Horn Island is located off the Mississippi coast roughly ten miles from Pascagoula. It has mostly been uninhabited and is now part of the National Seashore system with its only regular residents being park rangers. It has gained notoriety mainly because of the artist Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) for whom it became his muse. Anderson would row out to the island (which is unbelievable) and stay for extended periods living rough, writing and making work. There is a lovely little museum in Ocean Springs (www.walterandersonmuseum.org) dedicated to Anderson and his brothers with a great collection of his work and artifacts like the row boat he used to get out to the island as well as the Ocean Springs Community Center, the interior of which he covered with a mural. Anderson created a distinctive and varied body of work, much of it focused on subjects from or inspired by Horn Island. For Bob Riseling and many of the MCA Horn Island program veterans, he remains an inspirational figure.
Walter Anderson "Self Portrait" watercolor Walter Anderson Museum of Art