< Previous50 COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019CURRENTS | ARTMarc Wyatt’s art is inspired by the sea. And because he lives on a boat in Galveston, he’s surrounded by inspiration every day.Wyatt, 52, has been painting and drawing since his youth. When he was about 10 years old, his grandmother noticed his tal-ent, he said. He started taking art lessons in his Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas, won first place at the state fair in oil painting at age 12 and continued through high school and college at Stephen F. Austin State University.“There has never been anything conventional about me,” Wyatt said. “I’ve been a starving artist my whole life and cursed with this creative streak that makes me continuously seek out art. I would have preferred to have a photographic memory or something, so I could have been a doctor and been able to make a decent living.”Wyatt has been around water and the sea for most of his life. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1991, and spent five years working in marine safety — saving lives and protecting the environment. He was stationed in Galveston for much of his service. He returned to Gal-veston in 2006, where for the past three years his home has been a 31-foot-long sailboat. He frequently docks it at Pelican Rest Marina on Offatts Bayou, but enjoys taking it out into the Gulf for a relaxing sail, he said.“I love living on the boat,” he said. “It’s inexpensive to live on and there is a constant breeze. I love looking at the wildlife — birds and fish — and they inspire my art.”When on the water, Wyatt photographs scenes and objects that appeal to him and re-creates those images in water colors, oils or other mediums. He doesn’t have a studio, but works wherever it’s convenient for him, he said. Occasionally, he displays his paintings at ArtWalk in Galveston in front of Luna, a boutique at Church and 22nd streets in the island’s downtown.Wyatt also has mastered the art of airbrushing sword-fish bills, an unusual art form that requires precise steps to clean and preserve the fish’s jawbone and then paint a design or insignia on it. And Wyatt has expressed himself in the past as a tattoo artist as well as a painter of wild animals, including lions, gorillas and giraffes. He also refinishes and paints firearms per an owner’s instructions.Recently, Wyatt has turned his creative mind to fur-niture, tabletops and bar tops for local businesses or homes. He supports himself as a carpenter and formed a company with his 21-year-old son, Austin. The company, called Wyatt Worx, handles the random jobs the men are hired to do.But his real love is painting, he said. His subjects are sunsets over Seawolf Park, incoming ships in the har-bor, as well as local scenes in Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula. He also paints portraits — his favorite is his granddaughter. And there’s a series of fashion designs he created, he said.“There’s nothing I’m afraid of trying to do,” he said. “I would love to have a studio and work on my art. I am cautiously optimistic about the future.” Marc Wyatt paints two flamingos with watercolors on his sailboat in Galveston. Wyatt has been painting and drawing since he was a child.Summer is here! Mention this ad for a free cup of coffee or a cold beverage from our community coffeehouse, Sugar BeanGalveston Sales and Selections Center13 Evia Main, Galveston, TX 77554(409) 744-5557 - sales@sbbtexas.comwww.sbbtexas.comCome Home to theBest of GalvestonAt Sullivan Brothers Builders, we’re not just building homes – we’re building lifestyles. 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AVAILABLE NOW:1 Duval Street - Montgomery 3 bedroom / 2.5 bathroom3 Duval Street - Finley 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom4 Duval Street - Beaufort 3 bedroom / 2.5 bathroom5 Duval Street - Bonnie 4 bedroom / 2.5 bathroom3 Duval Street3/2/2 - Offered at $411,152FIND YOUR HOME AT EVIA:54 COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019CURRENTS | ART‘WE’RE LUCKY’Family of fine art painters celebrates 10 years of working togetherstory by KATHRYN EASTBURN | photos by KELSEY WALLINGThe family that paints together works, goes on vacation and spends afternoons and weekends together when they can, at least that’s the case for the Wiley family.This year, the Wileys celebrate 10 years of working together at the René Wiley Gallery, 2128 Postoffice St. in downtown Galves-ton, and a family heritage of three generations of fine art painters.From early childhood, daughters Samantha Wiley and Rachel Wiley-Janota were exposed to art, trained and inspired by their mother, painter René Wiley, whose own mother, Janet Clugston Ressling of Conroe, was a painter and René’s mentor.“We were surrounded by art at her house,” René Wiley said. “It felt like a natural part of life.”Rachel Wiley-Janota, who paints Galveston coastal landscapes and seascapes, remembered traveling with her grandmother and the whole family each year to European cities where they visited museums housing the world’s great art.(Right) The Wileys are a multi-generational family of Galveston-based artists. René Wiley, center, stands with, from left, daughter Rachel Wiley-Janota, grandsons Charlie Janota, Jackson Janota, husband Ben Wiley, daughter Samantha Wiley and granddaughter Neva Wiley. (Above) René Wiley’s mother, Janet Clugston Ressling, displays her paintings in 1954 at Central Park in Manhattan. Ressling studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019 5556 COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019CURRENTS | ART“I never realized how special that was until I became an adult,” Wiley-Janota said.Samantha Wiley, primarily a portraitist, also was profoundly influenced by her grandmother, affectionately called Mimi.“Mimi’s whole house was covered in huge portraits,” she said.The family in 2002 moved to Galveston along with sister Sarah and father Ben Wiley, a fishing boat captain who now manages the gallery.Previously residents of Galveston’s East End Historic District, René and Ben Wiley bought acreage and moved to Hitchcock in 2016. The three daughters and their families all live nearby.“We have seven grandkids, aged 2 months to 7 years old, and all the kids and grand-kids live within a mile of our house,” René Wiley said.The gallery came to life after Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008. Formerly a Pilates studio, the building changed hands after it was flooded in the storm.Open 359 days a year, the gallery is funda-mentally a way to support everyone’s painting habit, enabling René, Rachel and Samantha to show and sell enough work to make a living.“There’s so much freedom as an artist in having your own space,” René Wiley said. “It’s a big place to make a big mess and a nice place to show everything.”The more ability to show generally translates to more sales, and with Ben Wiley managing the business side, René and her daughters have more time to paint.Recently, René and Samantha were com-missioned to paint portraits of, respectively, philanthropist George Mitchell and his wife, Cynthia Woods Mitchell. Both paintings will hang in The Tremont House and were dedicated in May at George Mitchell’s 100th birthday commemoration. George Mitch-ell, an oilman and developer, died in 2013. Cynthia Woods Mitchell died in 2009. Both were instrumental in the redevelopment of Galveston’s downtown among other island endeavors.Rachel was commissioned to make paint-ings of the USS Gabrielle Giffords after the ship was commissioned in 2017 in Galves-ton, and has painted on commission for Texas International Terminals in Galveston.All of their work celebrates the place and people they love and, together, mother and daughters have turned the solitary act of painting into a family affair.“Sometimes, when we’re working, we send each other images and talk about them,” Wiley-Janota said.“We’re lucky,” she said. “We know from our mom that it takes hours and hours every day to become a good painter.” COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019 57(From top) Paintings, right, by René Wiley; an oil painting by Samantha Wiley, who excels in painting portraits and photography; the René Wiley Gallery is cel-ebrating 10 years of operation in Galveston this year. (Opposite) Landscape and seascape paintings are Rachel Wiley-Janota’s specialties.58 COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019CURRENTS | BOOKSPLAYING HARDBALLIslander’s book celebrates baseball great Frank Torrestory by JOHN WAYNE FERGUSON | photo by STUART VILLANUEVAAlmost anyone who follows baseball knows Joe Torre. A nine-time All-Star and Most Valuable Player, he’s also one of only five baseball managers to win more than 2,300 games, most of them with the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007.During that time, Torre’s teams won four World Series titles and six American League pennants. Those accom-plishments led to Torre being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.But for Galveston author Cornelius Geary, the very famous Torre isn’t the Torre he associates with a love of baseball. For Geary, that title goes to Joe Torre’s brother, Frank, a first baseman who played four seasons for the Milwaukee Braves from 1956 to 1960.Torre was the centerpiece of Geary’s childhood base-ball fandom. When the Braves won the World Series in 1957, Torre was there alongside Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.Geary first met Frank Torre in New York in the early 2000s. A journalist friend passed Torre’s number to him and he chanced a phone call to the former big leaguer. That call led to a relationship that led to Geary meeting with and conducting a five-day interview with Torre in 2000.Earlier this year, Geary published the collected tran-script of that interview in a new book “All Heart: The Baseball Life of Frank Torre.” COASTMONTHLY.COM | AuguST 2019 59After years of mediocre baseball in Milwaukee, the city’s current team, the Milwaukee Brewers, is considered a contender for the National League pennant. The excite-ment over Milwaukee baseball has also led to a resur-gence in interest in Milwaukee baseball history, of which Torre is an essential part, he said.Coast Monthly sat down with Geary to ask him about baseball and writing.AP PHOTO, FILEMilwaukee Braves’ Frank Torre (14) jumps on the back of pitcher Lew Burdette on Oct. 10, 1957, as the Braves celebrate their 5-0 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series in New York.AP PHOTO/HARRY HARRIS, FILENew York Mets manager Joe Torre, left, with his brother Frank Torre on July 17, 1977, at Shea Stadium in New York. Frank Torre, a former Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, died on Sept. 13, 2014. He was 82.Q: Why Frank Torre and not a book about Joe?A: I, of course, admire Joe, but all the Braves were heroes to us. We were kids when there was Henry Aaron, Warren Spahn the winningest left-hander of all time; Eddie Mathews, one of the greatest home-run hitters; and Lew Burdette, who had three wins in the 1957 World Series.I didn’t have any aspiration or ambition, per se, to do a book on Frank Torre. I called him up and the man came to the phone and we had a conversation. I think I said something pretty awkward like, ‘Hey, Mr. Torre, I was 7 years old when you won the World Series. Me and my buddies have always really admired you guys. I just wanted to say “Hi.’”Q: What was interviewing him like?A: He lived in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I got in there on Saturday night. I got to meet his kids. I stayed in a bunk bed, I don’t really remember if I took the top bunk or bottom. He was very nice. We got up every morning. We had cornflakes. We talked about the weather for 10 minutes. We’d sit at the kitchen table or in the din-ing room, he’d have the news on in the background. He’d talk for two or three hours. We’d go out to lunch, then come back and talk for another two or three hours.Q: Frank Torre made it to the major leagues before his brother, but only played for six seasons — two with the Philadelphia Phillies. What kind of player was he?A: He was considered one of the greatest fielding first basemen in the major leagues at that time. They were always questioning his bat. But he was a very good hitter.Q: In writing this book, did you get a perspective on what the game was like then, as opposed to now?A: There are instances of fighting and fisticuffs in here where guys don’t get thrown out of the game. I think it’s much more gentlemanly. There was great admiration among the players, but they would take it to each other. It’s not to say there aren’t hard slides today, but I think it was a much more physical sport.Q: What was Frank’s relationship like with Joe?A: He was so proud of his brother, Joe. He held out briefly, to get his brother on the Braves.They had a thing called instructional league. It might have been a six-week thing, where if you could catch a baseball, you could come up and play baseball for 15 minutes. The Braves were going to take a pass on Joe in the instructional league after agreeing to it in Frank’s 1958 contract. So he held out. It was maybe a day or two, but they got the message. “All Heart: The Baseball Life of Frank Torre” is available on Amazon.Next >