunity to build your work away from a job.” During her residency, her rooming, studio space and all the necessary supplies were taken care of. “You just go and make stuff, build your body of work.”

The day after she returned to Fairhope, Bowman’s studio family gathered around, ready to hear stories of the summer and to share a meal. Everyone contributed a dish that was served family-style on plates, platters and bowls thrown by potters they all known by name — national artists, regional potters and even some of those gathered. The laughs come easy, the words are encouraging and the camaraderie is authentic and natural. Natural like the clay for which they share a passion. MB

MA’AMOUL DATE COOKIES MAKES 24 Recipe by Ruth Finamore 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour 1/2 cup semolina flour 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons whole milk 1 pound Medjool dates confectioner’s sugar

1. In a large bowl, mix melted butter, oil, sugar, nutmeg, salt and flours, using a spoon or your fingers. Add lemon juice and milk, one tablespoon at a time. Do not overwork the dough.

Cover with a cloth and let rest 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, boil 1/4 cup of water and place in a small bowl with dates to soften. Drain water and mash the dates to a paste with a fork. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Wet your hands with cold water and roll dates into balls, 1 to 2 teaspoons at a time. Set aside.

3. Form the dough into rounds the size of ping-pong balls. Cupping the dough balls in your hand, make a thumb print bowl and place the date ball inside. Then close the “dough bowl” so date filling is secure.

Optional: Use a stamp to make imprint on cookies.

4. Place 1/4 inch apart on parchment covered baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Do not overbake.

Powder with confectioner’s sugar when cooled completely.

“WHEN YOU EAT AND DRINK OUT OF A PIECE

OF POTTERY, THERE IS A REAL CONNECTION TO THE PERSON WHO MADE IT, AND I LOVE THAT.”

– Susie Bowman

TOP LEFT Megan Gulland Shifflet, left, pottery professor at both Spring Hill College and University of South Alabama, recently purchased The Kiln from potter Susie Bowman.

FAR LEFT Gail Moore grabs a handmade pottery plate from the potluck buffet.

LEFT Potter Ruthie Finamore and James Shifflet, the new co-owner of The Kiln, enjoy the camaraderie of working in a pottery studio.

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CRAWFISH DIP SERVES 10

Fairhope potter Deborah Pennington serves this flavorful dip with Fritos.

She also made the bowl and plate on which the snack is served.

1 pound mild or hot Jimmy Dean sausage 1 large bell pepper, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped olive oil 1 can mushroom soup 1 16-ounce package Velveeta Mexican cheese, cubed 1/4 teaspoon chili powder 1/4 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Seasoning, or to taste 1 pound cooked crawfish tails, fresh or frozen

1. Brown and drain the sausage. In a separate pan, saute chopped vegetables (use a small amount of olive oil if necessary), then add mushroom soup. Add cheese, seasonings, crawfish and sausage.

2. Cook on low until mixture is blended, stirring occasionally. Add more seasonings if desired, and keep warm. Serve alongside your favorite chips or crackers.

BLACK BEAN CORN DIP SERVES 10

The Kiln’s new owner, Megan Gulland Shifflet, calls this her “crack dip” and makes it for her students on the last day of class. It is served here in a bowl made by Susie Bowman.

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 medium onion, finely chopped 1 can black beans, rinsed 1 can corn, drained 1 4-ounce container crumbled feta cheese

1. Whisk olive oil, vinegar and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Add remaining ingredients, stir and refrigerate. Dip is best when made the night before. Serve with scoop tortilla chips or use as a topping on tacos and salads.

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CITRUS APPLE SALAD SERVES 8

Recipe by local potter Donna Kemp. The brightness of the salad dressing makes it fabulous on just about anything.

CITRUS DRESSING 6 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus the zest of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons orange juice, plus the zest of 1 orange 1 1/2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt black pepper, to taste

1. Add all ingredients together in a jar or blender. Shake until well combined, or blend for about 10 seconds. Taste and add pepper as needed.

Set aside.

APPLE SALAD 2 large red apples (honey crisp or pink lady) 1 bag pre-washed baby spinach 1 large orange, peeled and segments removed (or 1 can mandarin oranges) 2 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded 1/3 cup chopped pecans 1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries

1. Spiralize all of the apples.

Place spinach in a large bowl or separate into smaller bowls based on how you will serve.

2. Top spinach with apples, orange segments, cheese, pecans and dried cranberries.

Add dressing just before serving.

FRESH FISH WITH ARUGULA AND LENTILS SERVES 6

Recipe by Susie Bowman 1 cup lentils 1/2 onion 1/2 bell pepper 1 carrot 1/4 cup coconut oil, divided fresh herbs (Susie likes basil, rosemary, thyme and mint, but any will do) 1/2 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon curry 1 teaspoon coriander 3/4 teaspoon salt pepper, to taste 2 pounds fresh fish (Susie prefers either salmon or snapper) 1 lemon, sliced 3 cups arugula

1. Boil lentils in 3 cups of water until tender, usually around 20 minutes.

2. While cooking lentils, dice onion, pepper and carrot. Saute in 1 tablespoon coconut oil, until slightly soft and starting to brown. Mince herbs and set aside.

3. When lentils are done, add sauteed vegetables, olive oil, curry, coriander, salt and pepper and stir. Turn off stove.

4. Meanwhile, melt remaining coconut oil in frying pan on medium and add fish with lemon slices on top. Cover and cook until it is the way you like it, depending on fish type.

5. On a platter, make a bed of arugula. Top with lentil mixture, place fish on top with lemon slices and sprinkle with minced herbs.

FRESH MOUNTAIN APPLE CAKE SERVINGS: 24

This recipe by potter Gail Moore is super moist and works as well for dessert as it does for an afternoon snack with coffee. It is served on a piece of pottery Susie collected on a trip to Greece.

3 eggs, beaten 2 cups vegetable oil 2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon allspice 1/8 teaspoon cloves 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 3 cups grated, peeled, tart apples

1. Beat eggs. Add oil, sugar and vanilla and mix well.

2. Blend dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture.

Beat well. Add nuts and apples. Stir well.

3. Pour into greased and floured Bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

ICING: 1 8-ounce package cream cheese 1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons butter, melted 2 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and mix well. Spoon on top of cake and gently work down sides with spoon or spatula.

“I DON’T KNOW A POTTER WHO DOESN’T COOK. WHEN I DO A STUDIO FIRING, WE HOLD A POTLUCK, OPEN THE KILN, SIT DOWN AND EAT. ”

– Susie Bowman

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PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT

Encourage, Educate, Empower As the survivor of one of the most highly publicized kidnapping and sexual assault cases in U.S. history, Elizabeth Smart has turned her traumatic experience into a mission to help others. The world-renowned speaker and author of two best-selling books will give a keynote address at the Convention Center this fall. text by ELEANOR INGE BAKER • photos by DEVIN FORD

O

n October 4, women from across the Bay area will gather for a day of inspiring talks, workshops and breakout sessions. Focus Women’s Conference, now in its third year, seeks to bring professional, personal, and community growth and development to women of all walks of life. The keynote speaker for this year’s event will no doubt leave attendees with a new perspective on resiliency.

In 2002, Elizabeth Smart’s abduction from the bedroom where she slept horrified

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and captivated the nation. Smart, then age 14, endured nine months of abuse before being rescued. During that time, the hope of being reunited with her family helped her survive. Now, she dedicates her life to advocating for missing persons and victims of sexual assault and advises parents on how to keep children safe.

Smart has testified before Congress, been awarded the Diane Von Furstenberg Award for Inspiration, given a TED Talk, and spoken at such prestigious institutions as Johns Hopkins University and Boston College.

“After I was rescued,” she says, “I felt like no one understood what had happened to me.

Now I want to speak wherever I can, because I never know who will be in the audience struggling with the effects of an assault, abuse at home or a bad relationship.”

Smart also felt a connection to the mission of Focus Women’s Conference, which was established to encourage, educate and empower women in Mobile. Smart is trying to do on a global level what Focus founder Devin Ford hopes to accomplish locally.

“When I moved back home from California, where I went to college and worked as a photographer for 10 years, I got online to try and find women’s conferences in the area,” says Ford, a Grand Bay native. “I was looking for something similar to what I’d attended in L.A. They were multifaceted and well-rounded. The overarching goals were to encourage women to get involved in their communities, advance in their careers, and to connect with and support one another.

The events I found in Mobile were primarily faith-based, so I began working to establish Focus as something different.”

Smart applauds Ford’s efforts. “What people like Devin are doing for women on a grassroots level is an example of how one person can affect a community,” she says.

“It’s locally — in our community centers, churches, schools and at home — where we need to address tough issues and, in particular, support victims of sexual abuse.”

ABOVE LEFT Devin Ford, left, and Elizabeth Smart.

The Abused on Trial Smart believes a cultural shift in the way we treat and react to victims is needed to substantiate real change. “For women to come forward after an assault is scary,” she says. “We feel defenseless, powerless, our characters are put on trial. We fear it could happen again. It can feel equally impossible for men to come forward, since their characters are also scrutinized. The false notion is often that if a male were stronger or more masculine, maybe it would not have happened to him.”

Smart argues that neither of these perceptions are true, and both are unacceptable. Gender, ethnicity, background, socioeconomic status or age should not matter.

“Abuse is abuse,” she continues. “Every person — every child — deserves to be safe. We should fight for each one.”

In her writings and speeches, Smart offers commentary on her own healing process following her captivity. Gratitude and perspective are two themes that appear throughout.

“I realize there is so much suffering out there, and I’m thankful for the blessings I have. What I’ve learned and what makes my story different is that I was abused by a stranger. Most people fall victim to someone they know — a family member, friend or neighbor. If my abuser were living in the room next to me, if half of my family believed me and the other half didn’t, that would add an entirely different level of torment to my experience. We tell our children, ‘Don’t talk to strangers,’ but the reality is the majority of sexual abuse comes from someone the victim knows.”

Forgiveness has also played a large part in Elizabeth’s ability to heal and move forward, and she encourages others to embrace it. “I realized forgiveness was for me, not for the people who hurt me. My captors don’t care if I forgive them, but it will affect my life.

Clinging to my anger, however justified, will only prevent me from feeling joy. I needed to love myself enough to let go.”

The Tough Conversations Parents today are faced with a conundrum: We need to prepare our children for dangers they may face in the world, but at the same time, we want them to stay innocent and free 30 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

of fear for as long as possible. Smart will offer parents in the Focus audience insight into how they may choose to explore threatening issues in order to keep our most precious ones safe. “I warn listeners at the beginning of my speech that I will broach dark topics, but I feel these are necessary to address,” she says. “The average age of kids taken into human trafficking is between 12 and 14. When I was that age, I didn’t have a clue. It’s terrifying as a parent. I want to shield my children from this, yet I must prepare them. As parents, we need to be open and willing to discuss subjects that make us cringe.”

When asked what she is most passionately working toward now, she mentions a new initiative with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which she and her father founded in 2011. “Soon my dad and I will introduce Smart Talks — a podcast we hope to then take around the country. We ask the questions: What is rape? What is sexual abuse?

How can we identify when a child is in danger? These topics need to be a part of the safety education curriculum we offer our children. There are fire drills in school, what about this? When you consider 1 in 4 girls and 1 and 6 boys will suffer sexual abuse before age 18, it’s astounding!”

Smart’s goal is to help end victimization through prevention, recovery and advocacy.

“We all need to be a part of this,” she says. MB

The 2019 Focus Women’s Conference will take place on October 4 at the Mobile Convention Center. For more information, visit focuswc.com. september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 31

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PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT

Be a Bright Spot The story behind Sarah Otts’ new book for children text and interview by CATHERINE DORROUGH • portrait by ELIZABETH GELINEAU illustrations by SAR AH OTTS

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 33

liar person when I was growing up. I needed someone in my ear to say, “It’s OK to be you.

It’s OK to be different.” There were periods of time when I really doubted myself and different phases of life when I really needed a reminder that you’re “you” by design, and great things happen when you learn to trust it.

My art itself was also an inspiration. I grew as an artist when I learned how to paint without any inhibitions or worry about what other people think. Creating art literally wrote that story of the line. It was a very organic story to tell.

S

arah Otts’ home studio sits tucked around the side of her home, in a quiet, leafy neighborhood off Springhill Avenue. The morning we meet, the pink studio doors stand propped open and a few children’s toys lay scattered across the driveway, as an apronclad Otts and her studio assistant, Jacqueline, load an armchair into an SUV. The furniture is bound for the new Sarah Otts Gallery at Holiday Place in Spring Hill — but more on that in a moment.

To step inside the studio is to be enveloped in Otts’ distinctive aesthetic. Worksin-progress and finished pieces, both large and small, adorn the walls in a cheerful riot of color. It’s a happy, light-filled space.

With the furniture on its way to the gallery, Otts settles at her desk to discuss

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her debut children’s book, titled “To Be A Line.” After more than 20 years working as a painter, the Mobile native has delved into the world of literature with a classic “embrace your true self ” story, reimagined from the artist’s unique point of view. In her book, lines and shapes spring to life as distinct characters. Otts expertly breathes life into the abstract forms through both her thoughtful prose and her delightful illustrations, which spill across the pages in her characteristic bold and colorful style.

What inspired this book?

I took inspiration from several different places. Being a mother, of course, was one of them. I have this instilled need to teach my children to be themselves. I think it’s because I always felt like a slightly pecu-

What was the final push that made you say, “I’m doing it, I’m writing the book?”

I was sitting at my desk drawing in my sketchbook, and I felt a need to create this linear, inky drawing, which is that winding linework that I show in my book and in a lot of my art. Then I felt this sense of narrative. A line can be truly anything you want it to be, but you have to trust that it can grow in that way. In that sense, it reminded me of a person who’s growing up.

It was as simple as that in the beginning, and then I kept writing down these little ideas about what it would be like to be a line. I read them to my children, and they got it. They sat there and listened to my story and gave me feedback and asked me questions, and it made me feel like it was a story that children could connect to.

“To Be A Line” is a real art book for children. The illustrations are so rich. Did you find that your process of creating art for children, within the confines of a book page, differed at all from your process for the rest of your work?

People regularly associate the colors I use with children (not that they are exclusive to children). My work is so notably colorful that a lot of people ask me for paintings for their children’s rooms.

As I developed the storyline for the book, I wanted the line to stay simple and black, but I wanted to incorporate color so the book would have vivid imagery for children. And so the shapes came into the storyline, and that gave me an opportunity to work with color. I found that as I created the illustrations, I used cut paper in the same way that I paint, and I really enjoyed it. I found that I was able to achieve the same look through a different medium.

You’ve talked about how motherhood influenced your art and vice versa. Can you talk a little bit about how those two aspects of your life play off each other?

When I became a mom to my first child, who is now 7, there was this major shift in me and in my art, and I found this new appreciation for being real. I found I had the courage to be who I was designed to be, and that was reflected in the art I was creating.

At the same time, I started writing. I wanted to record everything so my children could one day see that I was learning to be myself. I write a blog, and I keep a lot of writing and sketchbooks. As I paint, these epiphanies come about, and I make a point to record them so they don’t just get lost. The book came about in the same way, but I’ve been writing like this for seven years.

slowly came around that it feels like God is trying to encourage me to share the message: Be a bright spot. And that’s my tagline. It just means: “Be true. Be real.

Be kind. Own who you are and who you were designed to be.”

What’s next for you?

The opening of the store, Sarah Otts Gallery, paralleled with the book in such a weird way. I felt, about six months ago, on the verge of bringing all the things I enjoy into one picture.

After I wrote the book, I thought about all these different ways to back up the book’s message. For example, I’m creating a journal for children to help them find confidence in their own ability to create and draw and be themselves. I hope that when people come to my store and they see my book and my art and these products, they feel a sense of inspiration, encouragement and brightness. MB

In your blog, you talk about finding your purpose. Can you talk about what you feel your purpose is and how your work fits into that purpose?

As I grew in my art and my career, I started to ask myself: Why do I do this? There’s got to be a bigger purpose.

There’s got to be a reason I have this gift. “To Be A Line” is available at sarahotts.com I feel so compelled to share with people, and Sarah Otts Gallery, 4513 Old Shell and I feel so compelled to write. It just Road, Mobile.

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DELIGHTFULLY UNEXPECTED Artistic photographer Pinky Bass takes viewers through the pinhole and beyond, into a world of constant exploration and creativity. text by JOSHUA GIVENS • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN

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C

Colorful threads symbolically stretched across black and white photographs. Thirty-five millimeter film mounted onto baby doll heads.

A miniature banjo here. A modified Mexican street camera there. An endless collection of international souvenirs, keepsakes, trinkets, art equipment and astonishing creations. Even Sesame Street’s ole Bert and Ernie would be forced to say, “None of these things are quite like the other.” But, they are just a few of the fascinating objects you’ll find inside the magical Fairhope home of Marion Winchester “Pinky” Bass.

Tucked behind a quiet wall of green, just a block from the hustle and bustle of downtown Fairhope, sits Pinky’s home, the simple wood exterior giving way to a kaleidoscope of imagination inside. It is quickly apparent that this is no ordinary house and Pinky is no ordinary artist. The unpainted board and batten structure is the perfect blank canvas for Pinky’s collection of curiosities and awe-inspiring work. At 83-years-young, the woman whose nickname was coined by delivery room nurses for their admiration of her red hair is just as witty, perceptive and sharp as ever. With one step through the front door, you’ll find yourself in her living-room-turned-studio, surrounded by a deluge of artistic paraphernalia and homemade cameras, as well as dozens of intriguing photographs taken by Pinky herself.

That’s because she’s best known not only for her spirited banter and sprightly demeanor but also for her creative work with photography.

DISCOVERING THE LENS Despite having been born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pinky travelled every summer to visit family in Fairhope. She descends from a line of artistically talented women: Her mother, Marion McCall, was a highly skilled and accomplished abstract watercolorist.

Pinky’s sister Frances was musically gifted, even crafting her own instruments by hand, and their grandmother Lois Slosson Sundberg created beautiful photography in the 1800s. In fact, the Slosson family, having lived in Silverhill for a time, was friends with Frank Steward, known throughout Baldwin County as the “Picture Man.” Pinky says that Steward probably taught darkroom techniques to her grandmother.

Pinky was a Biblical studies major during her time at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, but she dabbled in the arts on a regular basis. “I initially thought I was going into drawing and painting,” she says, “but I [eventually] discovered opposite page “Fran’s Scorpio (with archival pigment print by Carolyn DeMeritt)

above A sampling of Pinky’s accoutrements Pinky’s smile comes easily A collection of curiosities adorn a side table

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 37

photography and realized that it was my voice.” When Pinky settled in Fairhope, her Aunt Ruth offered up grandmother Sandberg’s glass negative camera and the old glass negatives from a Magazine Cyclone No. 5 glass-box camera. It was clear her grandmother had an eye for images, and Pinky surely inherited that gift.

“IF I CAN LOOK AT A PHOTOGRAPH AND SAY, ‘OH, THAT’S A SO-AND-SO’, BY NAME, THEN I FEEL LIKE THAT PERSON HAS FOUND THEIR VOICE, RATHER THAN TRYING TO PLEASE THE PUBLIC.” – Pinky Bass

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THROUGH THE PINHOLE Pinky experimented with drawing and traditional photography for years, but it wasn’t until her 50s that she was able to give her art the attention it deserved. Divorced and with grown children who were beginning their own lives, she turned her focus to expanding her creative vision. During graduate school at Georgia State University, she quickly became disenchanted with regular 35-millimeter film and felt an insatiable longing to articulate her creativity through the lens in a more unique and visual way. Little did she know that she was on the verge of embracing a technique that was destined to become her signature style and would forever change the way she viewed the world.

“My major professor said to me, ‘Have you ever thought about trying pinhole?’”

Pinky’s insatiable curiosity was piqued. She did some investigating and soon discovered that virtually any object could become a camera. From tubes of lipstick to giant mobile campers like the once-famous Pinky’s Portable Pop-up Pinhole Camera and Darkroom — which she drove throughout Alabama introducing photography to students of all ages — the possibilities were seemingly endless.

“I like the idea that anything you can make into a black box can be a camera,” she says. “I must have about a hundred things in my house that are cameras. For me, this is what pinhole became. It was all about discovering the science of photography.”

In addition to the science of film and the engineering of construction, pinhole photography is about embracing the unexpected.

Because of this method’s use of a smaller aperture — a pinhole — the resulting infinite depth of field allowed for the likelihood of creative mistakes, something which further enchanted Pinky and appealed to her artistic nature.

“You never know what is going to happen,” she explains. “I just love it when things go wrong or mess up. It’s delightful.” This attraction toward a lack of control is evident not only in her photography, but in much of her other work, too.

ANOTHER LAYER In the late 1990s, Pinky’s sister Frances McCall was in a battle with cancer. She eventually moved in with Pinky at her home in Fairhope, where she was cared for until her death. The tragic experience left its mark on Pinky’s heart but also found its way into her art. “I began to think about how the human body works, how amazing it is,” she says. Pinky studied charts of human biology, traced the lines of veins and arteries, and wondered about its intricate mysteries. The thoughts became stitches on photographs, tracing on the outside what was hidden on the inside. Each colorful single thread becomes an organ or a fetus in a style reminiscent of work by Mexican artist Frida Khalo. Pinky acknowledges the connection, recounting the five years she spent living around the corner from the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City. The daily exposure to one of the 20th century’s greatest artists left a mark on Pinky’s creative aesthetic, inspiring her to push boundaries, but this new body of work where thread and film come together is 100 percent Pinky.

ONE OF A KIND The portable camper has long since been sold, although the fond memories of using it during her days as an itinerant photographer, and to visit some of her grandmother Lois’s photography locations, still linger. But don’t worry. Pinky isn’t living in the past. She is continually embarking on new adventures of expression, boldly crafting fresh work, and following every unexpected thread, so to speak.

Pinky has mounted more than 40 solo exhibitions, and she has artwork in the collections of numerous museums across the Southeast and the country, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

She has, through her life’s work, developed

a strong voice and recognizable aesthetic that has earned her numerous accolades, including the Mobile Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“If I can look at a photograph and say, ‘Oh, that’s a so-and-so’, by name, then I feel like that person has found their voice, rather than trying to please the public,” she says.

While Pinky has surely created more art than we have pages to discuss, one thing is certain: You’ll always be able to look at each piece and say without a doubt, “That’s a Pinky Bass.” MB

above Four works from Pinky’s “Contemplating My Internal Organs” series, fiber on silver gelatin print

opposite page “Breech Birth,” crochet thread “In Albiquiu”, pinhole Polaroid, silver gelatin print Pinky entertains us in her studio

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CREATE COMM UNITY text by AMANDA HARTIN photos by JUSTIN CORDOVA

Studios inside one Midtown church offer artists more than just creative space

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A

dmittedly, I am curious and a touch nervous this morning. Standing outside the nondescript three-story building at Central Presbyterian Church, I press the buzzer and wait. “May I help you?” queries a sugar-sweet voice from the box mounted on the brick wall. I tell her I am there to interview artists.

That is the short answer. Really, I am here to peek inside the world of artists, all of whom rent studio space at the church as part of Central Arts Collective (CAC). But I have to go further than a few feet inside the entryway to see if my visions of paint-splattered floors and charcoal-smeared aprons are correct, as the closed classroom-like doors reveal nothing of the mystery behind them.

THE BASE COAT What is it about artists’ studios that make them so intriguing? Perhaps it’s the perplexing puzzle of how someone could enter a room with a vision in mind and exit with a masterpiece in hand. What goes on behind the scenes, exactly?

This fascination traces back to the Renaissance, the root of artist studios.

What began as a place where master artists taught apprentices melded over time into a workplace-gallery, with patrons invited in to watch artists as well as admire their finished pieces. But like watercolors on a palette, the function of studios has remained fluid through the centuries, even within the modern-day

left: Cat Pope labels her artwork “expressive realism.”

Pieces often reflect life pre-1970, with thematic elements ranging from high school crushes to camping.

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above: Quirky and vintage storage containers wrangle Cat Pope’s contemporary art tools, such as palette knives, rollers, scrapers and squeegees.

right: Lisa Warren is as known for her functional pottery as she is for her paintings, the most recent theme of which depicts stages of life and death through the use of floral elements.

CAC, a little-known community of artists in the heart of Midtown.

Unlike a traditional collective, where artists work collaboratively to produce and sell art together as a group, each artist within the CAC creates his or her own form of art and manages business independently. In 2016, Central Presbyterian began renting unused spaces, like old Sunday school classrooms, the former chapel and the church’s old parlor, to artists as a way to connect with the community.

“We were searching for ways to make good use of this lovely old building,” the Rev. Chris Bullock says. In turn, artists pay a nominal monthly rent and the church uses those funds for utilities, repairs and renovations, and community projects. But it’s something less tangible that might mean the most. “I am amazed at how generously the CAC works in the community,” Bullock continues.

BRUSH STROKES “Community” is a word that is used a lot around the CAC, I think to myself, as I wind through the maze-like layout. On my way to the third floor, up a stairwell painted with inspirational sayings, I hit a literal dead end.

(I later discovered I was only on floor two and a half; I had taken the wrong stairwell.)

As I backtrack down the darkened hallway, light spills from a square-shaped window and pools in front of a closed door. Inside I spy Cat Pope, her blonde bob catching my eye, as well as her open and airy room. Although she’s only been in her studio for two weeks, the walls are dappled with some of her favorite pieces, and she’s already begun assembling drying racks and storage cabinets.

She grins after I reveal my goal of demystifying what happens within these four walls.

“There’s a mystery and novelty behind the

“THERE’S A MYSTERY AND NOVELTY BEHIND THE ARTIST’S STUDIO, WHICH I THINK IS SILLY BECAUSE IT’S JUST A PLACE I GO TO MAKE A MESS.” – Cat Pope

artist’s studio,” Pope laughs, “which I think is silly because it’s just a place I go to make a mess.” The purpose of her hard-to-come-by space is not all about making a mess, however.

“Painting can be very solitary,” she says of time spent in her home studio. “I was on the waiting list [at CAC] for a while. Somebody moved out, and I moved in. I’m thankful for the community that I have built here.”

Part of Pope’s network includes Lisa Warren, who, if I were in charge of assigning titles, would be named mayor of the CAC — she knows just about everyone and everything, it seems, which is helpful to this wayward investigator. Warren’s outgoing confidence and positivity is contagious, and one eye sweep across her parlor-turned-studio reveals drawings, paintings, pottery and a memory board full of family photographs.

“It’s like a home away from home,” she says of her first-floor studio. “This space gives me a destination, a focus.”

Sunlight through the stained glass windows in Warren’s studio casts a glow across the unfinished concrete floor, mirroring the warmth of her voice as she shares what the CAC has personally done for her. “I never thought I’d be so involved in the community — it’s a side effect of this.” She alludes to workshops she and other artists hold with Howard and Leinkauf Elementary schools and also to the thousands of dollars they have raised for the church’s food pantry.

PALETTE OF MANY COLORS “It’s like Hogwarts,” Ardith Goodwin says

44 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

right: Ardith Goodwin says the subject matter of her art isn’t “traditional,” relying instead on finding beauty in imperfection.

The stained glass in her chapel-turned-studio complements her color affinity. far left: Nancy Goodman near left: Lisa Warren

matter-of-factly when I tell her about my twists and turns so far today. But there was no difficulty finding Goodwin’s studio, as she is right off the first-floor entry in the church’s original chapel. Color in every shape and size meets my gaze, from floor to ceiling — a true smorgasbord of hues.

“It’s definitely an inspirational place to create in,” Goodwin says, motioning to the windows. “The stained glass marries my visual language very well because I use the broken line and fractured color planes in my art.”

The vibrancy of her studio is tempered with velvety occasional chairs and hoards of fabric samples strewn atop an oversized table. She dabbles in many mediums and says she can’t wait to see which direction her imagination will take her when she gets around to the discontinued interior design swaths.

When asked about the community within the CAC, Goodwin acknowledges, “It’s truly nice to be able to go knock on a door and troubleshoot an issue or to have lunch with a fellow creative.” And sometimes those “fellows” offer her a respite. “Another artist upstairs has lots of white, so I’ll go up there to chill out, and she’ll come down here to get inspired.”

“I like white walls,” Nancy Goodman tells me, almost on cue, after I successfully make my way to her third-floor studio. “I think it’s the best color to display art on.” As she chats over her 10-foot long arm quilting machine, I take a slow gander around her brightly lit space, admiring delicate swirls of thread and unexpected shapes. “Cloth is so elemental,” she tells me when I ask what she loves about her trade. “It’s the first thing they do when

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 45

you’re born — wrap you in a piece of cloth.”

Goodman comes up here every day, she says. It takes about 100 hours to finish each quilt. “Since I’ve gotten the studio, I’m interacting with people a lot more. I don’t have that dead-end feeling.” It was when she worked from home, totally isolated, that she questioned her talent’s purpose. “I was just making quilts. I’d make them and put them in the closet. Nobody ever saw them. Now I’m exhibiting a lot more.”

FINISHING TOUCHES “The third floor is where all this light is,” Susan Downing-White says as we take a seat in the corner. “I wanted to make everything in the studio as white as I could so things disappeared against the wall. And it makes the room seem as spacious as it can be.” The result is a serene, sky-like atmosphere. Skies just so happen to be one of her fortes. “I’ve been looking at the skies since I was a little girl, and I never quit being fascinated by them.”

Downing-White grew up in the city, mostly in Chicago, and she compares her experiences there to the community at CAC. “I like that about being here,” she explains. “If I really want to talk to somebody, I can walk around

left: For Nancy Goodman, color and geometric shapes are the basis for every quilt she makes. Her made-todisplay creations are improvisational, built sans pattern.

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above: Charmed by clouds and coastlines, Susan Downing-White says all the inspiration she needs for her artwork is within a 100-mile radius of Mobile.

right: A peek into Stephanie Morris’ cozy, curtain-clad studio reveals her love for sketching and painting portraits, a skill she inherited from her mother and grandmother.

and there will be somebody here. In other words, if you want to interact, you always can, but you don’t have to.”

My head swirls as I wind my way down the back staircase. The creativity contained within each space exceeds the physical boundaries.

The sense of community permeates the air — both the artist-to-artist connection and the broader CAC-to-city connection.

“It’s inspiring being here,” Stephanie Morris, the last artist I’ll speak to today, tells me about her two years spent at the CAC. “I don’t mean that from just an artistic point of view but because of what’s going on in the church.”

Morris’ first-floor studio invites me in, and I linger near a bank of windows, the bottom half of which is covered with sketches, “an inexpensive way of getting light from above while providing privacy.”

It’s a homey space, decorated with furniture from her personal collection, as well as pieces like a sofa and table from her grandmother.

“There is an energy here, an energy of hospitality and generosity,” Morris says of the CAC. “Rev. Chris is one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. He has a huge heart for meeting the community’s needs.”

The feeling is reciprocal. “There is such a generous and encouraging spirit among the artists,” Bullock says about the collective. “They are constantly finding ways to support one another in their work, marketing, workshops and many other ways.” And bigger still, “Their love for the community and willingness to contribute to its well-being have both stunned and overwhelmed me.” MB

“IT’S INSPIRING BEING HERE. I DON’T MEAN THAT FROM JUST AN ARTISTIC POINT OF VIEW BUT BECAUSE OF WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE CHURCH.” – Stephanie Morris

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 47

ON THE RISE Meet five music acts carrying themselves, and Mobile’s music scene, to new heights.

text by BRECK PAPPAS • photos by MATTHEW COUGHLIN location LA-LA LAND BOUTIQUE IN DAPHNE

A

mong the antique furniture and curious knickknacks of Daphne’s La-La Land Boutique, MB spent the better part of a day with five acts of the Bay area music scene, each one as unique as the eclectic trinkets surrounding them. Though different, every musician who entered the shop on that rainy day — Symone French, Melody Duncan, Laurie Anne Armour, Wendell Kimbrough and four members of the band, “Yeah, Probably” — do share a commonality in that each is on the brink of something new, whether it be the current recording or impending release of an album.

Their personal momentum mirrors that of the local music scene. With the reopening of the Alabama Music Box and the emergence of music-friendly locales in the past few years (think Haint Blue Brewing, Kazoola, Cedar Street Social Club), it’s a good time to be a music lover in Mobile. That’s why, on September 5, Mobile Bay Magazine is hosting “On the Rise: A Concert of Musicians to Watch” at the Steeple, featuring the following homegrown musicians. So, before taking your seat in the audience, learn what makes each of these artists tick — and why we think it’s a good idea you learn their names.

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SYMONE FRENCH Symone French has more style than you.

It’s nothing to feel bad about. You’re grouped in with about 99 percent of the world’s population, after all. How can you be expected to compete with a musician of such versatility? Such funk? A woman whose very nickname, “Spoon,” was bestowed by singer Bonnie Raitt herself?

“I met her when I was working at the Saenger,” French says. “I was all starstruck, saying, ‘Oh my God, Ms. Raitt, the concert was amazing. I’m Symone.’”

“Spoon?” Raitt responded. “What a cool name!”

“Now I’ve got a spoon tattoo and everything,” French says, pulling up her shirtsleeve to reveal her forearm. And her guitar is named, you guessed it, Bonnie.

It’s hard to believe that French, who seems to radiate self-confidence, ever had to be goaded onto the stage.

While working as a waitress at Mellow Mushroom, she was dragged to the microphone by the Mobile-based group The Deluxe Trio every Wednesday night.

Because of that experience, she shares the same advice to anyone else struggling with stage fright. “Just get your ass up on stage and do it,” she says. “You never

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 49

know who you’ll touch with your gift and with the words you sing.”

The ingredients were already there: a father with a music collection ranging from Eric Clapton to Jay-Z, a mother with an ear for funk and soul. And of course, there’s French’s voice, which effortlessly carries the weight of whatever emotion she’s pushing into the microphone.

In 2014, French joined Infant Richard and the Delta Stones. Over the next three years, the group recorded two EPs and established a formidable following in the Gulf Coast region before French set her sights on a solo career.

“At that point, I started musically dating,” she says, “which helped me find the band I have now.” That new group, Symone French & the Trouille Troupe (trouille is French for “funk”), is at work cultivating its musical style, a tall task considering the versatility of its lead singer.

“Sometimes my style is rock, sometimes

it’s jazz … it really just depends on what day it is,” French jokes. Whatever the method of sonic delivery, the music is always backed by emotional authenticity — French is no stranger to shedding tears on stage. “I want people to know it’s not just you,” she says. “We’re all a mess at some point.”

French says her clothing style, which she describes as “pretty funk,” was her first artistic avenue. “It was how I could be creative without being on stage,” she explains. “I’ve always loved vintage clothing. Everyone knows that if you have a death in the family, I’ll take their clothes,” she says, laughing. “I’d love to rock your grandma’s sweater.”

Look for Symone French & the Trouille Troupe to “hopefully” start recording some songs before the year is out. After all, French says, there’s a lot of work to be done. “I still have stories I want to tell,” she says.

YEAH, PROBABLY

Yeah, Probably consists of Shea White, guitar / vocals; Joe Pizzolato, guitar; Quintin Ayers, bass; Phillip Baggins, drums / vocals; Ike Kessee, keys / vocals (not pictured); and Blake Nolte, saxophone / vocals (not pictured).

Yeah, Probably is a band that’s “done sitting ‘round wasting time.” At least, that’s what singer Shea White belts in the group’s catchy 2017 single, “Wasted Time,” and it’s easy to believe the lyrics. Since then, the once-three-piece band has upped its roster to six and is planning a studio session to begin work on a full album.

“This album will be about the rebranding of Yeah, Probably,” White says, referring to the musical growth that comes with the addition of personnel.

A homegrown band through and through, Yeah, Probably originally consisted of Bay-area natives White, bassist Quintin Ayers and drummer Phillip Baggins. White and Ayers met while attending Fairhope High School,

50 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

and the pair found Baggins and his drum kit in jazz band at Faulkner University. The band lifted its unique name from a punch line in HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords,” a comedy series about a New Zealand duo’s fruitless quest for a foothold in the music scene.

Since adding its three new members (Joe Pizzolato, Ike Kessee and Blake Nolte), Pizzolato says the group has been in a “soul-searching period” as it feels around for its musical groove.

“We’ve been trying to just find our sound through the new members who have joined,” White agrees, and by all accounts, they’re pretty close to finding it.

“The general consensus [among the group] is that we’re ‘indie pop soul,’”

“[MOBILE] IS CATCHING UP TO SOME OF THE BIGGER MUSIC-DRIVEN CITIES. THERE IS DEFINITELY A LOT MORE THAT CAN BE TAPPED INTO, AND WE HOPE THAT WE CAN BE A PART OF THAT.” – Shea White (above)

White says. The “soul” descriptor, which encompasses their jazz and funk, immediately calls to mind the addicting brass lick in the chorus of “Wasted Time.” (Symone French, profiled on page 48, brought up that lick without prompt, saying that it sneaks up on her and sticks around.) The “pop” aspect is most evident in the band’s catchy melodies — the ingredient that makes you tap a foot to their songs without even realizing it. The group’s capability to dabble in so many styles is a direct result of the vast musical tastes of its six members.

“Our influences are all over,” White says. “I was never dead set on a genre or anything. I’ve always been open to anything that sounds cool to me.”

The songwriting process is a collaborative effort, they explain. Someone might arrive at rehearsal with a song structure or even a melody written years before, and the group gets to work polishing its rough edges.

“The best songs come out of organic moments when you’re not forcing it,” Ayers says.

As they set their sights on booking studio time in order to record a full album, the band stays busy with live gigs on both sides of the Bay and in Mississippi, Florida and as far north as Birmingham. Although there’s a “comfortability” about the recording process, White says he prefers the stage because “there’s something about feeding off of the crowd’s energy.”

“And that’s what we want our album to be,” Ayers adds. “We want to replicate that live sound.”

TOP From left to right: Joe Pizzolato, Quintin Ayers, Shea White and Phillip Baggins.

“I JUST FELT LIKE THE VIOLIN WAS FOR ME. IT RESONATES WITH ME — IT REALLY HITS THAT SOUL FREQUENCY.” – Melody Duncan

MELODY DUNCAN Melody Duncan was about 4 years old when the violin captured her heart. Watching with wide eyes from a church pew, she was hypnotized by the woman onstage, who seemed almost magical in her ability to create such wonderful noise on a tiny wooden instrument. It was the most enchanting sound Duncan had ever heard. “I thought, ‘That is the coolest, and that’s for me. That’s what I’m going to do with my life.’”

That realization, however, was hard to articulate as a 4-year-old, and Duncan didn’t have a chance to pick up the instrument until she was 14. “I stole a violin out of my brother’s room and just taught myself to play in our basement,” she remembers. Discovered by her mother one day, Duncan was soon taking formal lessons.

Asked if her parents were a large musical influence in her life, she says her father “plays every instrument there is” and her mother is a professional vocal and piano instructor.

“And, well, they named me Melody,” she says with a laugh.

Duncan is impossibly pleasant in person and on stage; she plays violin with her eyes closed, a soft smile on her face, and a whole lot of dipping and swaying. Her distinctive, curly blond hair, which she describes as her “dad’s fault,” dips and sways with her. Her musical style can be described using any combination of the words “indie,” “folk,” “eclectic” and “rock,” a versatility that has allowed her to fit within several bands over the years, namely Roman Street and the Mulligan Brothers.

Get her in front of the microphone, with her mature, sometimes-rollicking voice, and the room is hers.

Mobile-born, -raised and -educated, Duncan attended the University of South Alabama by day and performed with a rock ‘n’ roll band by night. “Music was what I wanted to do,” she says. Duncan says she’s been “blessed” to be a full-time musician for the past several years, but she’s definitely paid her dues, having worked as a waitress, lawn-cutter, barista and even a dog groomer to support a life in music.

Now, as she records her first solo album to be released this fall, Duncan looks forward to sharing her latest creations with the world. Asked for the album’s title, she says, smiling, “I know I’ll change my mind, so I better not say.”

Like Duncan herself, the writing process is fluid, unpredictable and fun. “Some days you have a major muse and then some days you really have to just bow to the muse and do the work anyway,” she says. “I write a lot when I’m driving down the road … that’s where I get some of my most fun ideas.”

However, it’s taking those songs to the stage that brings Duncan the most joy. “I love that handshake and a hug and hearing what music means to somebody in the audience,” she says.

“Sharing music is just to encourage somebody.

If music can give them a break from the everyday or a sense of encouragement, yeah, that’s pretty awesome.”

LAURIE ANNE ARMOUR Laurie Anne Armour recently came across the first song she ever wrote, an elementaryage effort based on the animated movie “Anastasia.”

“I couldn’t even spell the word ‘chorus’,” she says, laughing. Obviously, Armour’s songwriting, and spelling, have come a long way since then, but that natural impulse to express herself in song, to set emotion to melody, isn’t leaving any time soon.

Known as “LA” to her friends and fans, Armour (pronounced “armor”) grew up in Hollinger’s Island just south of Brookley.

She learned to swim in Mobile Bay and was free to “disappear into the woods for hours” as a kid, as long as she and her brother stayed within earshot of her dad’s whistle.

Armour’s father Smitty had a long career in Mobile radio and was employed with 95KSJ (where he worked under the name Michael P. Sloan) when she was born. “So my foundation is good, early-90s country,” she says. Since then, Armour has thrown in some Beatles, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Sara Bareilles, Brandi Carlile and Otis Redding for good measure.

With curly brown hair just past her shoulders, friendly freckles and a wholesome smile, Armour comes off as charming and homegrown as her music. She’d place herself in the contemporary folk category, although, like a lot of musicians, she’s wary of limiting herself to a single genre. In slow, swaying acoustic ballads, Armour navigates

the ups and downs of life in a clear and delicate singing voice. She picked up the guitar at 14, having already fiddled with piano and flute, and began writing songs in earnest while studying human services at the University of South Alabama.

“I wrote my first real song when I was 19,” she says. “That was after my first heartbreak.

A lot of my songs are very emotion-based, of course, about heartbreak and love, and eventually they moved to a faith-based, spiritual aspect.”

Armour’s job as an administrator at Housing First Inc., a nonprofit aimed at eradicating homelessness in Mobile and Baldwin counties, also informs her songwriting. “People deal with a lot on a september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 53

WENDELL KIMBROUGH daily basis,” she says. “You have no idea what somebody’s going through and what they’re dealing with internally. So if my songs can let them feel peace for just a little bit, then I feel like I’ve met my purpose.”

Armour has been a regular at venues such as Manci’s, Page & Palette and Callaghan’s, where she performs covers as well as tracks from her first EP, Ebb & Flow. She sheepishly admits she still struggles with stage fright, although “whiskey helps.” She’s busy at work on her first full-length album, entitled “Led by the Light” and slated for a March 2020 release.

“This whole journey has been about being comfortable with myself … creating something and putting it out in the world.

It’s not about trying to appear one way or another. It’s about being comfortable with how God made me to be.”

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Wendell Kimbrough experienced two epiphanies in his musical life, the first of which took place in rural Maryland, among the pews of an African Methodist Episcopal church. Kimbrough, a recent college graduate and history major participating in a Christian study program, had been raised in the Presbyterian church, where, he says, the music on Sundays felt “dry and rigid.”

But on this particular Sunday, in a church miles from Alabama, Kimbrough was swept away by music that seemed as emotionally honest as it was authentic.

“It allowed me to feel my feelings, to get more in touch with my inner self,” he says.

“I came out of that experience knowing that music was important for me and for the world.”

Behind large, wire-rimmed eyeglasses and underneath a mound of curly brown hair, Kimbrough recounts the journey that led to his current gig as the artist-in-residence and worship leader at Church of the Apostles, in Fairhope. Born in Ozark, Alabama, but raised in Mississippi, Kimbrough remembers flipping through his father’s record collection, a catalog of songwriters from James Taylor to Randy Newman that would shape his musical sensibilities. Music, however, was a hobby, not a serious career consideration for Kimbrough, so he graduated from Furman University with the intent to pursue a Ph.D. and a life of academia — then he visited the church in Maryland.

It was in Washington, D.C., while working as a part-time musician at a church and building a singer-songwriter career in his spare time, that Kimbrough experienced his second musical revelation in the form of poetry older than Christianity itself.

“The psalms have been a bridge for me,” he says. “They’re these 3,000-year-old poems in the Old Testament that would have been sung originally, but we have no idea what they sounded like. They’re very raw, very honest.

Some of them are angry, some are laments. I have found incredible life in figuring out how to express all these different emotions and bring them into church.”

By reimagining the psalms, putting melody to ancient poetry, Kimbrough found that he could, to an extent, replicate the emotional authenticity of the music he encountered at the African-American church in Maryland. Reinvigorated, he jumped at the job opportunity at Church of the Apostles, relocating to Fairhope with his wife, Hahna, in 2014.

Kimbrough’s 2016 album “Psalms We Sing” and his 2018 album “Come to Me” have earned him invitations to play at churches around the country. His audience, however, isn’t limited to churchgoers.

“I think the psalms are important for everybody, not just people in church,” he says. “Part of what I love about the psalms is that they give you a space to take your anger and grief, but it’s not a reckless space.

Ultimately, they draw you into a constructive conversation. In the psalms, it’s a dialogue with God, but if you can start that reflection in church or privately, you can start to have those conversations with your friends or your family.” MB Don’t miss these musical acts at the Steeple on September 5 from 7 – 10 p.m.! Tickets for Mobile Bay Magazine’s “On the Rise” concert are $20 and can be purchased at the door or at facebook. com/MobileBayMagazine, under the Events tab.

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 55

FACES OF FINANCE The following financial professionals stand out as the best in their industries.

Read on to discover Mobile and Baldwin counties’ top bankers, accountants and wealth advisors, all of whom strive to give you peace of mind when it comes to your financial security.

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

22nd State Bank

PICTURED: JOHN ARENDALL, RICH CAMPBELL, MATT DIAL, STEVE SMITH. PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

22ND STATE BANK IS A 102-YEAR-OLD COMMUNITY BANK THAT PROVIDES CONSUMER AND BUSINESS BANKING SERVICES IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH ALABAMA THROUGH ITS BRANCH NETWORK AND ONLINE BANKING SERVICE.

What sets your business apart?

22nd State Bank is community-focused in everything we do. When you deposit your money at 22nd State Bank, it stays in our community where it can do the most good. Our commitment to our community is so strong that the bank is named for our state (which was admitted as the 22nd state of the United States).

Our executive management team is headquartered in Mobile, which allows us to keep decision-making local.

How has your business grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

22nd State Bank has a rich history with over a century of experience providing banking services in Central and South Alabama. Selecting Mobile as our newest

full-service branch location was an easy decision. We realized that Mobile provided a tremendous opportunity to take our brand of community banking and service the financial needs of individuals and small businesses here.

We are excited about the opening of our new future location in downtown Mobile.

It will be located across from Bienville Square on the corner of St. Francis and St. Joseph streets.

How do you make sure clients get the best service?

We believe that focusing on two key areas allows us to deliver the best service to our customers: hiring the best people and investing in the most current technology.

We blend the two together to offer personalized, convenient service to our

customers. It is important that we spend the time to get to know our customers and their specific needs. It is also important to provide the most modern technology so that our customers can conduct their banking business at home and on the go. We believe that technology should enhance customer service, not replace it.

What contributes to your success?

At 22nd State Bank, we take a unique approach when serving our customers.

We think and act entrepreneurially when it comes to understanding the needs of our customers.

With an entrepreneurial approach, we are focused on developing and implementing innovative products and services for our customers.

251-445-3805 • 22ndstatebank.com september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 57

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

58 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

BancorpSouth BANCORPSOUTH IS A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WITH APPROXIMATELY $19 BILLION IN ASSETS. WE PROVIDE SUPERIOR SERVICE AND A WIDE ARRAY OF PRODUCTS IN BANKING, MORTGAGE, WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND INSURANCE SOLUTIONS.

What is your mission?

Guided by uncompromising honesty and integrity, BancorpSouth strives to provide relationship-focused financial services in a manner that exceeds the expectations of our customers, supports the betterment of our communities, instills pride and passion in our teammates, and delivers value to our shareholders.

We are passionate about our commitment to our communities. This is a large part of who we are because we know that strong communities sustain our company, our customers and our teammates. We seek to make a difference in the communities we serve by working with our existing and potential customers responsibly by engaging in community activities through supporting economic development, financial education, and by our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We are successful by helping our communities be successful!

What contributes to your success?

We understand that good business starts with great employees.

Our employees set us apart. They are friendly, knowledgeable and personable. Employees make us more than just a bank … they make us a community.

We are committed to serving both existing and prospective customers fairly and consistently. We know customers have options when it comes to choosing their bank. Whatever their needs may be, we will do what is right and help them make informed decisions about their choices.

How has your business grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

What began over a century ago in a small hardware store in Verona, Mississippi, now spreads from Texas to Missouri to the Gulf Coast.

This expansion has been matched by the continuous growth in new markets, products and services to better enable our customers and our teammates to reach for the sky.

We help our customers grow new businesses that bring life to main streets and offer a wide range of career opportunities that help grow and advance our teammates. Their hard work, perseverance and success write the history of our communities. We’ve been committed to our customers since 1876, and our solid foundation will help us continue to be wherever they need us to be.

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: HUGH WHITE, TERRY HARBIN SECOND ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: STEPHEN GEORGE, JANET DARNELL, KRISTIN MARTIN, SHANE HOPPER THIRD ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: BRANDI WEST, POTTER MOSS, JAKE COKER FOURTH ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: STUART PARNELL, JAMIE WARREN, WILSON RUSS FIFTH ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: JACK RESTER, LINDSEY BEMBRY, WILL MCNULTY SIXTH ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: RICHARD FUQUAY, MARY CLAIRE SHULSTAD, CHARLIE MCVEA NOT PICTURED: JAMES ALEXANDER, ELIZABETH BAILEY, JOHN HARDIN, PATRICK LADD, PAM LEWIS, ANDREA STRAWBRIDGE. PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

3290 Dauphin St. • Suite B • 251-345-0750 • bancorpsouth.com

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 59

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

Bryant Bank | Michael Holland

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

BRYANT BANK’S VISION IS TO SEE EVERY ALABAMIAN EXPERIENCE A FINANCIALLY STABLE FUTURE AND LIVE IN A THRIVING COMMUNITY. WE CARE BECAUSE ALABAMA IS OUR HOME, TOO.

How did you get into your field?

I started in the banking industry in 1992 after serving in the Army. I was attracted to banking because I admired those in the industry, saw many opportunities and appreciated the ability to serve customers and our community.

What is your mission?

As a banker, my personal mission is to create a lasting relationship by understanding a customer’s need and delivering an exceptional solution. I also work to develop future talent for the bank by growing, empowering and challenging our bankers.

What sets your business apart?

Bryant Bank is an Alabama-based community bank that is focused on Alabama families, businesses and communities. Mobile is not another

“market;” it’s our home. We care about the community members because they are our family. Our team strives to put that care into action, to help them invest in their full potential.

How do you make sure your clients get the best service?

I make sure clients receive optimal results by being a collaborative partner for them, not just a financial provider. It’s crucial that I pay attention to the details and do everything with exceptional ethics and integrity in mind. As bankers, we must offer sound advice and honest evaluations and work to build relationships that are built on trust and communication.

What contributes to your success?

and I have a duty to continue developing future bankers.

How has your business changed?

Where are you going from here?

The banking industry evolves every day, but I always communicate to new business owners or professionals that they need three advisors on their team: an attorney, a CPA, and a banker. A healthy relationship with these professionals will solve most issues that surface.

And, while banking will change and communities will grow, our team will remain consistent. Bryant Bank will always work to be the community bank that offers that hometown bank feel while providing the convenience and ease that we expect in today’s society.

I have had many mentors who took an interest in my development over the years

251-264-6575 • michael.holland@ bryantbank.com 60 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

LEFT TO RIGHT: MARCEE LALIBERTE, NEIL WOODBURY, DEBBIE CRAIN. PHOTO BY LARRAH MELISSA PHOTOGRAPHY

GMFS Mortgage Mobile

GMFS ORIGINATES RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE LOANS, PRIMARILY IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. SINCE 1999, GMFS HAS FUNDED HOME LOANS FOR MORE THAN 97,500 CUSTOMERS, RESULTING IN OVER $17 BILLION IN FUNDING.

Why did you get into your field?

I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1999 with a degree in finance and have always been intrigued with math and numbers. As a finance major, it was only fitting that I ended up being a mortgage lender for my career. I have also built homes in the past and have enjoyed owning and renovating houses.

Such renovation work, coupled with my knowledge of financing, led me to seek out a friend who has been a mortgage lender in the business for 11 years, Stephanie Machado, GMFS Mortgage Covington, to discuss the possibility of becoming a mortgage lender. After discussing what a mortgage lender does and what it takes to do it, I was given the opportunity to open up a branch in Mobile by Jeff Weston (one of the four founding members of GMFS, LLC). In September 2016, we opened the

Mobile branch of GMFS Mortgage on the corner of Old Shell Road and the I-65 service road.

What is your mission?

We are dedicated to changing lives in our communities and in the lives of our borrowers. We do so by giving our borrowers the best loan experience we can and by giving back to the communities we lend in.

What sets your business apart?

We are a team of local experts passionate about the mortgage industry! When you apply with us, you get a seamless experience from start to finish. Not only do borrowers get access to online and mobile tools, but they can pick up the phone and talk with someone about their loan. We have found that convenience to mean the most to our borrowers!

How do you make sure clients get the best service?

Communication and transparency is so important in the loan process. We provide a personalized experience for our borrower, allowing them to apply and communicate online, over the phone, in-person — whatever is most convenient.

What contributes to your success?

GMFS is a strong team of coworkers that have turned into family! Our resources are unlimited and that benefits our borrowers.

How has your business grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

We continue to help our borrowers achieve their dream of homeownership and look forward to meeting more families in the Mobile area!

3607 Old Shell Road • Suite B • 251-408-3485 • www.gmfsmortgage.com/mobile september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 61

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

Hancock Whitney HANCOCK WHITNEY IS A PROVIDER OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, ASSET ADMINISTRATION, PRIVATE BANKING AND FIDUCIARY SERVICES TO AFFLUENT INDIVIDUALS, THEIR FAMILIES AND THEIR BUSINESSES.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to help our clients achieve their financial goals and dreams. We combine a commitment to gracious hospitality along with extensive expertise in all aspects of wealth management. That is how we have approached managing wealth for over 100 years, and it has helped us become a top 50 trust and asset management firm* with approximately $25 billion in assets under administration.

What sets your firm apart?

Hancock Whitney provides each of our affluent clients a dedicated team of financial professionals skilled in helping them manage aspects of their financial lives. Our team provides services and solutions that are designed to make our clients’ lives easier. We offer a robust range of investment strategies from our nationally recognized Asset Management Team and our portfolio managers regularly meet with clients to provide direct insights on portfolio structure and market conditions.

Our private bankers work hand-in-hand with a team of financial planners, investment advisors, trust professionals, and portfolio managers to help clients seize financial opportunities.

Our process helps clients establish their financial goals, assess where they are today, and plan for their future. No matter where

LEFT TO RIGHT: DAVID WILSON, VP, SENIOR INVESTMENT CONSULTANT; KEVIN NELSON, VP, TRUST ADVISOR; JUSTIN MERCER, VP, RETIREMENT PLAN SERVICES; JOHN GAGE, SR. VP, REGIONAL WEALTH MANAGER; CLAIRE MCCARRON, SR. VP, PRIVATE BANKER; DOUG FALKINBURG, VP, WEALTH ADVISOR; ERIC KNOLL, VP, INSTITUTIONAL TRUST RELATIONSHIP MANAGER; MIKE ROGERS, VP, PRIVATE BANKER. PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

or when a client starts in their financial planning journey, we provide expertise, resources, solutions and services.

How has your business grown, and where are you going from here?

We have recently introduced a new digital platform that can integrate a client’s financial plan, investment portfolio and outside accounts into one place. Using our Wealth Manager Platform, a client is able to track their net worth and estimate where they are in relation to their financial goals.

The Wealth Manager Platform allows our team to devote more time to goals-based conversations with clients and provides us the ability to better anticipate needs and offer solutions.

With our 2018 acquisition of Capital One’s trust and asset management business, we significantly increased the size of our Asset Management team. We now have 44

dedicated Investment Professionals, 17 of whom have earned their CFA, focused on research, sector analysis, security selection, manager due diligence and portfolio design for our clients. The acquisition also included a robust Specialty Asset Management Team that can help affluent clients manage the complexities that come with owning oil, gas, timber, mineral and real estate assets.

Earlier this year, we announced that Hancock Whitney entered into a new, collaborative business agreement with the University of South Alabama. With this partnership, the University’s new on-campus football stadium, scheduled to open in 2020, will be named Hancock Whitney Stadium.

We also just opened a brand new financial center on July 29 in downtown Fairhope, further extending our footprint into Baldwin County.

*Top 50 trust firm in the U.S. by revenue

Investment products and services, such as brokerage, advisory accounts, annuities, and insurance are offered through Hancock Whitney Investment Services, Inc., a registered broker/dealer, member FINRA/SIPC and an SEC-Registered Investment Advisor. Hancock Whitney Bank offers other investment products, which may include asset management accounts as part of its Wealth Management Services. Hancock Whitney Bank and Hancock Whitney Investment Services Inc. are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Hancock Whitney Corporation.Investment and Insurance products: NO BANK GUARANTEE. NOT A DEPOSIT. MAY LOSE VALUE. NOT FDIC INSURED. NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY. 25 W 1-65 Service Road N • 251-665-1706 • hancockwhitney.com/wealth-management 62 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

IBERIABANK

IBERIABANK MOBILE AND FAIRHOPE BANKING TEAM. PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

IBERIABANK EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND MOBILE MARKET PRESIDENT KEN BROWN LEADS THE SOUTH ALABAMA PROFESSIONAL BANKING TEAM. WE HAVE AN EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND OF BANKING EXPERIENCE AND CONNECTIVITY TO CLIENTS AND OUR COMMUNITY. OUR COMPANY’S MARKET-CENTRIC BUSINESS APPROACH ALLOWS OUR LOCAL TEAM TO MAKE DECISIONS THAT ARE BEST FOR CLIENTS AND THE BROADER COMMUNITY.

What is your mission?

Provide exceptional, value-based client service: Our priority is helping clients achieve their personal and professional objectives by offering competitive banking products and differentiating high-touch service.

Great place to work: To be a great organization, we must employ great people.

Offering a nurturing, inclusive and entrepreneurial environment in which our associates can perform, grow and thrive (and have some fun) is a top priority.

Growth that is consistent with high performance: Growing and changing is the only way to remain relevant and successful.

We have grown market share faster than

any of our peers in our community.

Shareholder-focused: As a publicly traded company, delivering shareholder value is a priority.

Strong sense of community: We invest in our communities through financial support, volunteerism and creative solutions that create positive change.

IBERIABANK has all the resources to offer comprehensive financial services, which include retail, commercial, business banking, private banking, mortgages, wealth management and trust services.*

What sets your business apart?

Our bankers are experienced and are industry leaders in their respective fields. We continue to invest in our people and adapt to the ever-changing advancements in technology that meet the needs of our clients. * Wealth management and trust services available through IBERIA Wealth Advisors, a division of IBERIABANK.

Our people! Our team of bankers and the relationships we have with our clients is unparalleled. Our Company’s marketcentric business approach gives us the agility to swiftly make decisions while also allowing us to provide the best banking experience.

As a true relationship-focused company,

How has your business grown or changed, and where are you going from here?

IBERIABANK ~ Member FDIC ~ Equal Housing Lender

Downtown Mobile • Spring Hill • Fairhope • 251-345-9670 • iberiabank.com september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 63

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

Merrill Lynch

S. Wesley Carpenter, CPWA®, CFP®, ChFC®, CRPC®, CPFA S. WESLEY CARPENTER IS A SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, WEALTH MANAGEMENT ADVISOR FOR THE HARTY CARPENTER GROUP AT MERRILL LYNCH, WHERE HE SERVES A SELECT GROUP OF PROFESSIONALS, BUSINESS OWNERS AND RETIREES. HE WAS RECENTLY NAMED TO 2019 FORBES “BEST-IN-STATE WEALTH ADVISORS” LIST AND HAS BEEN NAMED TO FORBES/SHOOK AMERICA’S TOP NEXT-GENERATION WEALTH ADVISORS LIST IN 2017, 2018 AND 2019.

What is your mission?

We help clients achieve financial success by bringing clarity to complex life challenges.

At the end of the day, we strive to be our clients’ wealth management planner, private banker, investment advisor and friend.

What sets your firm apart?

THE HARTY CARPENTER GROUP has distinguished itself by providing customized advice and guidance, tailored to our client’s unique goals and priorities.

Our specialized team of six offers clients 98 years of industry and practical experience helping clients manage and prepare for their financial future.

I also think our team’s commitment to supporting our local community is what makes us unique. Over the past 18 months, our team has supported over 30 charitable organizations and contributed over $50,000 to local charities along with volunteering hundreds of hours. This community has supported our team for many years and we are honored to be able to give back to it.

What contributes to your success?

My three families: my client family, my work family and my home family. I could not be where I am today without our incredible clients, my amazing team that works tirelessly every day to improve the

lives of our clients and my wonderful wife Aeana and our two boys, Quin (5) and Wells (3).

How has your business changed?

Where are you going from here?

Our industry has experienced massive change and will continue to. The days of just being a stock broker are long gone. Today we strive to be a true partner to our clients, helping them in all aspects of their financial lives and to plan for the great unknowns of life. Our wealth management team welcomes the opportunity to show you firsthand what we do and how our services are appropriate for you and your family.

601 N Section St. • Fairhope • 251-990-2361 • fa.ml.com/thehartycarpentergroup 64 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

Mitchell McLeod Pugh & Williams

Gray A. Ingle, Director of Qualified Plan Services

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

How did you get into your field?

After graduating from Alabama with a finance degree, I began my career in banking. I quickly developed an interest in the retirement plan industry and joined DailyAccess (now Newport Group), a national retirement plan provider. At Newport Group and, more recently, at Mobile-based Employee Fiduciary, I gained extensive experience working with retirement plans across the country.

This background helped me understand the importance of an unbiased approach to 401(k) plan investments, a foundational aspect of MMPW’s retirement plan management. Consequently, when I joined MMPW, it was a terrific philosophical fit, and my experience on “the other side” of this business has helped me add value for MMPW’s clients and our firm.

Why should 401(k) plans include fiduciary oversight?

Plan sponsors have a duty to ensure their plans have reasonable fees and diversified investment options free from inferior funds. MMPW acts as what is called an ERISA section 3(38) investment adviser, the highest level of fiduciary oversight available to retirement plans.

In this fiduciary capacity, we assume full responsibility (and liability) for the

selection and continuous monitoring of plan investments. In effect, we provide our clients with fiduciary protection in an increasingly litigious arena.

moving parts, and we regularly meet one-on-one with participants to assist them with what could be one of their largest assets — their 401(k)!

What sets your firm apart?

What does MMPW offer for retirement plans?

MMPW is one of the largest independent, investment management organizations on the Gulf Coast. As of July 31, our regulatory assets under management were over $1.2 billion. We often hear that we “get what we pay for,” but in the case of retirement plans, it is not always true.

What sets MMPW apart is that we offer a level of expertise and service that we believe exceeds that of our competitors.

Additionally, we are able to do this with an extremely competitive and completely transparent fee structure, free from revenue-sharing or other conflicts of interest. We do not have proprietary investment products, and we are not paid by any fund companies. This “open architecture” approach allows us to offer flexible, unbiased investment options chosen strictly on the basis of their investment merits and their ability to help clients provide the fund menu most appropriate for their plan. Another key differentiator is the participant education and consultation we offer 401(k) plan participants. Retirement plans have many

As an ERISA section 3(38) adviser, we offer that crucial fiduciary oversight every retirement plan needs. This includes the selection and monitoring of plan investments and, importantly, participant enrollment and consultation services.

We work closely with plan sponsors, administrators and participants to make certain their plans best suit their needs and that they also comply with ERISA and Department of Labor regulations.

We handle some of the largest and most complex plans in the area and, given our commitment to independence, our clients’ interests are truly our interests.

How can someone evaluate the quality of a retirement plan?

Let us help! We offer free, comprehensive analyses of retirement plans. Anyone interested can call or email me at gray@ mmpw.com. When we evaluate plans, we frequently find that we can cut overall costs in half, while also improving plan features and client service.

2610 Dauphin St. • 251- 471-2027 • mmpw.com september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 65

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

LEFT TO RIGHT: ANDREW PASSMORE, MS, CFP®, LISA MCCAFFERTY, W. SCOTT PASSMORE, CLU, ChFC. PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

Passmore Planning Professionals PASSMORE PLANNING PROFESSIONALS IS A THIRD-GENERATION FINANCIAL PLANNING PRACTICE THAT FOCUSES ON HELPING FAMILIES ACCOMPLISH THEIR IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM FINANCIAL GOALS BY CREATING AND IMPLEMENTING COORDINATED FINANCIAL PLANS.

What can a family do to build assets beyond investing in the appropriate asset mix?

As the baby boomers begin to retire, many are finding that their spending power is less than expected due to ordinary income taxes owed on distributions from traditional qualified retirement plans (pre-tax 401k, 403b, etc). At the same time, many families still accumulating assets are doubtful they will see tax rates as low as they currently are later in life.

As a result, we see value in adding an additional layer of diversification into a family’s accumulation plan beyond traditional asset class diversification. By using various tax classification buckets

to accumulate assets, we hope to help clients reduce the risk of rising tax rates and possible erosion of purchasing power in retirement.

In your opinion, what is the biggest financial mistake many families make?

Procrastination. By waiting to begin saving or investing, you lose the most valuable asset of all — time. By avoiding the purchase of needed life, disability or long-term care insurance, you run the risk of being uninsurable. By delaying the creation of a financial plan, you lose the opportunity to make any adjustment required for success.

How can a coordinated financial plan help someone in or approaching retirement?

Some of the major risks in retirement include outliving one’s resources, outspending one’s resources, sequence of portfolio returns and an extended long-term care need. A cash flow based financial plan can help to reduce these retirement risks and subsequent stress by coordinating both near-term and long-term financial efforts.

Advisory Services offered through Investment Advisors, a registered investment advisor and division of ProEquities Inc., Securities offered through ProEquities Inc., a registered broker/dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Passmore Planning Professionals is independent of ProEquities Inc.

3662 Dauphin St. • Suite 1A • 251-316-3506 • passmoreplanning.com 66 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

Renasant Bank

Poenta Luckie, Baldwin County Market President A BANK THAT DELIVERS THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OF A MEGA-BANK BUT STILL HAS THE PERSONAL TOUCH OF A COMMUNITY BANK.

How did you get into your field?

As a CPA, I began my banking career as a comptroller, cashier and investment officer for a regional bank. I moved into commercial and retail roles because I enjoyed the interaction with families and businesses. Over the years, I have enjoyed getting to know business owners and families by working in the community and also through civic and social interactions. It is such a delight to work and serve in the community.

What is your mission?

My mission is to build relationships that assist individuals and businesses reach their financial dreams, as well as allowing me to support the community where I live

and work. I’m so blessed that Renasant has that mission, too. They want all employees serving in the community.

What sets your business apart?

The bank has a 115-year history of making solid loans, safeguarding deposits and providing personalized service. It is how Renasant has remained strong throughout both crisis and calm in the economy and consistently paid dividends to its shareholders.

How do you make sure clients get the best service/results?

We listen to them and what they are trying to achieve, then we put together a plan that will best position them to reach their

goals. There is no greater compliment to me than when a customer refers others and certainly when parents trust you to give their children the best financial care.

How has your business grown or changed and where are you going from here?

The bank was founded in 1904 in Tupelo, Mississippi. Since 2004, it has expanded into markets in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and other locations throughout Mississippi. The bank is committed to putting the needs of its clients and communities above all else, with the knowledge that meeting those needs will lead to success.

508 Fairhope Ave. • Fairhope • 251-295 - 8430 • renasantbank.com september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 67

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

LEFT TO RIGHT: TREY HARDWICH, VP MORTGAGE ORIGINATION, MARY MEGAN PARKER, MORTGAGE LOAN OFFICER . PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

Trulend Mortgage, LLC WHETHER YOU ARE BUILDING, PURCHASING OR REFINANCING PRIMARY RESIDENCES, SECOND HOMES OR INVESTMENT PROPERTIES, WE STRIVE TO PROVIDE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE.

Why did you get into your field?

Trey: I love banking and real estate, so when you merge those two together, you get the mortgage industry. It’s a rewarding experience to help a family close on their new home.

Mary Megan: Buying a home is a big investment, not just financially, but emotionally. I love seeing the look on people’s faces when they realize they not only qualify for a home, but they get to have the home they’ve always dreamed of. It’s a gratifying moment.

How do you make sure clients get the best service?

We want each customer to feel confident and secure during the loan process, so our goal is to provide a transparent and

personalized experience. We do that by making communication our number one priority, including the realtors and builders who may be involved in the process. Our Floify application allows our customers, realtors and builders to securely upload documentation and receive loan notifications all from their phone!

What sets your business apart?

We are part of a team that has created a fully integrated home buying experience involving everything from building, designing and decorating, financing, insuring and closing. This allows us to provide a seamless experience for every customer looking to be a homeowner. It makes the home buying process convenient and personalized.

What contributes to your success?

As an affiliate of 68 Ventures, our company is part of a team that handles the home building and buying process from start to finish, providing many resources to the home buyer. Our customers can leverage that support and make their home buying process truly personalized and unique.

How has your business grown or changed and where are you going from here?

We are constantly evolving to better meet the needs and demands our clients deserve. We are now servicing Florida, in addition to Alabama, and look forward to growing along the Gulf Coast with our 68 Ventures family!

29891 Woodrow Lane • Suite 150 • Spanish Fort • 251-929-4766 • trulendmortgage.com 68 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION | FACES OF FINANCE

LEFT TO RIGHT: BILLY WILLIAMS, MATT WILLIAMS. PHOTO BY ANTONIO ESTABA PHOTOGRAPHY

Williams Financial Group, LLC WILLIAMS FINANCIAL GROUP, LED BY BROTHERS BILLY WILLIAMS, CFP, ChFC AND MATT WILLIAMS, CLU, LUTCF, IS A LOCALLY OWNED, INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL PLANNING FIRM THAT SPECIALIZES IN COMPREHENSIVE WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND RETIREMENT PLANNING.

What is your mission?

Our mission is to assist in simplifying complex financial situations and to build relationships based on unyielding trust, integrity and personalized service.

What sets your firm apart?

As an independent advisory firm, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients.

As a fiduciary, we are bound ethically and legally to act in the best interest of each client we have the privilege of serving. Being independent also allows us to represent our client and not a specific company. This, coupled with having both a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) on the same local team, gives us the capacity to handle unique situations and

the capability to provide our clients with resources not typically found in other locally owned firms.

How do you make sure clients get the best service?

Many financial situations are complicated, can be overwhelming and will ultimately require concerted efforts to keep things simple. We consider it our job to help make the complicated simple.

For anyone who has ever been through a life changing event, such as retirement, the loss of a loved one or the sale of a business, they understand the difficulty of getting through these crossroads. As a firm, we pride ourselves in walking clients through these complex, life-changing events, providing personal and caring

guidance, rather than an 800 number.

We limit the number of families and businesses that we work with in order to provide a superior client experience and to ensure you know your team and they know your specific situation.

What contributes to your success?

Billy and Matt Williams were raised by parents who taught them honesty, high moral standards and the value of hard work. They were blessed by a family who stressed the importance of being respectful to others and always doing the right thing. This background of strong principles, coupled with an amazing team and clients who share the same values and beliefs, is what sets Williams Financial Group apart.

2566 Dauphin St. • 251- 473-2120 • wfgplanning.com september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 69

EXTRAS | CALENDAR OF EVENTS

A September to Remember!

SEPTEMBER 20 GOLF FOR THE GIFT 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tee up for this event benefitting adoption.

ROCK CREEK GOLF CLUB GIFTOFADOPTION.ORG/ALGOLF

SEPTEMBER 21 SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM DAY Today only, admission to participating museums is free with a downloaded ticket.

One ticket provides general admission for two people. Local participating locations: Conde Charlotte Museum, Eastern Shore Art Center, The Estuarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM/MUSEUMDAY

SEPTEMBER 21 - 22 SEPTEMBER 4 - 8

SEPTEMBER 12

GULF COAST CLASSIC DOG SHOW 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. More than 1,000 dogs and their owners will get the chance to strut their stuff in the show ring. Parking and admission are free.

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN 5:30 - 9 p.m. This “must do” event, benefiting the Ronald McDonald House of Mobile, features an unforgettable night of manicures, makeovers, shopping, entertainment and more. Ages 21 and up. Tickets: $50.

THE GROUNDS GULFCOASTCLASSICDOGSHOW.ORG

GOVERNMENT PLAZA RMHCMOBILE.ORG

SEPTEMBER 7 HURRICANE RUN 5K & FUN RUN 8:10 a.m. 5K. 9 a.m. Fun run. Lace up and join the fun, benefitting Dauphin Island Fire and Rescue.

DAUPHIN ISLAND SEA LAB PORTCITYPACERS.COM/HURRICANE-RUN-5K

SEPTEMBER 8 WEDDINGS TO BRAG ABOUT 11:30 a.m. Come be wooed at one of the South’s longest running bridal shows. One lucky couple will win a free wedding, reception and honeymoon!

AZALEA MANOR WEDDINGSTOBRAGABOUT.COM

SEPTEMBER 13 THE BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY PRESENTS “HOTEL CALIFORNIA” 8 p.m. Listen to the Eagles’ greatest hits.

Tickets: $30 - $35.

MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM

MOBILE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS OLE! 7:30 p.m. Sa. 2:30 p.m. Su. Aldo LópezGavilán performs. Tickets: $15 - $80.

MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESYMPHONY.ORG

SEPTEMBER 21 - 22 2019 GULF COAST HUNTING AND FISHING EXPO 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Come on down for hunting, fishing, outdoor products and services, guest speakers, music, prizes, possible celebrity appearances and good ol’ family fun.

THE GROUNDS GCHUNTFISHEXPO.COM

SEPTEMBER 21 - 22

THE PIRATES OF MASSACRE ISLAND 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Explore a unique part of the island’s history and search for buried goods.

ABBA SHRINE CRAFT & ATTIC SHOW 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sa. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Su. From antiques to jewelry, there’s something to delight every shopper. Bring a new toy to donate for a chance at a door prize.

Admission: $3; children 14 and under, free.

DAUPHIN ISLAND DAUPHINISLAND.ORG

ABBA SHRINE FACEBOOK.COM/ABBASHRINECRAFT

SEPTEMBER 14 - 15

 To have your event included in the online or print edition of Mobile Bay Magazine, email calendar@pmtpublishing.com.

70 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

SEPTEMBER 21 ALABAMA COASTAL CLEANUP 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Help remove trash from our Gulf Coast waterways.

VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN MOBILE AND BALDWIN COUNTIES ALABAMACOASTALCLEANUP.COM

SEPTEMBER 21 AMAZING TASTE OF MOBILE 5K RUN & FUN WALK 8 a.m. Join the annual 5K Run Fun presented

by Gulf Coast Multiple Sclerosis Avengers.

UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE • RUNSIGNUP.COM

SEPTEMBER 26 USA SYMPHONY BAND & WIND ENSEMBLE CONCERT 7:30 p.m. Enjoy an evening of music conducted by Jason F. Rinehart and William H. Petersen.

USA LAIDLAW PERFORMING ARTS CENTER SOUTHALABAMA.EDU/MUSIC

SEPTEMBER 28 GO RUN 5K & 1-MILE FUN RUN/WALK 8 a.m. Proceeds benefit gynecological cancer research at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute. Entry fee: $10, youth; $25, adults MITCHELL CENTER LAWN/MOULTON TOWER USAHEALTHSYSTEM.COM/GORUN

SEPTEMBER 28 LYNYRD SKYNYRD 6 p.m. The legendary Southern rock band comes to the beach. Tickets: $24 - $341.

THE WHARF • ALWHARF.COM

SEPTEMBER 28 DELTA DASH 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. Test your endurance and explore the Delta during this 5K obstacle course race.

LIVE OAK LANDING NORTHBALDWINCHAMBER.COM

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 71

SEPTEMBER 28 RACE FOR THE FALLEN GLOW RUN 6:30 p.m. This family fun race is for participants of all ages and speeds.

Entrance fee: $25 - 30.

THE GROUNDS • RACEFORTHEFALLEN.COM

SEPTEMBER 28 - 29 2019 JUBILEE FESTIVAL 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Enjoy live local entertainment, kids’ booths, food and more.

DAPHNE • ESCHAMBER.COM

SEPTEMBER 29 VINTAGE AFFAIR 4 - 7 p.m. Fight cancer at the 25th-annual gala, a one-of-a-kind evening featuring food, art, auction and more. Tickets: $150.

COTTON HALL ACSMOBILE.EJOINME.ORG/VINTAGEAFFAIR

[OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS]

OCTOBER 3, 4 PATTI CALLAHAN, AUTHOR EVENTS 6 p.m. Both nights. Alabama resident and New York Times bestselling author, Patti Callahan Henry, will be at The Steeple on October 3 and at Fairhope’s Page and Palette on October 4, in conversation with author Kristin Hannah.

Both events are free.

For an in-depth author interview, visit mobilebaymag.com/patti-callahan/.

OCTOBER 2 - 5 ALABAMA COASTAL BIRDFEST See over 300 species of birds before they head south for the winter.

SPANISH FORT WEEKSBAY.ORG/EVENTS/ ALABAMA-COASTAL-BIRDFEST/

OCTOBER 2 PASSION FOR PRICHARD PREP This luncheon will feature Eli Gold and comedian Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson. For tickets and sponsorships: sdunaway@prichardprepschool.com.

THE STEEPLE ON ST. FRANCIS

72 mobilebaymag.com | september 2019

EXHIBITS AT MOBILE MUSEUM OF ART 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tu - Su. Admission: $12 adults / $10 seniors / $8 students / Free for MMofA members. mobilemuseumofart.com URBAN WILD: STREET AND FOLK ART IN THE SOUTH Embrace the creativity of the South through exhibits at both the Mobile Museum of Art and Alabama Contemporary Art Center.

SOUTHERN MASTERS Step inside the lives of various local artists by looking at a recreation of their own studio or work space.

LEE M. HOFFMAN: A LEGACY Explore the diverse talents that Hoffman exhibited in his career.

OCTOBER 5 GEORGE B. ROGERS 2019 HOMES TOUR 8:45 a.m. - 6 p.m. Learn about five Rogers buildings followed by a wine and cheese celebration at Hunter House from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets: $200.

HISTORICMOBILETOUR.COM

OCTOBER 12 ALISON KRAUSS 8 p.m. The legendary bluegrass singer, known for songs such as “Whiskey Lullaby” and “Baby Mine” comes back to the Port City.

Tickets: $50, $70, $100.

MOBILE SAENGER THEATRE MOBILESAENGER.COM

OCTOBER 26 FOLEY WITCHES RIDE 5 p.m. Watch more than 200 witches ride the streets of Foley, and join the aferparty downtown. Participants must be 21 or older.

DOWNTOWN FOLEY BIT.LY/FOLEYWITCHESRIDE

september 2019 | mobilebaymag.com 73

PEOPLE | SPOTLIGHT

Where Are They Now? interview by NOAH HARRELSON

January 2010 may not seem that long ago, but consider that, at the time, the Los Angeles Lakers were visiting the White House, Avatar was continuing its box office run and Bob Riley was Alabama’s governor. It was also the month Mobile Bay announced its inaugural 40 Under 40 class.

Since then, 400 Mobilians — business people, public servants, artists and more — have been recognized as leaders and innova-

MATTHEW LEMOND CLASS OF 2017 OWNER: POST, O’DALY’S IRISH PUB, CEDAR STREET SOCIAL CLUB AND LEMON T’S

So what’s new? This past February, I branched out with POST, which is a craft cocktail and wine bar. It has a more modern atmosphere and more places to sit down. But if you decide that you want to get rowdy, you can still jump across the street to O’Daly’s and listen to some live music.

How do you think you’ve changed since you started O’Daly’s? I definitely have a greater understanding of owning and managing my own business. And now that I have a general manager handling a lot of the work, I’m able to focus on our bigger events and our growth.

What is it like to be in the middle of all of the development Downtown?

I bet you go to bed a lot earlier than when you first started.

I use this analogy for the people that move away for college or a job: Think of Mobile as a younger cousin.

When you only see her every couple of years, she goes from 3 feet tall to 4 feet tall, and it’s shocking. But for me, being Downtown every day, I’m able to enjoy seeing the millimeters of growth.

The real difference is how much earlier I get up. I used to start the day closer to 8 or 9, but now my eyes open around 5:30 to 6.

If O’Daly’s represents your 20s and POST represents your 30s, then what is going to define your 40s?

A beach bar? I don’t know.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

tors. But for these movers and shakers, being named one of the annual 40 Under 40 wasn’t the end of the road. They have since earned promotions, started new businesses and continued their good work.

So, to mark a decade of 40 Under 40, we’re catching up with eight representative honorees to see how far they, their work and Mobile have come.

RILEY BRENES CLASS OF 2016 TRANSITIONAL PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR, JAMES T. STRICKLAND YOUTH CENTER

What has changed since you were a 40 Under 40? I have been promoted to transitional programming coordinator.

My job is to introduce kids in detention to people and programs that will guide them as they re-enter the community. That way, they’ll already have a connection with someone, and they won’t feel like an outsider.

Do you think the opportunities for young black men and women have improved in the last 10 years? Absolutely. Black unemployment is at an all-time low. I know the media doesn’t always play it that way, but with what’s been going on for the inner city community and juvenile justice reform, I feel that black Mobilians have more of a shot now than they ever have.

How have things changed in Mobile in particular?

We have developed incredible partnerships with nonprofit organizations, such as the Mobile Arts Council, Alabama Cooperative Extension and many more. Just look at what NEST has done to help kids graduate high school and lower the recidivism rate. On both the government and nonprofit sides, Mobile County is leading the way in juvenile justice reform, without a doubt.

What do you think Mobile will look like in another 10 years?

I hope we take what we did with Art Walk Downtown and do it in Prichard. Honestly, we could flip that whole community, as long as we make sure the people who are already there are involved.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

 We are taking names! Applications are now being accepted for the 2019 40 Under 40 Awards.

Nominate a friend, a coworker or self-nominate! Visit mobilebaymag.com/40-under-40/

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MELISSA RANKIN, CLASS OF 2012 U.S. PROBATION OFFICER / TRAINING COORDINATOR, U.S. PROBATION OFFICE, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

organized. But it is nice to set my own hours and work for myself.

What’s new?

I started She’s a Pistol, a small business where I teach women how to handle and shoot firearms. Also, I was promoted to training coordinator. I still serve as a probation officer, but I’m wearing a lot more hats.

Who are some of the folks working to better Mobile?

The Downtown Mobile Alliance is involved in so many great and wonderful projects. They’re down here sweeping sidewalks, planting flowers, walking people to their cars at night. I have so much respect for what they do.

Do you see more women in your field than when you started? Best I can recall, there were four other women probation officers when I was hired. Now it’s between 30 and 40 percent female.

In 10 years, where will you be?

I’ll be retired as a probation officer, but I’ll still be working, whether it’s for She’s a Pistol or something else. I’ve always been involved in the community, so you’ll probably find me there, too.

How different is owning a small business than government work? As a probation officer, I’m paid by the taxpayer, so everything I do is subject to scrutiny. That actually serves me well with She’s a Pistol, because I’m used to being very

How did that change how you thought about your job? There’s always going to be frustrations and obstacles, but I always try to make it feel like service. I’ve found that if there’s not some kind of deeper purpose, then

What’s new? I went to Sewanee to be the Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence … and I kind of never left. I think one of the wonderful things about Sewanee is that it has given me time to be the teacher I want to be, the writer I want to be and the parent I want to be. Trying to find a way to balance those three things has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced.

Does spending time away from Mobile change your perspective on the city? There’s something about Mobile that grounds me. Each time I’m home I feel like I can see the growth of the city, and I am encouraged by the people who are dedicated to continue to making Mobile even more dynamic.

Has your creative vision shifted in the last 10 years? I do feel that my work is more socially relevant.

I want plays that encourage important conversations. I also feel that because my writing time is so limited and sacred, I am very selective about the projects that I take on.

How can Southern culture and writing change for the better in the next decade? They could be much more inclusive and acknowledge the changed face of Southern identity. I’m trying to do my part by reflecting that in the work that I create.

PHOTO BY CATHERINE DORROUGH

PHOTO BY MATT GATES

VANESSA REYNER CLASS OF 2014 CO-FOUNDER OF CREATE SPACE AND MARKETING CONSULTANT

What’s new? In 2017, I closed down my office, decided to focus on parenting and took on a role as a marketing consultant. I wanted to see what I could do with my skills and resources that wasn’t just advertising for businesses. I started working with companies that were having a direct impact in the community and people’s lives.

I’m also working with a friend to launch a company called Create Space that will provide resources for women looking for authentic community.

ELYZABETH WILDER , CLASS OF 2009 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS PLAYWRIGHTIN-RESIDENCE, SEWANEE: THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH

it’s going to fall right on its face. I’m still working just as hard, but in a different way.

Is this where you imagined you would be 10 years ago?

I never would have imagined I’d be launching some sort of faith-based curriculum with a pastor’s wife. I believe that if you keep listening and keep going to where you’re supposed to be, then that stuff will be revealed to you.

What development in Mobile are you most excited about?

Having an actual Downtown that I can bring my family to and just go hang out. The parks look better. There are events for the kids. I was even able to take them ice skating!

TYLER KERNS, CLASS OF 2016 DEAN OF STUDENTS / HEAD SWIM AND DIVE COACH AT ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL AND ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH AT THE CITY OF MOBILE SWIM ASSOCIATION

People always say that every generation is worse than the one before it. What do you see? Kids are inherently really, really good. It’s how we bring them up and the things we teach them that determine what kind of young adults and adults they become. It’s our responsibility as adults to do right by them all the time.

Have you had to change the way you do things because of technology? Cellphones and laptops are the easy ones that people always point to.

They are great tools as long as kids know what is acceptable and even what is real. Every teenager needs to understand that they are free to make choices but not free of the consequences.

What will Mobile’s schools look like in another decade? I don’t know, but I do know that you either adapt or die. I hope nobody looks at the future and says, “I really hope I’m the same in 10 years as I am now.”

That’s probably the coach in me. As a coach, you try to win something or get better at some detail every game. I have the same approach at school.

Name a no-nonsense improvement that Mobile still needs to make. One of the things that I’m passionate about is making sure that every kid is safe around water.

I can’t stand to find out that another kid drowned because they didn’t have access to swim and water safety lessons.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

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JENNIFER JENKINS CLASS OF 2009 FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT JJPR AGENCY

What’s changed in the last decade?

In 2010, I decided to start my own firm to try to find a better balance between my career and family.

Over time, it grew from what I thought would be a solo public relations firm to a full-service agency with a team of nine. Not only has my business grown, so has my family — Graham is a college freshman, Miles is a high school junior, and Ann Page is in fourth grade. I’ve also had tremendous experiences working with community organizations including serving as president of the Junior League of Mobile and on the board of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce.

What sets you apart as a business leader? My ability to listen and to manage a team. I work with a lot of young people who have busy lives and families. So when something happens, say a child or parent gets sick, I know how that feels and want to give them the flexibility to take care of the important things in life. That flexibility is why we’ve been able to retain some really good people.

I know they’ll manage their workload and take care of our clients.

How will Mobile look in another 10 years? It’ll definitely be more congested, and we’ll have to learn to adjust and flex in a bigger city and community, not only in how we think but also in how we work.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW COUGHLIN

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LAUREN WOODS CLASS OF 2015 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ART, DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY, AUBURN UNIVERSITY

What’s new? I just finished my first year teaching in the Department of Art and Art History at Auburn University, and right now I’m at my first artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center. I am not performing anymore as a dancer, but I am still involved in dance, including my latest project — a mixed media collaboration with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken and musician Jack Ray at the Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City, New York.

What do you miss the most about Mobile? It’s nice to focus solely on my own artistic practice, but I miss being a part of the Mobile art community. For many years I was involved with Mobile Ballet, and I got to meet and perform with a lot of great people. I definitely view times performing in Mobile with more nostalgia now, even though I haven’t been gone that long.

What were you up to in 2009?

I was in my first year of graduate school at the New York Academy of Art. Before that, I had been working for Buzz Jordan, and I remember him encouraging me and telling me, “You have to go to graduate school.”

I’m really glad he did because it was good to hear that from someone outside of my family and friends.

How has Southern art developed in the last decade? I’ve always noticed that art from the South tends to focus on storytelling, and that’s still the case, but the perspectives and scope of which stories are now being told is broadening. When I first started painting seriously, I tried not to appear Southern at all, but now I’m accepting and using that background as a part of my artistic practice because of how much it has shaped my experiences and visual language. MB PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

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THE ARTS | LITERATURE

The Arbor Local author Audrey Atkins on the pleasures of a life spent beneath the scuppernong vines. excerpt from the book THEY CALL ME OR ANGE JUICE by AUDREY MCDONALD ATKINS illustration by CARL CALDERONE

I

have an arbor. I flat love it. My husband hates it — the bugs, the squashed and sticky scuppernongs, the smell of fermentation and rot.

I have an arbor because Granny had an arbor. And I flat loved it.

It was covered with muscadine vines growing down to the ground and high up into the trees. I would drag whatever lawn furniture and discarded household items I could scavenge or spirit away under the arbor’s dark cover to create a playhouse, my own secret refuge hidden from the outside world.

It was always shady and cool. Quiet, except for the hum of the bees and the occasional bark of a far-off dog.

I would mark off rooms with rows of pine straw and arrange old pots, pans, and broken plates in the kitchen. A rusty, metal chase lounge from a long-forgotten patio set was my living room sofa. A bed of straw covered with an old horse blanket made a bed.

In my playhouse, I ate the muscadines growing at my fingertips and sand pears from a nearby tree, both sticky, sweet, late-summer treats. I watched birds nesting among the twisted branches. Sometimes I would get the ladder and climb on top, the old vines supporting my weight so I could lie down and watch the clouds blow overhead or feel the sun shining

down on my face. I once entertained Mr. Noshoulders, a long, shiny, black snake, until he decided to carry on about his business.

That is why I have an arbor. I built it several years ago and planted three muscadine vines and three scuppernong vines. They have since grown to cover the wooden frame and drape down the sides like long curtains. The vines have even ventured over into the fig tree, and

in the spring, delicate, green tendrils seem to be reaching to touch the sky. In the late summer, the vines become heavy and droopy with fruit.

Sometimes, when Brother comes to visit, we go to the arbor and visit while we pick the muscadines and scuppernongs. As we talk, sometimes I will sneak one of the fruits into my mouth and pop the skin with my teeth, releasing the sweet nectar, and then spit the mucous-like center at

 “They Call Me Orange Juice” is available at The Haunted Bookshop on Dauphin Street or through Amazon.

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Brother when he least expects it. I especially like it when I hit him on the neck or upside the head. It is one of my greatest joys as a big sister.

Mostly though, I find myself out under my arbor all by myself, lost in the task of picking the seemingly endless supply of grapes — only the low ones for me though; the high ones are left for the birds. I wonder why I haven’t put a chair under my arbor where it is always shady and cool. I will next year, I always tell myself.

I plot out rooms in my mind. I arrange imaginary furniture. I always keep an eye out just in case old Mr. No-shoulders decides to drop by.

Granted, I no longer have a need to play house. I can always go into my brick and mortar house where I have real rooms and air conditioning. But as the setting sun shines through the leaves, luminescent like stained glass windows, and I am serenaded by the buzzing of the bees and the occasional bark of a faraway dog, I am always loathe to leave my reverie.

I have an arbor. I flat love it. MB

Born and raised in Citronelle, Atkins now lives with her husband in Birmingham where she is the director of community engagement at WBHM Public Radio. A raconteur at heart, she shares her often funny and sometimes poignant stories about growing up and living in the South in her recent book, “They Call Me Orange Juice,” and at her blog audreyatkinswriter.com.

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THE ARTS | FINE ART

Masterpieces in Mobile Conrad Albrizio’s mosaic masterpieces, housed in the foyer of the Civic Center arena, face an uncertain future. text by FR ANK DAUGHERTY

I

n the local news lately, there have been stories about the impending demolition of the Mobile Civic Center and plans for the huge plot of land there in the heart of Downtown. But generally missing from the discussion is the fate of two artistic masterpieces inside the Civic Center. These are the massive, vibrant mosaics of “Mardi Gras” and “Circus” by Conrad Albrizio located in the entrance foyer of the arena. A new book by art historian Carolyn A. Bercier, appearing just this spring, tells us that these mosaics, completed in 1965, eight years before his death, were Albrizio’s last murals and are the distillation of a passionate artistic career that began in the 1920s.

If the mosaics are cause for concern, it is because sometimes the unthinkable happens — the recent despoliation and sale of the magnificent Downtown, neo-Gothic St. Joseph’s Catholic Church comes to mind. A committee formed by the city government to examine proposals for the Civic Center property has discussed the mosaics, says Brad Christensen, the city’s director of real estate asset management. “The mayor has asked me to look into what it would take to move

and restore them. There is a high likelihood that the city will do whatever it takes to save these,” though he did add that, as of yet, nothing is certain.

Too often, the murals of Conrad Albrizio in Mobile receive only a passing glance or an appreciative “Nice!” Yet the name of the artist is not well-known here. Besides the Civic Center mosaics, Albrizio completed a mosaic of the “History of Medicine” at the University of South Alabama Health Center in 1965, a small mosaic of a mother and child in the old YWCA building on Government Street in 1958, a mosaic devoted to the history of law and justice in 1958 for the Mobile County courthouse, which now hangs in Mobile Government Plaza, and a stupendous cycle of frescoes on maritime trade and commerce in 1949 in the lobby of what is now the Waterman-Smith Building on St. Joseph Street. The Waterman frescoes are worthy of a pilgrimage to see them, as they all are. What the larger murals have in common is a soaring vision of human achievement and interdependence, of building and discovering, of ages, races and peoples, of numinous myth, divine afflatus, color, energy and movement.

“THE MAYOR HAS ASKED ME TO LOOK INTO WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO MOVE AND RESTORE THEM. THERE IS A HIGH LIKELIHOOD THAT THE CITY WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SAVE THESE.” – Brad Christensen, director of real estate asset management for the City of Mobile

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ABOVE In 1964 - 1965, Conrad Albrizio created this exuberant mosaic of Mobile Mardi Gras in Venice and then brought it by ship back to the U.S. to be installed in the Mobile Civic Center.

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

OPPOSITE Shown here in his prime, Conrad Albrizio was a master of fresco, oil painting and mosaic. His frescoes in Mobile’s WatermanSmith Building are among the largest fresco cycles in the U.S. COURTESY OF LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

They startle and hoist us up skyward out of our workaday Mobile-Baldwin errands and routines. In her book, “The Frescoes of Conrad Albrizio: Public Murals in the Midcentury South,” published by LSU Press, Bercier tells us that Albrizio was “committed to the idea of the artist as a socially conscious leader” and that he had “an unwavering belief in the need for public art.”

Born in 1894 to Italian immigrant parents, Albrizio grew up in New York City. In 1914, he entered the Beaux Arts Institute to study architectural design, and during World War I, he entered the Navy. On a wartime visit to

“I HOPE THE PEOPLE OF MOBILE LIKE IT. [I WANT TO TAKE] ART OUT OF THE GALLERY AND INTO A PLACE WHERE IT CAN BE SEEN IN EVERYDAY LIFE.” – Conrad Albrizio

New Orleans, “he was drawn to the quaint and peaceful niches of the French Quarter,” Bercier tells us. In 1919, he returned to New Orleans and moved into an apartment near Jackson Square, right next to the apartment of William Faulkner and his roommate Bill Spratling. Albrizio enjoyed the life of “creative, free-spirited, often party-loving bohe-

mians” in the 1920s Vieux Carré, a scene that included not only Faulkner but also Sherwood Anderson, Lyle Saxon and others. Albrizio became a founding member of the influential New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club.

In 1923, he returned to New York to study painting under George Luks, a member of the renowned Ashcan School, and in 1924, he made his first trip to Europe to study at a private art school in the Paris Montparnasse district. Unfortunately, he found the French “cold and brusque,” but on a visit to Italy, he found that Rome, “in all her glory and

grandeur, was alive.”

In 1929, he went back to Rome to study fresco, encaustic and oil painting under Venturini Papari, an “outstanding technician and restorer of old masters,” and in 1930, Albrizio studied fresco in Fontainebleau, France.

Bercier devotes an entire chapter to Mobile’s Waterman frescoes, with their geometrically complicated but unified narratives of “Commerce and Migration,” “Effects of Commerce on Primitive People,” and “Civic Well-Being,” as well as smaller insets and a dome painting. Bercier calls them “one of the longest fresco cycles in the United States.”

Albrizio himself said of the Waterman frescoes, “I hope the people of Mobile like it.

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[I want to take] art out of the gallery and into a place where it can be seen in everyday life.”

In 1931, Albrizio married a writer with Mobile relations, Imogene Inge of Greensboro. From the 1930s to the 1950s, he worked out of New Orleans as a “wildly prolific” artist in his prime, creating murals for Huey Long’s new state capitol complex, the Louisiana State University campus, and many other sites, and he became an art instructor at LSU. Bercier tracks his artistic evolution from murals showing working men and women in the style of Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera to American Regionalism similar to the style of Thomas Hart Benton, whom indeed Albrizio knew in New York and corresponded with. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s, when his Mobile murals were done, his work became more symbolic and philosophical. His last fresco cycle from 1954 can still be seen at the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

With the advent of modern architecture came wrenching change. In the 1950s, frescoes were going out of fashion in the U.S., and mosaics were felt to be more in keeping with the clean, angular lines of new public buildings. Accordingly, to learn mosaic technique, Albrizio went to Mexico in 1955, and in 1958 he went to Venice, famed for its Murano glassmaking foundries. Over a 10-year period, when Albrizio was in his 60s and 70s, he made several mosaics in Louisiana and Mobile, of which the enormous Civic Center mosaics are the last. Albrizio traveled again to Venice in 1964 to find the glass “tesserae” pieces for these, and he created them there with the help of Venetian craftsmen as his assistants.

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movement and color. “Mardi Gras” features a prancing American drum majorette, musical harlequins, a churning sea, straining seahorses and Neptune lifting his trident against a sky of streaming rays. The crests of Mobile’s four oldest Mardi Gras mystic societies are prominently displayed on Neptune’s amphibious float. The other huge mosaic of “Circus” shows a giant clown jumping over a contortionist while trapeze artists fly through the air, a stunt rider stands on horseback, and elephants rear up and flourish their trunks. After their completion, Albrizio suffered successive strokes and health problems. He returned to oil painting in his final years and died at the age of 78 in 1973, still a resident of his beloved French Quarter.

According to Brad Christensen, the Mobile city government will be contacting an Ohio company, McKay Lodge Art Conservation Laboratory, about the feasibility of preserving the Civic Center mosaics. An article on the company’s website details how, in 2005, they removed the courthouse mosaic tiles and remounted them onto lightweight aluminum panels for relocation. In view of Albrizio’s lifelong striving for perfection, the Civic Center mosaics surely represent, as Milton put it, “the precious life-blood of a master spirit.” It is to be hoped that, on his watch, Mayor Stimpson will save these two crown jewels of the city. MB ABOVE Conrad Albrizio’s rollicking mosaic of “Circus,” one of two he made for the Mobile Civic Center, came at the very end of a prolific artistic career that started in the 1920s.

PHOTO BY CHAD RILEY

 Frank Daugherty is author of the comic Mardi Gras-themed novel “Isle of Joy.”

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HISTORY | ASK MCGEHEE

What is the history of the cannon at Government and Houston streets? text by TOM MCGEHEE

According to information within the files of the Mobile Public Library, that cannon, which weighs in excess of 16,000 pounds, has moved around over the years. It already had some age to it, and had reportedly seen use during the Civil War, when it arrived at Fort Morgan in 1879.

By the start of the 20th century, such cannons were obsolete. In 1905, it was hauled to downtown Mobile as a part of a beautification project for lower Government Street. William Butler Duncan, a New Yorker and chairman of the board of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, donated money to create a grass median east of Royal Street.

At the time, both the L&N and M&O railroads were sharing a union terminal at the foot of Government Street, and Duncan wanted passengers to have a better impression of the city upon their arrival. The median was planted with trees and named Duncan Place to honor its benefactor.

ABOVE The cannon has called the intersection of Government and Houston streets home since 1953. PHOTO BY BRECK PAPPAS

City Hall More than three decades later, construction of the Bankhead Tunnel led to the unceremonious removal of Duncan Place.

The old cannon was relocated to the courtyard of City Hall (now the History Museum of Mobile).

By the time the tunnel was completed, it seems no one had given a thought to restoring Duncan Place. Cars were rapidly replacing passenger trains, and Duncan had been dead for decades. The cannon sat in City Hall until May 1953 when longtime mayor Charlie Baumhauer had it moved to the triangular piece of land at The Loop where it has been positioned ever since.

Upkeep

Today, the city maintains the cannon and the seasonal plantings around it, but this was not the always the case.

Everyone from Boy Scouts to members of the Alabama National Guard took a turn sprucing up the cannon and its floral border in the beginning. Annual repainting of the

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cannon had become a necessity.

Local high school football victories have been celebrated by painting slogans and scores on the cannon since its arrival. In 1971, a local American Legion post offered a $100 reward “for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any vandal disfiguring the cannon.” It’s not clear if anyone ever tried to collect that reward.

The main culprit over the years has become the victor of the annual matchup between Murphy High and McGill-Toolen.

The game has even been given the moniker of “The Battle for the Cannon.”

In 1981, the cannon was stripped of dozens of coats of paint.

The process revealed paint colors ranging from basic black to candy apple red. With high school football season upon us once more, it will be soon be ready for another coat.

Meanwhile, Duncan Place, where Admiral Semmes’ statue now stands, has been restored and another cannon decorates that median today. MB

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END PIECE | IN LIVING COLOR

Leroy “Satchel” Paige, 1948 Original photo courtesy Marshall Wormley, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama • Colorization by Dynamichrome Limited

Mobile native, Leroy “Satchel” Paige, pictured here in the 1948 season for the Cleveland Indians, was born July 7, 1906, the third son and seventh child of what would eventually be 12 children.

When he was 7, Paige worked as a baggage carrier, lugging passengers’ satchels from the L&N station to Downtown hotels like the Battle House. During this time, he earned the moniker “Satchel,” either because he carried a lot of bags at once or because he stole many bags — theories abound.

It was during his court-appointed time at Mount Meigs Negro Reform School (he was convicted of theft and school truancy) that he procured his talent as a baseball pitcher. Paige went on to be the first black pitcher in the major leagues and the oldest rookie in history, earning him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

Did you ever see Satchel Paige in action? Let us know! Email ahartin@pmtpublishing.com.

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