Fair Well To South Padre

Hello, Everyone,

I doubt very much that anyone's visited this blog in a long time. I started it just after my parents passed on as a kind memorial to them, and as a love letter to South Padre Island for being a place my parents loved and from which they took a great deal of pleasure.

But, we've sold their house on South Padre and our lives have moved on. While I will always be fond of the island, I guess I should close the book on that part of their lives.

Oh, and speaking of books, you might want to check out a book I did about my parents which uses SPI as a kind of metaphor for them. It's called Padre (surprise, surprise) and it is here on Amazon:

 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1792646909/

And here's the cover:

 

But, otherwise, I guess I'll be shutting down this blog, or at least no longer posting to it. If you want to see more of my work, try my other blogs, such as explosive-cargo, which is here:

https://explosive-cargo.blogspot.com/

 If you have visited this site, thank you for your attention. And thanks, too, to the people and places of SPI.

cheers

Michael Jay Tucker

A Gulf Side House

A South Padre Island residence!

I ran across this lovely house on the Atlantic side of the island some years ago. Alas, I’ve never seen it open. Whenever I was there, the owners weren’t.

Still, it is charming piece of architecture and I hope that someone enjoys it greatly.


check it out on my Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/509751824/gulf-house-1?ref=shop_home_active_5

Moon Pool 2

And yet another nighttime swimming pool image from South Padre Island. And, once again, I’ve tried to give it a hint of Raoul Dufy.

This particular pool is at one of the big hotels (actually, one of my favs) on the southern end of SPI. I’ve seen the pool for years, and I’ve got to confess, I didn’t understand at first why anyone would want to visit a swimming pool when the ocean was just a few yards away.

I didn’t understand, that is, until one year we were on the shore and the island had an infestation of jelly fish. It’s rare, but it happens, and tons of the creatures will wash up on the beach. They’re dying, of course, but they can still sting, as I found out the hard way.

Oh, and I should add that we were with our son, who was at the time in second grade or there’s about. So, for us not to be able to get to the water was a bit of a crisis.

Shortly after that, I learned to love swimming pools, even if, or particularly if, they’re at the beach.


This image is on luster photo paper and is 21 x 12 inches.You can see it on our Etsy shop here:

The Moon Pool 2

A Moon Pool

Another SPI piece...

Again, if you visit the area often enough, you may figure out from whence this image came. It is a view of the pool of one of the hotels (one of my favs) on the south end of the island, and specifically on the Gulf side.

I’ve tried to give this just a little bit of a Raoul Dufy feeling. Whether I’ve been successful in that, is another question :-)

I’m offering this on photo paper at 20.00 x 17.00 inches. You can see it at the Etsy shop, here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/504622240/pool-1?ref=shop_home_active_1

The Twin Towers 1

This is the first of my little images  from South Padre. If you've been to the island, you'll recognize this scene. Just drive North, past the heart of the town, until you're almost to the dunes. Just there, and on the Gulf Side, you'll see a development that includes these two towers—among many other things.

I was lucky enough to see these Towers on a cloudy day just before a storm. This image was the result. (To see it larger, click on the image.)

As always, you can see a higher resolution version, and buy a 25 x 14 inch poster of it, at the Etsy shop, which is here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/511580023/south-padre-towers-1?ref=shop_home_active_1

My Love Letter To South Padre Island, Texas

This is my little love letter (with pictures) to South Padre Island, Texas.

To explain, I have a special relationship with SPI. Which is odd, on some level, because I’ve never lived on the island for more than a week or so at any one time. I’m not a winter Texan or a snowbird. I’ve never been to Spring Break. I can’t even say I’ve always liked the place.

Yet, my parents loved the island. They visited it at least three times a year for almost four decades, in spite of problems and pains and hurricanes. They ended up owning a little duplex there, and it was their hobby and their project, almost their pet. The island, then, was their refuge, the place to which they fled when they wanted to escape the problems of the world.

And, when they died, it was to South Padre that I took their ashes...and scattered them to the winds and the waves.

So, because my parents loved South Padre Island, I did as well.

This blog, then, is my love letter to SPI...and to Port Isabel, and to the rest of the southmost Texas gulf coast. It is an expression of my affection for the island, and my respect for it, and, yes, sometimes, my exasperation with it. But not to worry. Some degree of exasperation is normal enough. No healthy relationship is entirely free of it.

What’s here? Well, there will be some notes, some writing. And, too, there will be some links to the little videos I’ve begun making as a hobby.

But, chiefly, what you’ll find here are my experiments in mixed media—mostly water color, modified photography, and so on. In recent weeks, I’ve started doing a good many of these, many based on things I’ve seen or remembered from my time on South Padre.

I hope you like them.

Two crass commercial issues. First, I am trying to sell some of these images. You can get them as posters at the Etsy shop I run with my wife, who does photography (and does it so very well!)

Second, I mentioned that my parents had a duplex on the island. It’s a great little place, really, right on the bay side. But, now that they’re gone, I’m going to have to sell it. If you’re interested in a vacation home on the water, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with the realtor.

Until next time, take care, and please enjoy the pictures.

mjt