Phil Proctor left South Mississippi to build a career as a professional sculptor, creating large-scale art installations across the country. Two decades later, the Lucedale native has returned to the Mississippi Coast to create sculptures inspired by an artist he has admired since childhood — Walter Anderson.
“Walter Anderson has been sort of a name I’ve known for many years, going back to being a young child and being one of my favorite artists ever because of the content of the work and the naturalism and just the representation of the animals and the way they are drawn,” Proctor said.
Proctor was chosen to create two sculptures for the Ocean Springs Gateway Sculpture Project, a shearwater bird and a pelican based on Anderson’s work.
From South Mississippi to a career in sculpture
Proctor graduated from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. He later earned a master’s degree in fine arts from East Carolina University before moving to Atlanta.
His path to becoming a full-time artist was gradual.
“Being an artist is — sometimes you gotta hold down a couple of jobs,” Proctor said. “I’d say after about ten years or so, I could leave most of my other kind of work behind and just focus on sculpture professionally full time.”
His work has since taken him across the country, including projects in Arizona, Oklahoma, Florida and Ohio.
“It was really nice to be able to work where I really know a lot of the people,” Proctor said.
Bringing Anderson’s work into the third dimension
The Gateway Sculpture Project took shape through meetings with residents and community leaders about what best represented Ocean Springs.
Julian Rankin, strategic advisor for the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, said the process led organizers back to Anderson and the city’s artistic tradition.
Proctor was selected after a public call for artist qualifications from Mississippi and the surrounding region. His task was to transform two-dimensional designs based on Anderson’s work into large-scale sculptures.
“Phil got to collaborate, if you will, with Walter Anderson across time and to turn these into three-dimensional sculptures,” Rankin said. “That, I think, was the magic about it.”
“It was really kind of a wonderful experience working what I would describe as a collaboration with Walter Anderson in spirit,” Proctor said.
Design and engineering work began in late 2025, followed by manufacturing around March 2026, Proctor said. The sculptures were unveiled Oct. 1.
Rankin said the overall project took about two and a half years, including public input, design, funding and manufacturing.
More than just art
The Gateway Sculpture Project aims to place public art at entrances to Ocean Springs while helping direct visitors downtown.
The project was funded through the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund as part of the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center rehabilitation and signage project.
Rankin said the sculptures are intended to guide visitors toward businesses and bring art into developing areas of the city.
He said the project could serve as an example for other Mississippi communities.
“It’s a model for other cities and areas of the state to say, ‘We could do something like this too,’” Rankin said.
For Proctor, the project also marked a return to his Mississippi roots.
“Being able to work on a project in Mississippi really meant a lot to us,” he said.
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