Coming Home: Becoming an Artist

An academically trained artist, Archie died two years after the couple—who married in 1928—settled in Dusti’s hometown of Biloxi with their young son in 1934. Coming Home: Becoming an Artist comprises 34 watercolors and paintings of which 19 are by Dusti along with sketchbook drawings.

From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, Dusti was pursuing a career in the theater in Chicago and Archie was building his reputation as a painter in New York City. Once married, they started making frequent trips to visit family and friends on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans. On these trips, Archie would often sketch and paint local scenes and Dusti started occasionally joining him in this activity.

Archie built a light-filled studio behind their home and continued his artistic pursuits. Dusti started spending more time working alongside him in the studio and accompanying him on outings to capture local scenes of the vibrant coastal city. Recognizing his wife’s innate talent, Archie encouraged her. She heeded his advice to forego art school, learning instead from observation and experimentation. Devastated by his tragic and untimely death from ALS, Dusti picked up his paint brushes and embarked on her storied, lifelong practice.

Whereas Archie’s drawings and paintings were mostly rendered in traditional academic style, Dusti’s almost immediately took on a more modern quality. Although her very early pieces are figurative, they are not rendered in any kind of strictly realist manner.

This exhibit provides a poignant experience—an artist who came home, faced personal loss, and emerged a pioneering Modernist.