Mississippi art shop sees deluge of orders after feature on HGTV’s ‘Hometown’
Published 5:38 am Monday, January 10, 2022
A south Mississippi art shop is shipping artwork across the U.S. and as far as Canada and Germany after a Walter Anderson print was featured on the HGTV show “Hometown.”
Show hosts Erin and Ben Napier help homeowners renovate historic properties, The Sun Herald reported. They brought a camera crew to visit Realizations Ltd. in Ocean Springs last summer to learn how to make a silkscreen print with Anderson’s iconic designs, shop manager Mary Jo McCollins said.
Napier was taught by Carolyn Anderson, Walter Anderson’s daughter-in-law, who has been making prints with his designs for five decades.
Since the show aired earlier this month on HGTV, McCollins said business hasn’t stopped during what is traditionally a slow season at the store.
The orders “are just bananas,” McCollins said. Realizations shipped 93 orders via UPS on a recent Wednesday, and McCollins said that doesn’t include local orders.
It’s not the first time Walter Anderson’s art has been featured on “Hometown,” but the extra air time with Erin Napier really helped business escalate.
The storefront typically closes after the holidays for deep cleaning and inventory, but the high demand meant more work to fulfill orders.
“Instead of counting and cleaning, a lot of our efforts have gone to packing and shipping,” McCollins said. “We just keep plugging away.”