Beverly Hills visual artist finds inspiration on Gulf Coast

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (WLOX) -Visual artist, Alexandra Anderson Bower is home away from home. Bower traveled over 1,500 miles from Beverly Hills to Bay St. Louis.

She didn’t imagine her spring break trip would turn into a longer stay. The delayed home visit motivated her to relive her childhood through her artwork.

“If the pandemic didn’t happen I would be in Beverly Hills and I’ll be working,” said Bower. “Since there are so many fewer activities going on, there’s less to report on. So you have to be more creative to come up with things, but I found that to be very easy here.”

Bower expressed she wanted to create a new technique to stand out from other artists, then she decided to focus more on the Gulf Coast vegetation.

“My friend who I went to junior high, high school, and college with- she and I were out driving around in Pass Christian,” said Bower. “I just remarked to her how incredibly beautiful and how touched I was by looking at all of our live oaks.”

Bower said for the past two years she’s been considering the new project and actually started it, but her trip to Bay St. Louis really put the icing on the cake.

“I fix it to a prime canvas, and I use very saturated colors,” said Bower. “All of the elements are sort of like a modern version of decapage..”

Bower said she and her family adjusted to a new normal in just one week and look forward to staying even longer.

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