Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Coastal Bend with furry and perhaps a vengeance as it tore into the heart of Rockport/Fulton with 140 mph winds and tidal surge.  The community was devastated and many homes, boats, businesses and the land itself were destroyed.  That was in its first hour coming ashore.  It went on to Victoria and followed the coast up to Houston reaping havoc and heartbreak along its path.  The work “Fulton Shrimper” sets to capture a survivor of the storm.  The boat pictured was unnamed and was berthed in the Fulton Harbor which is nestled on the Aransas Bay in Fulton.  It survived the winds and waves to sail again where so many a boat was lost.  Life goes on in Rockport/Fulton as it always has, but now the sounds of hammers and saws, trucks and bulldozers, fill the air of new construction and demolition. A day starts: Nets need to mended, paint needs to be spread, nails have to be hammered, but at the end of the day, as the sun sets on Copano Bay, progress in made in the recovery.  A resilient strong people, doing what needs to be done, one more time. --- Bartké

Bartké’s work “Fulton Shrimper” is included in the August 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine section “Women in Art”.