SOCIAL COMING2023

total sales gallery by the bay | fairhopegallerybythebay gallerybythebay.net | 386 Fairhope Ave

Todd & DuAnne Seeley love art and the artists that create it. Both see art as a form of communication, strongly believing that art is a vehicle that God has given to us to be a better world. Opportunity knocked at the perfect time when the Seeley’s last child left for Auburn leaving them with an empty nest. Thoughts of opening a gallery had been on their minds since moving to Fairhope in 2009. When a space opened up in the heart of Fairhope, they quickly signed a lease, and Gallery by the Bay was opened in 2017.

When you walk through the doors of Gallery by the Bay, you will be surrounded by the lure of radiant colors of hand-blown glass, enticing shapes of pottery, exciting designs of handcrafted jewelry, and inspiring works of water colorists, oils and acrylics. They also offer a variety of unique gifts that reflect the charm of Fairhope. Boasting twenty of the best local artists in South Alabama including those nationally and internationally known, the gallery attracts art lovers from around the world. Over the past seven years, clients from all over have become regulars. They know that every time they come in, they will find that exquisite piece they are searching for either for themselves or that perfect gift. Paintings are the most popular, but they also sell a lot of pottery, blown glass, jewelry, sculptures and woodturning.

To the Seeleys, artists are like family, and their customers become friends. They are proud to call Fairhope home and enjoy playing an integral part in the art community, something that has been a cornerstone of the community since it began. They are passionate about bringing you some of the highest quality art by truly talented local artists. The doors to Gallery by the Bay are open to all, serious collectors and those just looking around. Visitors are often offered a glass of wine and a chair to just relax and take it all in.

COMMUNITY leader

BY LIESEL SCHMIDT

Sarah Stewart looks, to everyone who sees her, like anyone else—until she puts on the robe of a Supreme Court justice. A judge for the past 17 years, Stewart served Mobile County as a Circuit Court Judge from 2006 until she was elected as a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018. “At the time I was appointed circuit judge in 2006, I was the first female jury trial judge on the Mobile bench,” she says. “We had a female domestic circuit court judge and a female juvenile circuit court judge, but no female had ever been a circuit court judge presiding over jury trials before Governor Riley appointed me.”

As trailblazing as her career has been, Stewart didn’t pursue the law to be different—but to make a difference. “I looked at being an attorney at the urging of my brother, Charlie Hicks, who was interested in being an attorney himself,” she explains. “I went to Vanderbilt Law School, graduating in 1992. My brother was right, the practice of law was challenging and intellectually fulfilling for me. But I was also able to serve my community through pro bono work and being involved in bar leadership. My parents always said that, to whom much is given, much is asked. They expected my brother and me to give back to our communities in whatever way we could. Being an attorney was a wonderful way to fulfill that expectation my parents had of being a servant leader.”

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Stewart went to work for the Mobile law firm of Hand, Arendall before moving to a small, two-person firm, which allowed her more time and flexibility to raise her children. After her brother graduated from Cumberland, she joined him in establishing the law firm of Stewart & Hicks and was managing the firm when she was appointed to the circuit court bench in 2006.

Looking back at the arc of her path, her appointment to the bench— and subsequent role as the first female president of the Circuit Judges Association—is hardly surprising. “When I was at the University of Arkansas, I was the president of the Student Government Association; and when I was at Vanderbilt, I was vice-president of the Law Student Association,” Stewart notes. “When I moved to Mobile after law school, I quickly became involved in the Mobile Bar Association and eventually became the first female president of the Young Lawyers Section of the Mobile Bar. Naturally, once I became a circuit judge, I became involved in the statewide Circuit Judges Association (CJA). I served that organization by acting as the Education Chair for the Circuit and District Judges Associations for nine years, planning educational conferences for the judges that occurred at least twice a year. Additionally, a couple of other judges and I were tasked with interacting with the state legislature to provide feedback on how legislation they were contemplating might impact the ways the judges performed their work. In 2017, my fellow judges elected me as the first female president of the CJA.

“Being president of the CJA has several aspects of responsibility,” she goes on. “There are many statutes that give appointment power to the CJA president to legislatively created groups such as the Judicial Inquiry Commission and the Court of the Judiciary—both groups tasked with ensuring judges follow the judicial ethics rules—and the Judicial Reallocation Commission and the Judicial Study Commission, which are groups tasked with examining judicial caseload and need. Additionally, the president interacts extensively with the Legislature on issues impacting the budget and how judges do their jobs.”

During her time as president of the CJA, Stewart brought her integrity, transparency and fairness to the role, and created change in the system where she could. “I appointed a number of female judges, to more accurately reflect the population that we serve in the State of Alabama,” she says. “I believe any organization is much stronger when it can hear the voices of all of the people it serves, and the best way to ensure that is to make sure that those voices have seats at the table.

“After I was elected to the Supreme Court, two women were elected as circuit judges on the Mobile Bench,” she goes on. “After I was elected the first Circuit Judges Association president, another woman was elected the year after that, and another one is in line to be president in two years. Because of this, I was recently honored to receive the Trail Blazers Award from the Women’s Section of the Mobile Bar Association. Still, I feel that the women lawyers who came before me were more the trail blazers—they truly had to make a path where none existed. I think of myself as more of a pathfinder. I tried to make more paths, or to make the path smoother, straighter or bigger. I am most proud of blazing the trail for the women that are coming after me. My favorite quote is one by Teddy Roosevelt that I’ve tweaked for obvious reasons: ‘The credit belongs to the woman who is actually in the arena…who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.’”

WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A DIGITAL MAGAZINE AT THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE?