![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “Who We Are.” Walter Anderson Museum of Art. “The Many Voyages of Walter Anderson.” The Bitter Southerner. “Realizations: The Walter Anderson Shop.” The Walter Anderson Shop. “Walter Inglis Anderson Biography (1903-1965).” Shearwater Pottery. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. Fortune’s Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson. “An Untamed Island Meets Its Match.” The New York Times. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1985.ĭavid, Jack E. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1989.Īnderson, Walter I. Approaching the Magic Hour- Memories of Walter Anderson. Today, its ready to welcome home any who have lost their connection to the natural world.Īnderson, Agnes Grinstead. Horn Island, preserved by Gulf Islands National Seashore and protected by the Wilderness Act, remains untrammeled and untouched by the hand of man. As Bob wrote to his wife before journeying to Horn Island, he was “going home.” Just like Anderson, we all have a home in nature. Colmer Visitor Center at Davis Bayou, his work serves as a reminder of nature’s ability to heal. His remaining pieces gained him the respect and fame he never wanted or cared about during his life.ĭisplayed today in the Walter Anderson Museum of Art and the William M. Unfortunately, water damage and pests ruined much of his art. His wife, Sissy, found hundreds of drawings and watercolors littering Anderson’s cottage. It was not realized until he passed away how many pieces of art he had created. Walter Anderson painted because he had to, with no concern about what happened to his completed works. His paintings, much like the barrier island that inspired them, were not made to be permanent. Bob returned to the mainland, only when supplies ran out. He spent his days like this, sometimes for weeks at a time, while he lived on the island. Anderson wrote in his journal, “one image succeeds another with surprising regularity on Horn Island.” Inspiration was endless. He painted with watercolors, quick to dry, so that he could capture fleeting moments before they were gone. It was painting that captured Bob’s heart and consumed his time. He would explore, take in all the sights, journal about his days, and find peace among the other wild things. Rising with the sun, Bob would marvel at the light and colors on the island. Despite these challenges, he experienced Horn Island. army testing biological warfare during World War II. On these journeys his skiff capsized, he slept through hurricanes while nestled in the sand, and even stumbled upon the U.S. In the last 20 years of his life, he rowed his small wooden skiff 12 miles to Horn Island 100 times or more. The other she fears, who irrationally insists his children are not his own and refuses to live in the same home as his family. One that she loves, who opens her eyes to the natural world around them and lives at ease surrounded by wilderness. His wife’s memoir paints a picture of two men. In the wilderness, he found an escape from the pressures and personal demons that plagued him on the mainland. In 1944, Bob fell in love with the Mississippi islands, especially Horn Island. Eventually, Bob found a balance living a life of recluse in coastal Mississippi. Once, he even disappeared for months and walked 1,000 miles from Maryland back to his home on the coast of Mississippi. He escaped from several mental health hospitals. Hospitalized against his will, Bob received a new form of shock treatment for mental health concerns. During this time, it became evident that Bob struggled with mental illness. He married Agnes “Sissy” Grinstead in 1933. Yet, Bob did not treat his works of art with care and most of his work was unseen during his life.īob worked as a decorator at his family’s pottery shop. He created thousands of paintings and sketches inspired by the Mississippi island wilderness. Known by the locals as “that crazy artist,” his family called him “Bob.” In the later years of his life, Bob rowed to Horn Island as often as possible. Image used courtesy of the family of Walter Anderson.īefore Horn Island became part of Gulf Islands National Seashore, it was a refuge for Walter Inglis Anderson. ![]()
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