One of several
Walter Inglis Anderson Caches - very easy
This is the
first of a series of caches dedicated and related to one of my
favorite artists. Please look for the other caches over the next
few weeks and enjoy the works.
This
particular cache is located near the museum. The coordinates listed
will take you to a sign. Utilizing the address listed on the sign
find the hidden film cannister at the following
coordinates:
N 30
24.X4X
W 088 49.X23
X= the sum of
the digits in the 3 digit address
There isn't
really a tree cover issue, but you might have some problems with
signal bouncing off the buildings as you approach. Once your there
though it should lock right in.
It's just a
log - Bring a pen.
A brief Biography of Anderson follows:
Walter Inglis Anderson was born in 1903 in New Orleans to George
Walter Anderson, a grain merchant, and Annette McConnell Anderson,
an artist. His mother’s love of art, music, and literature strongly
influenced Walter (called "Bob" by his friends and family) and his
two brothers, Peter and Mac. Anderson was educated at a private
boarding school, then attended the Parsons Institute of Design in
New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where his
drawings earned him a scholarship for study abroad. He traveled
throughout Europe and was particularly impressed with the cave art
he saw at Les Eyzies in France. His wide-ranging interests included
extensive reading of poetry, history, natural science and art
history. He pursued man’s search for meaning in books of folklore,
mythology, philosophy, and epics of voyage and
discovery.
Anderson
returned to
Ocean Springs and married a Radcliffe graduate, Agnes (Sissy)
Grinstead, started a family, and went to work creating molds and
decorating earthenware at Shearwater Pottery, founded by his
brother Peter. Anderson felt that an artist should create
affordable work that brought pleasure to others, and in return, the
artist should be able to pursue his artistic passions. In the
1930s, he worked on regional Works Progress Administration mural
projects and began to view his role in art as a
muralist.
It was in the
late 1930s that Anderson first succumbed to mental illness. He was
diagnosed with severe depression and spent three years in and out
of hospitals. Following his hospitalizations, Anderson joined his
wife and small children at her father’s antebellum home in Gautier,
Mississippi. The pastoral tranquillity of the "Oldfields"
plantation provided an ideal setting for recuperation. During this
period, he rendered thousands of disciplined and compelling works
of art which reflected his training, intellect, and extraordinary
grasp of the history of art.
In 1947, with
the understanding of his family, Anderson left his wife and
children and embarked on a private and very solitary existence. He
lived alone in a cottage on the Shearwater compound, and increased
his visits to Horn Island, one of a group of barrier islands along
the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He would row the 12 miles in a small
skiff, carrying minimal necessities and his art supplies. Anderson
spent long periods of time on this uninhabited island over the last
18 years of his life. There he lived primitively, working in the
open and sleeping under his boat, sometimes for weeks at a
time.
He endured
extreme weather conditions, from blistering summers to hurricane
winds and freezing winters. He painted and drew a multitude of
species of island vegetation, animals, birds, and insects,
penetrating the wild thickets on hands and knees and lying in
lagoons in his search to record his beloved island paradise.
Anderson’s obsession to "realize" his subjects through his art, to
be one with the natural world instead of an intruder, created works
that are intense and evocative.
Walter
Anderson died at the age of 62 in a New Orleans hospital of lung
cancer. Much of the work survived only by chance; it was discovered
in drifts, like autumn leaves, throughout his cottage after his
death. Those found treasures present the viewer today with a
fascinating opportunity to share Anderson’s vision.