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!

THE NEWLY EXPANDED WALTER ANDERSON ART MUSEUM

WALTER ANDERSON ART MUSEUM
AN AMERICAN MASTER/post 1 of 3

New entrance to the Walter Anderson Museum  with the gift shop to the right.
 Photo by Elizabeth Gordon with permission of the museum.                                                                                                      

The stunning new entrance is expansive and majestic.  It opens up to the trees and sky as Walter Anderson would have liked. Nature was  with all its creatures, an  anchor in his life.   In living things he found a world he became almost one with as he lost touch with reality more and more.  He fought mental illness a long time in his life. As he grew older and life challenges harder, he was in and out of mental hospitals like Whitaker in Mississippi. There are even a set of drawings he did of himself and his torment in the facility.  In a way it reminds one of Van Gogh.  They both continued to be highly productive in spite of their mental difficulties Walter Anderson was officially diagnosed with schizophrenia, but his family was told if he had freedom he could function in the world of men.  So the family let him be, he had his own cabin and came and went as he wanted.  In his good periods he would sometimes visit the family and his children, but those times became rarer and rarer and his times away longer and longer. In his era mental illness was not well understood and he was just thought of as the towns crazy person. He had married another artist when times were better and had six children. As he slipped into his own world he saw his family time less and less.

Walter on his skiff sailing to  Hog Island                       Photo with permission of museum

Anderson was born in New Orleans and came from a family of well educated people.  His Mother helped to start Newcombe College. Newcombe also became well known for its school of ceramics and a unique style of pottery.  
He was trained at the Pennsylvania College of Art, and traveled to China and other countries.  The family wanted to raise their children to be artist, so they bought average in Ocean Springs and formed Shearwater Pottery in which all were employed.  Peter, the oldest, ran the pottery and Walter worked developing designs and forms, he called "widgets".  

Walter Anderson's Bicycle

If he was not riding his bike, he was rowing his skiff off to Hog

He was often seen riding his bicycle through the little village of Ocean Springs which drew many artists and writers. 

Detail of Walter Anderson paining of map of bay area of Ocean Springs
Island or Round Island in the Gulf of Mexico.  After his death in 1965 many of his drawings and water colors were found in the sands on the island.  

Hallway from entrance to main part of museum

With the tall ceilings natural lighting pours in from the skylights.
photo by Elizabeth Gordon with permission of the museum.

"BOB" ROWING HIS SKIFF TO HOG ISLAND

Gallery hall way leading to left wing

The Famous Skiff that made many trips to Hog Island in all kinds of weather

Turtle Diptych 1960 watercolor with permission of Walter Anderson Museum

Turtle Diptych 1960 watercolor  with permission of Walter Anderson Museum

Alligator Gar  detail

close up of detail of Alligator Gar

detail of Alligator Gar 1960

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Sailors on the High Sea