Southern road trip dream

For years, ever since I heard about it, I have wanted to visit the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi. It finally came together when I got excited about seeing the "Sargent and Spain" show at the National Gallery of Art, curated by Sarah Cash, erstwhile colleague at the Amon Carter, and collaborators. I realized these were a couple push pins in the map of a road trip in the southern United States. As I started to formulate the trip and talk to friends about it, they'd squirm at the thought of traveling in the Deep South. What about homophobia? What about Trumpism? What about ...?

Now two weeks into the trip, I have been to a wonderful selection of museums, some for the first time ever, some for the first time in years, others oft visited. I started in Washington with the National Gallery where I got a chance to talk with Sarah for a half hour or so and several NGA Library colleagues and friends for about an hour. There was a wonderful craft show at the Renwick. The Obama portraits were back at the National Portrait Gallery after a tour. The National Building Museum had an overview show of the work of MASS Design Group whose National Memorial for Peace and Justice is still coming up (tomorrow) in Montgomery, Alabama. I got to the Smithsonian American Art Museum which is always a delight. The Giuseppe de Nittis show at the Phillips was really interesting and enlightening.

Amusingly, I got to valet park my own car at the hotel I was staying at (Normandy Hotel, near Connecticut Avenue and the Washington Hilton). The clerk on duty couldn't manage a stick shift. After not driving for several days, I couldn't either, as I tried to get out of the garage under the building with a steep driveway where you had to stop after tripping the device that opened the garage door. I only stalled twice.

I started this post to describe how much I was enjoying the Alabama and Mississippi portions of the road trip and, so far, have gotten distracted by the bigger narrative. More on all that later.

My first view of Alabama was the bright blue waters of Perdido Bay from the bridge/causeway between Florida and Alabama. I was about ready for lunch and there was The Front Porch. There's a bit of a name authority issue: the sign said Lillian's Front Porch, the menu said Johnny B's Front Porch. Lillian is the town. The sign out front said it was Taco Tuesdays. The tacos were fine, the setting was comfortable as you can see from this picture. The waitress was pleasant and teased me about doing my homework as I wrote in my journal.

I made it to Moss Point, Mississippi (about 25 miles from Biloxi) for my overnight hotel. Darkness was descending and there was a discussion group Zoom to get ready for. Next morning, I got off toward Biloxi with some compensation for the museum not opening until 10 am. That is, I dawdled over Artle and Wordle and went into Ocean Springs to check out the Walter Anderson Museum of Art which didn't open until 11 am and didn't call to me. It was foggy and lovely over the Gulf of Mexico as I drove along the beach highway.

And, then, there was the Ohr-O'Keefe. It was a few minutes before 10 am and I walked around to get a sense of the exterior. The museum was designed by Frank Gehry. It consists of several buildings and some of the buildings are pods. One of the pods is not finished inside and the museum is now using it as a display space with its raw guts showing. George Ohr called himself "The Mad Potter of Biloxi." His work is pretty rich and complex. There were plenty of his pots on display but not so many that you were ready to scream "Enough!"

My expectations of the museum were very high but the museum and collection (and even the lunch at the museum café) were fulfilling and deeply satisfying.

There are more pictures in my Flickr album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/56294332@N00/albums/72177720304864649