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While binging on "Hometown" today, Erin Napier introduced me to the home state artist, Walter Anderson, who's whimsical and distinctly Southern, colorful artwork really caught my attention.
Erin mentioned that he was "one of Mississippi's gems" along the lines of Falkner, BB King, Elvis and Oprah.
As artists go, his work is affordable. At least for a screen print, with the color done by local artists. You gotta appreciate that.
What is wonderful is that he worked in silk screen and his descendants are keeping his art alive.
So, Erin Napier indicated that most Mississippians have one of his works in their homes. How many of y'all do? I am thinking that may have been an over statement.
While binging on "Hometown" today, Erin Napier introduced me to the home state artist, Walter Anderson, who's whimsical and distinctly Southern, colorful artwork really caught my attention.
Erin mentioned that he was "one of Mississippi's gems" along the lines of Falkner, BB King, Elvis and Oprah.
As artists go, his work is affordable. At least for a screen print, with the color done by local artists. You gotta appreciate that.
What is wonderful is that he worked in silk screen and his descendants are keeping his art alive.
So, Erin Napier indicated that most Mississippians have one of his works in their homes. How many of y'all do? I am thinking that may have been an over statement.
Any other fans?
I've long admired his work and may have some in my office, but not in my home and can't remember any in other homes I have visited.
While binging on "Hometown" today, Erin Napier introduced me to the home state artist, Walter Anderson, who's whimsical and distinctly Southern, colorful artwork really caught my attention.
Erin mentioned that he was "one of Mississippi's gems" along the lines of Falkner, BB King, Elvis and Oprah.
As artists go, his work is affordable. At least for a screen print, with the color done by local artists. You gotta appreciate that.
What is wonderful is that he worked in silk screen and his descendants are keeping his art alive.
So, Erin Napier indicated that most Mississippians have one of his works in their homes. How many of y'all do? I am thinking that may have been an over statement.
Any other fans?
Erin Napier's chief asset is her hot husband (specifically, his big, beautiful beard). I've been in gyms, when he'd appear on a TV screen. Nobody would have been even glancing at the TVs. But suddenly, all eyes would be on HIM. I'm sure the same dynamic applies, when people are flipping-channels. People tolerate her "ideas", in order to be able to ogle him. He's a bear-lover's dream. He's actually a ginger, although the TV people apparently tweak his color, to better-fit the Approved Narrative. A local Mississippi commercial (says my BFF Babette) showed him unretouched, and his beardage was "bright red - veering toward Strawberry".
Walter Anderson's work only appears in the homes of Upper Middle Class and Upper Class Mississippians - and then, only the kind of people on the free-thinking/artsy/almost-Liberal end of the spectrum. A few of the better decorators put Anderson prints in offices - but only your better offices. I've never seen an Anderson print in the home of anyone who wasn't Jewish, Episcopalian, First Methodist of somewhere, or Northminster Baptist (an ultra-ritzy/intellectual congregation in Fashionable Northeast Jackson - as evidenced by the church's mesmerizingly-beautiful row of forty-foot Muskogee crape myrtles, which have never been "murdered". People at the top of the social heap, do not condone "Crape Murder" - the hideous hacking-back of those trees.) Basically, the kinds of Mississippians who buy or renovate (https://www.google.com/search?q=jack...h=483&dpr=1.71) Modern-style homes (https://www.google.com/search?q=East...h=483&dpr=1.71), or who restore old Victorian homes, are the sorts who buy Anderson prints.
The kinds of Upper Middle Class Mississippians who buy or build "French Acadian" homes, and whose mamas worshiped at the altar of Colonial Williamsburg, have traditionally been oblivious to Walter Anderson's work. French Acadian homes have whatever vapid, colorless, content-neutral art their decorators bought "aaaaay-eeeey-yee-it maaaaaawrkuaee-yit, eeeee-yin Duaaaaaay-uhl-uaeee-yiissss" (at Market, in Dallas). Their parents' fine brick True to Colonial Williamsburg homes, featured duck prints, and Civil War prints (ducks for the shared spaces, and Civil War scenes for rooms which needed to be "man-lookin'"). Nobody gave a flip about the war. That was just what you were supposed to have, which was all that mattered. There was much obsessing over gender-appropriateness for rooms which men might occupy, so you can see why Anderson's works had no place in morally-upright Mississippi homes where doctors and lawyers watched Ole Miss sports and 700 Club.
"Most Mississippians" buy their "art" off the back wall at TJ Maxx, or from "crafts" vendors at whatever outdoor events they get roped-into attending. So, you see lots of little homemade brooms with ribbons on them, or plaques with cutesy sayings - or whole walls of crosses (a major offering at TJ Maxx and Ross) - to the point where one wonders whether flocks of vampires don't descend upon subdivisions, at dusk - necessitating extreme measures for warding-them-off.
Of course, the more - um - "impressionable" among Mississippi's "art"-buyers, collect Sports Memorabilia - mostly because Amex sends them offers for framed "collectibles", which they can buy on payment plans. Also, framed sportsgarbage, is supposed to be "boy's-room-appropriate", since boys are supposed to worship sportscreatures.
I've never watched 'Hometown' while the sound is on. Sound is not necessary for ogling Hot Bearded Dude. Most of my knowledge of the show, I get from you, dear Sheena. But it seems to me, that Napier's chief skill, is her ability to fabricate good narratives: whatever sounds good, on the show, at that moment.
"The Coast" has not, traditionally, been viewed, by most Mississippians, as being truly a part of the state - much in the same way that South Florida is not viewed as being part of The South. Additionally, the Anderson family, from my understanding, saw themselves as SCANDINAVIANS. Walter, it is my impression, saw himself as an outsider - which a Scandinavian would, in such an emphatically Celtic Southern state. Isn't Anderson's daughter named 'Leif'?
so, you see lots of little homemade brooms with ribbons on them, or plaques with cutesy sayings - or whole walls of crosses (a major offering at tj maxx and ross) - to the point where one wonders whether flocks of vampires don't descend upon subdivisions, at dusk - necessitating extreme measures for warding-them-off.
Erin Napier's chief asset is her hot husband (specifically, his big, beautiful beard). I've been in gyms, when he'd appear on a TV screen. Nobody would have been even glancing at the TVs. But suddenly, all eyes would be on HIM. I'm sure the same dynamic applies, when people are flipping-channels. People tolerate her "ideas", in order to be able to ogle him. He's a bear-lover's dream. He's actually a ginger, although the TV people apparently tweak his color, to better-fit the Approved Narrative. A local Mississippi commercial (says my BFF Babette) showed him unretouched, and his beardage was "bright red - veering toward Strawberry".
Walter Anderson's work only appears in the homes of Upper Middle Class and Upper Class Mississippians - and then, only the kind of people on the free-thinking/artsy/almost-Liberal end of the spectrum. A few of the better decorators put Anderson prints in offices - but only your better offices. I've never seen an Anderson print in the home of anyone who wasn't Jewish, Episcopalian, First Methodist of somewhere, or Northminster Baptist (an ultra-ritzy/intellectual congregation in Fashionable Northeast Jackson - as evidenced by the church's mesmerizingly-beautiful row of forty-foot Muskogee crape myrtles, which have never been "murdered". People at the top of the social heap, do not condone "Crape Murder" - the hideous hacking-back of those trees.) Basically, the kinds of Mississippians who buy or renovate (https://www.google.com/search?q=jack...h=483&dpr=1.71) Modern-style homes (https://www.google.com/search?q=East...h=483&dpr=1.71), or who restore old Victorian homes, are the sorts who buy Anderson prints.
The kinds of Upper Middle Class Mississippians who buy or build "French Acadian" homes, and whose mamas worshiped at the altar of Colonial Williamsburg, have traditionally been oblivious to Walter Anderson's work. French Acadian homes have whatever vapid, colorless, content-neutral art their decorators bought "aaaaay-eeeey-yee-it maaaaaawrkuaee-yit, eeeee-yin Duaaaaaay-uhl-uaeee-yiissss" (at Market, in Dallas). Their parents' fine brick True to Colonial Williamsburg homes, featured duck prints, and Civil War prints (ducks for the shared spaces, and Civil War scenes for rooms which needed to be "man-lookin'"). Nobody gave a flip about the war. That was just what you were supposed to have, which was all that mattered. There was much obsessing over gender-appropriateness for rooms which men might occupy, so you can see why Anderson's works had no place in morally-upright Mississippi homes where doctors and lawyers watched Ole Miss sports and 700 Club.
"Most Mississippians" buy their "art" off the back wall at TJ Maxx, or from "crafts" vendors at whatever outdoor events they get roped-into attending. So, you see lots of little homemade brooms with ribbons on them, or plaques with cutesy sayings - or whole walls of crosses (a major offering at TJ Maxx and Ross) - to the point where one wonders whether flocks of vampires don't descend upon subdivisions, at dusk - necessitating extreme measures for warding-them-off.
Of course, the more - um - "impressionable" among Mississippi's "art"-buyers, collect Sports Memorabilia - mostly because Amex sends them offers for framed "collectibles", which they can buy on payment plans. Also, framed sportsgarbage, is supposed to be "boy's-room-appropriate", since boys are supposed to worship sportscreatures.
I've never watched 'Hometown' while the sound is on. Sound is not necessary for ogling Hot Bearded Dude. Most of my knowledge of the show, I get from you, dear Sheena. But it seems to me, that Napier's chief skill, is her ability to fabricate good narratives: whatever sounds good, on the show, at that moment.
"The Coast" has not, traditionally, been viewed, by most Mississippians, as being truly a part of the state - much in the same way that South Florida is not viewed as being part of The South. Additionally, the Anderson family, from my understanding, saw themselves as SCANDINAVIANS. Walter, it is my impression, saw himself as an outsider - which a Scandinavian would, in such an emphatically Celtic Southern state. Isn't Anderson's daughter named 'Leif'?
Aside from your your funny and well written as usual post, you are spot on about many things.
The Middle Class Decor that you attribute to middle class and working-class Mississippians, is hardly peculiar to Mississippi. Brooms and plaques that say "Live, Laugh, Love". chalk pained old furniture, Big Box, bonded leather sofas and recliners, and a cluster of way too many crosses? That way of decorating?
Gloria, that's just MId-American, normal. So are cutesy signs about wine, (with the exclusion of Baptists and hard-core Methodists)
Crafts made at the local Mega Church Connect meetings with supplies purchased by Hobby Lobby Enthusiasts, such as seasonal wreathes made with plastic mesh. They are all over Long Island.
And Ohio.
As far as "worshipping at the Idol of Colonial Williamsburg"? - so well said, that was also standard issue Upper Middle Class decor on Long Island NY. Along with Botanical Pronts, English Hunting scenes, Waverly Wallpaper and Butler's tables. These attend Episcopal, Presbyterian or UCC/Congregational churches in the North East. That is still going strong. As are bookcases filled with best sellers. I say "was" with a bit of hesitancy because one of my sisters still decorates that way.
Her taste is rather staid and she would prefer Thomas Kincaide to Walter Anderson.
Those two styles are all over the US.
I'd expect the actual art - No TJ Maxx, or Kincaid, to be found in university towns, which generally attract upper middle to upper class people, by the coast, in cities etc.
And not only in Mississippi.
I in fact thought you might have one in your home!
I know you can't stand Erin and Ben, but I enjoy them both! They have made my husband and I want to visit Mississippi.
...The Middle Class Decor that you attribute to middle class and working-class Mississippians, is hardly peculiar to Mississippi.
As far as "worshipping at the Idol of Colonial Williamsburg"? - so well said, that was also standard issue Upper Middle Class decor on Long Island NY. Along with Botanical Pronts, English Hunting scenes, Waverly Wallpaper and Butler's tables. These attend Episcopal, Presbyterian or UCC/Congregational churches in the North East. That is still going strong. As are bookcases filled with best sellers. I say "was" with a bit of hesitancy because one of my sisters still decorates that way.
Her taste is rather staid and she would prefer Thomas Kincaide to Walter Anderson.
Those two styles are all over the US.
I'd expect the actual art - No TJ Maxx, or Kincaid, to be found in university towns, which generally attract upper middle to upper class people, by the coast, in cities etc.
And not only in Mississippi.
I in fact thought you might have one in your home!
At our first little podunk university for poor kids, most of our professors had Anderson prints - and ALL the various arts instructors had them. The Anderson prints were nice. But one must remember that I acquired my Decorator, as a first semester Freshman, on the first day of Economics 101, when, at the end of the first session, I announced, "We need a study group!" - having zero idea what a study group actually was. (he switched to Art, later, and then got better training at better universities).
Our Decorator was all about SCALE. Those Andersons were LITTLE - by our standards. And the hand-applied colors, were "a tad too primary". Before we were old-enough to sign a contract - and before we even had a car, we were being helped by mentors, to buy our first apartment building - a campus-adjacent derelict hulk of a hellhole. (my being brown, and female, allowed me to do things to problematic tenants, which would have landed most landlords in prison)
Aubrey Beardsley was more our speed, where drawings were concerned. Jean Cocteau was more our speed, too. Weightlifting quickly transformed my nascent husband's body - to the point where he was in demand as a model for drawing classes. Our Decorator - as resourceful as we were all penniless - seized upon the possibilities, seized several sheets of battered plywood from a pile of debris, painted the plywood white, and carted it up to the room used for drawing classes. A handful of big drawings: DH as a Cocteauesque Faun, emerged. One, painted on both sides, has a jockstrap side, and an "actually.....you know..." side (which happened after-hours). That one, currently, looks out over Central Park - and yes, it's "to-scale".
I don't have to look-up 'Kunsthistorisches', to spell it. This should inform one, as to how my tastes matured. One cannot link to images of the Kunsthistorisches Museum's Klimt Spandrels, since there are nudes of the various socialites with whom the great (and seriously hot) painter cavorted - depicted as Bible heroines and Cleopatra - mostly without clothes. I like early Klimt.... and those columns... and the cornice's polychromy.... and those Adamesque ceilings beyond the arches. Great Neck is the only place where such an opulent aesthetic is "allowable", these days. I find understatement to be horribly-oppressive. Pity I was the only one in our family who got along with our Kings Point neighbors...
Before that, it was Wiener Werkstatte (https://www.google.com/search?q=Wien...483&dpr=1.71)- deemed, by my Decorator AND 'The Oracle of Madison', "suitably 'Alpine' for Aspen", which apparently was true, since that place sold, furnished, as a soft listing, before we had a chance to enjoy it. I've flirted with assembling a new collection for Wyoming. But the ongoing reemergence of Austrian totalitarianism has ruined the style for me.
Contemporary with Jackson's blockbuster 'Palaces of Saint Petersburg' exhibit, which, together with the amazing, life-saving philanthropy from which it resulted (https://www.google.com/search?q=Jack..._AUoAHoECAEQAA), made a noble and wonderful final curtain for the City of Jackson(a city which exists, now, only as a rotting corpse), our Decorator caused to be made for us, reproductions of Leon Bakst's costume illustrations for Ida Rubinstein, for her various Ballets Russes roles.Every three years, Jackson hosts The International Ballet Competion (although, one hears, the last one was "just totally wretched, and nobody much-bothered with anything") Those colored illustrations were eight-feet-tall, for the nine-foot ceilings in our "penthouse" - optimistically fashioned from a collection of utility spaces and crumbling rooftop, atop our final apartment building.
One thing that might surprise you about Mississippi, is that the level of erudition and sophistication there - in terms of ordinary run-of-the-millionaires fashioning fine homes - far outpaces most places in America. To Mississippians, "The California Look" is about "what you can achieve with no money, time, effort, taste, or talent (except it actually costs a fortune)". Try looking for something in Omaha, or in Fargo - or in any of the few places where decent people still live, and where rigged elections aren't transforming cities into dystopian nightmares. There's NOTHING. Omaha has NOTHING(believe me: we've looked).
Yes, I'm aware of the look which prevails on most of Long Island. Grade-grubbing for surviving New York's overwrought school systems, seems to have consumed every ounce of everybody's energy, so that nobody has made it into the current millennium, taste-wise. We call it Dawn Wiener Country. In fact, shutters identical to the ones in Dawn Wiener's cheap split-level tract house bathroom, in 'Welcome to the Dollhouse', were used in the Library at 80 Meadowmere Lane, in Southampton. (nonetheless, that house is perfection - if somewhat understated - and without ocean frontage)
I don't think I've ever seen, or heard of, a Thomas Kinkade painting in Mississippi. People with any money at all, generally know better than to buy those. The Midwest and the Rust Belt, would seem likely places for Kinkade consumers. There's a long "Don't List" in Mississippi decorating (don't have Olan Mills portraits out where people can see them, etc.), and Kinkade is surely on that list.
Yes! (and this was a big part of my point) Mississippi is part of America's Heartland, and things are mostly the same as everywhere in America. Things were getting even more that way, in the 1950s, actually. But when the state was targeted for demonization, by Big Media, in the '60s, the trend faltered a bit. But Mississippians read the same magazines, and watched the same TV, as everybody else. They built houses from the same house plan books, sold from grocery store checkout lane racks identical to the ones in Kansas and Ohio.
On the other hand, the dichotomy, in Mississippi, between rich-and-smart, and poor-and-pitiful, is far greater. For half of Mississippi, 'Cooking' and 'Frying', are synonyms. Yet many of the aerobics-toned, straight-A, privately-schooled Mississippians living behind gates in the good subdivisions dotted throughout the state, have never fried anything, in their entire lives. Art, decorating, and landscaping, work that way, too.
As for what you'll find where.... Mississippi is highly-fragmented, right now. People have been fleeing. They flee the decaying towns. They flee the meth-ridden countryside. They flee Delta pesticides. They flee parts of good towns being destroyed by predatory homebuyers turning houses into rentals. They flee TO new subdivisions which haven't been destroyed - YET. They flee the entire region, mostly. Maybe, with Minnesota and Washington State and Oregon and California in crisis, they'll return. But all that fleeing and moving, has made it impossible to predict very much.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 01-05-2022 at 03:44 PM..
Being that MS has traditionally been the poorest state (at least since the 1860s), there's not much "old money" (and most of it is confined to the Eastover area of Jxn). Many of us are first or second generation out of the trailer park or shotgun shack, therefore our decorating style is much more Duck Dynasty than Walter Anderson.
Last edited by viverlibre; 01-06-2022 at 07:40 PM..
Being that MS has traditionally been the poorest state (at least since the 1860s), there's not much "old money" (and most of it is confined to the Eastover area of Jxn). Many of us are first or second generation out of the trailer park or shotgun shack, therefore our decorating style is much more Duck Dynasty than Walter Anderson.
This is incorrect. If there's one thing MS has it's old money. We just don't much new money, which is what society judges on. Our middle class and all their suburban sprawl glory is basically only in Memphis suburbs, Jackson suburbs and Gulfport/Biloxi area.
Gloria, I haven't seen one Kincaide since moving to Ohio. Long Island is another story. Nouveau rich McMansion dwellers almost ALL have a Kincaide or two in their homes. Except if they are Jewish.
They are mostly college educated professionals. And they live in the shadow of arguably the art capital of North America. Lawyers, doctors, business owners, and others, seem to think that owning a "Kincaide" means that they have traditional good taste. If you have never visited Port Jefferson Village, I recommend that you do. It's a quaint harborside town on Long Island's North Shore, with many historic buildings dating from the 18th century. Shops, book stores, boutiques and sea food restaurants.
I tend to believe you that Mississippians are not as enamored with Kincaide as Long Islanders are.
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