Page 96 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2025

South Mississippi could be called
an artists’ paradise. Art and inspiration abound in the coastal environment. Local artists such as the late Walter Inglis Anderson and Dusti Bongé left their mark and continue to inspire artists today, including Kathy Tosch.
96 | October 2025
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Walter Anderson Museum of Art
510 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs 228.872.3164 www.walterandersonmuseum.org
Dusti Bongé Art Foundation
www.dustibonge.org
Kathy Tosch
www.ktosh.art Instagram @tosh.k
story by Lynn Lofton
photos courtesy of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation, and Kathy Tosch
Mattie Codling, executive director of the Walter Anderson Museum
of Art (WAMA), says Anderson’s artwork was intricately tied to the environment of the Gulf Coast.
“The Gulf Coast is unique in its close ties to the splendor of the natural world. Anderson sought
to capture the beauty and sublime nature of the coastal environment through his artwork, bringing viewers of his art into his personal experience of place,” Codling added. “Anderson’s artwork largely depicts the flora and fauna of the Gulf region. However, I do not think that these were necessarily more important themes but rather they were subjects that were readily available for him to study and depict in his work.”
“As he grew up in New Orleans,
he spent his childhood exploring swamps and sailing the gulf waters. As his career progressed, he became part of the movement of Southern artists who were turning their attention to their homes for inspiration.”
After Anderson completed his schooling at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he joined
his family in 1928 in Ocean Springs where his brother had started Shearwater Pottery. “From this moment on, Anderson’s focus was on the environment of the Gulf South,” Codling says. “He depicted the flora and fauna of the region, the people, and even the weather.”
The work of artist Dusti Bongé
is currently on exhibit at WAMA through November 30. Reared
in Biloxi, she was named for her mother Eunice Lyle Swetman. She acquired the nickname Dusti after marrying Archie Bongé, an artist from Nebraska. She’s considered a modernist painter of the late 20th Century with a style that evolved over decades.
Later in his career, Anderson wrote, “In order to realize the beauty of humanity, man must recognize his relation to nature.”
The Dusti Bongé Foundation