NOON – 1:00PM
All artTALK programs are free and open to the public. No reservations required. Bring a lunch – beverages and desserts provided! The artTALK program is sponsored by West Quality Foods.

Thursday, August 15
John Anderson & Anthony Thaxton
The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson

Walter Anderson’s handwritten diaries and log books kept while living on Horn Island have drawn thousands of seekers into his vivid and vulnerable soul. However, he still spent time on the mainland, a spiritual pilgrim on his bicycle wandering from Texas to Florida to Pennsylvania and to the far ends of the world- China, France, and Costa Rica. Anderson’s travels provided moments of enlightenment, and he left his family a record of these transcendent moments. Join us as John Anderson and Anthony Thaxton discuss Walter Anderson’s inland journeys through  their new beautifully illustrated new book, The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson.

JOHN G. ANDERSON, the youngest child of Sissy and Walter Anderson, grew up in the artistic retreat at Shearwater Pottery. After college, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Following this he worked as a teacher, a national park ranger, and a marine biologist/ecologist before returning to graduate school to study neuroscience and become a psychologist. In the past several years he has been the curator or co-curator for twelve exhibits of his father’s art. He has written about him extensively, and participated in the production of several films on his father including Walter Anderson: The Extraordinary Life and Art of the Islander which is available to stream on PBS Passport.

ANTHONY THAXTON has won awards as a television director, painter, educator, photographer, writer, musician, and filmmaker. He is a founding partner of the Institute for Southern Storytelling at Mississippi College (where he was named the 2019 Distinguished Art Alumnus of the Year). He lovingly writes, produces, directs, and edits programming about the south. Anthony won a Southeast EMMY Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary (Walter Anderson: The Extraordinary Life and Art of The Islander) and was nominated for Best Editor and Best Director. He is currently at work finishing a major film and companion book on the life of celebrated writer Eudora Welty. The Walter Anderson film aired nationwide on PBS stations and the companion book was a bestseller and is in its second printing.