Realizations

Travel Post #8: Realizations-The Walter Anderson Shop

Realizations is a small shop located in the heart of downtown Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This shop houses wall-to-wall Walter Anderson pieces. The artwork is stripped of color allowing the purchaser to paint using watercolors of their own choice. I personally have quite a few pieces of artwork that have been painted to match the décor of my home. Not far down the road you can find the Walter Anderson Museum that contains his family’s artwork and a biographical video.

Brief history: Walter Inglis Anderson was born in the early 1900s in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a painter, writer, and naturalist. Anderson lived most of his life rather reclusive on Horn Island in Mississippi. He painted the primitive conditions that he experienced such as the landscapes, animals, sea creatures, and foliage. He then passed away in 1965.

Check Out Their Websites: http://www.walteringlisanderson.com/

http://www.walterandersonmuseum.org/

The Shed: BBQ & Blues Joint

Travel Post #7: The Shed BBQ

I travel to Ocean Springs, Mississippi a few times a year and there is one stop that I make regardless of our predetermined plans… The Shed! Visiting this BBQ joint is certainly an experience, yes experience! Upon arrival on the property you immediately become a ShedHed. The décor includes license plates hanging from the ceiling, classroom chairs as seats, horse statues, old car parts, and anything else you could imagine being found in a junk yard. The backdrop is, of course, a clear shot of the bayou. To give you the full picture I found this paragraph on their website: "Once there was a guy that spent most of his out-of-class time at Ole Miss scouting out, jumping in, and rummaging through dumpsters and street side garbage piles. The highlight of his week was the "night before trash day." After graduation, he wanted to move back to the Coast. One sobering morning he surveyed all he had collected over the years. It was Everywhere, it was Insane: warped used two by fours, old tin roofing, bent nails, ugly windows, mountains of pure, unadulterated junk! Not knowing what to do with it and not willing to part with a single plastic bucket or warped record, he built a trailer out of the larger parts and loaded the rest on top of this homemade junk hauler (picture here the Beverly Hillbillies on steroids) and moved back to Ocean Springs."

Now that you know what to expect aesthetically, the food is superb. I recommend the pulled pork sandwich with a side of potato or pasta salad. A majority of others select the ribs. You really can’t go wrong when selecting items off of their menu.

Check Out Their Website: http://theshedbbq.com/