I thought the NPR interview with the daughter of Walter Anderson was the best report I’d heard about Hurricane Katrina and what it did to the property, art and museum dedicated to her father.
It was amazing to me because Anderson was a hurricane-worshipper who did cosmic art about the Gulf region and once rode out a hurricane under a rowboat on an offshore island that was mostly blown away by it. He also did something like ride his bike to New Orleans and slept under bushes near the TV station so he could discuss hurricane science with the weatherman.
Anderson was an artist and nut of Ocean Springs, MS, who was mocked for riding his bike and who was once commissioned to paint a mural for the Community Center for $1 and the officials laughingly whitewashed it after he was done. He’s now known as one of the best artists of the region’s history. His museam website is here.
Anderson’s way of seeing seems to have rubbed off on his daughter in ways. It’s interesting to hear how a loss isn’t always a loss. Or, a loss can be more than a loss.
Jack Saunders uses the Anderson story in his novels. Another OYB writer, Jack Rudloe, has Anderson murals at his marine lab in and drawings in one of his books. Yet another OYB writer, McElderry, considers Anderson one of a new Gulfcoast mythical trio or quartet descending from California’s Steinbeck, Ricketts and Campbell. So there are vibes out there, in the wreckage.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4853507
