Wednesday, March 5, 2014

AT ONE WITH NATURE AND ART

WALTER INGLIS ANDERSON/AMERICAN MASTER ARTIST
POST 3 OF 3

A CRAB SKITTERS ACROSS THE SAND
A CROW CALLS OUT ACROSS FIELDS
A HURRICANE BLOWS THE PALMS BENT AND THE WAVES POUND UPON THE SURF, THE SUN GLISTENS HOT ON A SULTRY SUMMER DAY AND MOSQUITOS BUZZ A TUNE ALL OF THEIR OWN AS THEY SEEK TO BE CLOSER AND CLOSER…..All of these images Walter Anderson wanted us to understand were the song of life, if we just stopped, if we just listened. 
There is a room that Walter Anderson's wife discovered after his death.  He had kept it secret, his hiding place, his sacred place.  No one had ever seen it until his wife unlocked the door that day.  And before her was the story of creation before her eyes.  There was an Adam and Eve, and all God's creatures brimming with life.  Walter was so in tune with the Earth and nature that he reached a level of understanding we will never know.  Perhaps he lost his sanity because of it, or perhaps because he had lost his sanity he could feel and understand in way we cannot.  We may have hints of it, when we walk in the woods and hear its song of crickets, jays, owls, and foxes.  We may understand just a little as we walk along a beach and the tide laps at our feet, the pines sings as their needles blow in the breeze, we find a starfish in the sand trying to burrow in deeper, or a pelican dip his bill low into the water skimming out his daily catch. But where we might hear a tune, Walter Anderson heard a symphony and he was part of that orchestra. 

Walter Anderson's Room of  Creation           photo take with permission of  WAMA Museum


Butterfly details of mural

a deer peaking out 

Blue Jays in Flight

Closer detail of Jays in Flight

Herons fishing

Detail on Fireplace

Fireplace detail

Book by Redding Sugg on Walter Anderson's Mural

Katrina destroyed much of Anderson's work stored in a family concrete vault.  The museum itself had to restoration.  Joining a museum that is not in your community can be a very good thing.  First of all it can be a charity gift of membership, or provide field trips and destination vacations for the family, but it also gives us the opportunity to support art across the USA in communities that need our help…like WAMA or New Orleans Museum of Art, or Museums where hurricane Sandy hit.   Think about supporting art not only in your community, but across the United States and especially in area of need! Join WAMA Today!


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