If you are not a follower of Mississippi's own artist, Walter Anderson, you might wonder why the museum seems to stand in the shadow of the ancient Ocean Springs Community Center. The Community Center on the corner of Washington and Government in downtown Ocean Springs has its front doors always locked. To the right of this historic building which is attached to the museum, is the gateway to Walter Anderson Museum of Art hidden by a blanket of oak limbs and azaleas. I pushed a left inside the glass door of the museum admission $5, and was thrust into the side entrance of the Community Center.
Immediately there was confusion, delight and then awe. Spread before my eyes was the mightiest of Anderson's Murals painted in 1951 for the sum of $1? From floor to ceiling, wall to wall and windowsill to doorframe, Anderson filled this entire center with his love of color, nature and flight. In Six Seasons of the coast he has in 2500 square feet of mural shown Native American culture, the landing of the French in 1699 and some of the gulf coast history and it environment. Trees shine as though decorated for Christmas while flocks of birds are flung across the walls to collide with a geometric design spread around the chandelier. He has even depicted himself as the helmsman of a skiff.
In the foyer, high above hang more of his murals commissioned in 1934 and painted for the auditorium of the public schools. They are square, geometric, with sharp corners, and dull hews of brown and ochre. To me they had a slight resemblance to cave drawings.
His best secret, hidden in his Shearwater cottage on the family property where he lived and painted in solitary, is the "little room". It was moved from the Shearwater Pottery compound after his death and brought intact into the museum in 1991. Unpainted plank walls are alive with his impressions of nature and the mermaid sitting above the mantel of the brick fireplace has inspired many interpretations. Birds swoop in flocks from corner to ceiling in a burst of brilliant blue and flowers flash like roman candles on the Fourth.
Before entering the secluded "little room" I passed through two multi windowed galleries of Ceramics of Shearwater Pottery. Walter practiced his delicate work there with his brothers painting designs for the pieces. I admired minute designs splashed on bowls and plates of his work as well as that of his two brothers, Peter and James.
Down the bright pine paneled main gallery on right, behind the Museum store, amid various samples of his cat work tilts the skiff Anderson used to explore Horn Island in his solitary jaunts. From the sky lit main gallery to the, little room, and into two more galleries the museum holds 550 works by Walter Anderson and his brothers in the permanent collection including watercolors, oils, ceramics, block prints and carvings. Hours Mon.-Sat. 9:30am-4:45pm; Sun.12:30 - 4:45pm.