Barbara Samples was born in Zion Illinois February 13, 1962 and moved to Northeast MS shortly there after to spend her childhood. She began drawing at an early age and was fascinated with art of any genre.
This self taught artist has an eclectic taste in music and art. She loves some music of all genres but not all music of all genres! Jazz, Soul, Blues and Rock can be heard coming from her studio as she is busy painting in Biloxi, Ms just a short walk from the beach.

Barbara is a recent transplant to Biloxi from Baldwyn, Ms. The call of the Ocean and the Gulf breeze were to much for this Mississippi native to resist. She can be seen walking in the Gulf waters, taking pictures, or just sitting watching the waves waiting for the spectacular sunsets that we have here. to give her inspiration for her paintings.
Barbara taught herself to draw and paint by seeing with an artists eyes. Most people don’t see what they are looking at. The way a shadow falls, the way a color changes, the curve of a child’s cheek these are things we see everyday but only look at not really see.

Books are a great love for her and at the age of 13 she had read every book in the local library with the exception of the encyclopedia. which she had at home.
She still loves book and has the beginnings of restoring her library that was lost along with everything she owned when her home burned a few years ago. This event and being in a head-on collision with a drunk driver changed her life.
After losing everything but the clothes on her back (including her art supplies and paintings), she gave up painting for years. Coming to the Mississippi Gulf coast with her father, brother, (who is also a very talented artist), and fiance to buy seafood, inspired her to try to paint again. She and her fiance Jeff Anderson loved the coast so much they moved here. She now paints in her studio daily drawing inspiration from her family, friends, and of course our beautiful Gulf Coast!

You can contact Barbara through her facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Barbara-Samples-Artist/178079828891817.

Encrypted Nomad is a guitar rock duo composed of Mike Hamel and Bobby Revell. They have been playing guitar together since college. Now, after years of work, they are recording their first album together. Taking their direction into guitar rock instrumentals, they blend multiple genres with strong song writing abilities. Though the songs have no vocals, their melodic guitar riffs and true song oriented approach have attracted listeners of all styles of music. They write, arrange, and record all their own music including all drums and bass guitars. They do it all themselves. Hear them shine on their upcoming album.

Bobby Revell has been playing guitar since age seven. He is a guitar design engineer who has built guitars for guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen (helping design the WolfGang Guitars from the very beginning), Michael Wilton (Queesryche), and Brian Bromberg (Jazz bass legend). Bobby plays his own handmade guitars. He continues to amaze listeners from all over with his powerful musicianship and is studying jazz along with rock and many other genres.

Mike Hamel has written more than 60 songs, including both vocal oriented and instrumental compositions. He has worked as a professional audio video engineer and studio musician, performing both guitar and bass on recordings. This is his fourth serious recording project and thus far his best. Mike is well known for his song writing and arrangements as well as the digital recording process. His guitar style is based on and built around good solid songs, and is known for his quirky, highly melodic guitar style.

The duo has been featured on garageband.com with Track of the day for their songs “The Lion’s Hammer”, “Sexica Lane” and “Warm Vibe”. They were awarded Best Guitars of the week for the song “Not Even Close” by the reviewers of Garageband.com. Garageband.com is part of the ilike.com network, but you can find Encrypted Nomad here.

Encrypted Nomad has been included on Rise Up, Vol.6 which was released on 09/21/10. You can help Encrypted Nomad complete its first CD by purchasing the “Rise UP Vol 6″ CD directly from Mike Hamel just look him up on facebook.   The Encrypted Nomad page on Facebook can be found here. You can also purchase the album from amazon.

You can also check them out on ReverbNation and Myspace.

I wasn’t able to get any one to feature on the site for today, so I am showcasing George Ohr.

The self-proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi” George Edgar Ohr (1857-1918) created a body of work from Mississippi clay.

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on July 12, 1857. Ohr studied the potter’s trade with Joseph Meyer in New Orleans, a potter whose family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine, as did Ohr’s. Ohr created well over 10,000 known pots in his lifetime.
Ohr displayed little obvious perfectionism in his art or control in his person, antagonizing art leaders nationally and political leaders at home.

Ohr had little financial success when it came to pottery most of what he sold was souveneir items for tourists, but his quote, “When I am gone, my work will be praised, honored, and cherished. It will come.” has since come true. Where in his day he was unable to sell his work for the modern equivilant of $500 people now commonly pay over $5,000 for his work, although I see some here that have gone for as much as $132,000.

There is a very good likliehood that some of Ohrs pots ae still floating around in the wilds of old barns or attics somewhere on the coast. 600 pots were taken from him by hired help when returning to his studio from the World’s fair in New Orleans. His original pottery was wiped out in a fire in 1894 and he recovered what he could from the ashes.

The Official opening of the Ohr-Okeefe Museum is scheduled for November 6 of this year. The museum is offering lifetime membership for individuals for $50 or families for $75. They also offer other membership levels including inscribed bricks on their site at The self-proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi” George Edgar Ohr (1857-1918) created a body of work from Mississippi clay.

George Ohr was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on July 12, 1857. Ohr studied the potter’s trade with Joseph Meyer in New Orleans, a potter whose family hailed from Alsace-Lorraine, as did Ohr’s. Ohr created well over 10,000 known pots in his lifetime.
Ohr displayed little obvious perfectionism in his art or control in his person, antagonizing art leaders nationally and political leaders at home.

Ohr had little financial success when it came to pottery most of what he sold was souveneir items for tourists, but his quote, “When I am gone, my work will be praised, honored, and cherished. It will come.” has since come true. Where in his day he was unable to sell his work for the modern equivilant of $500 people now commonly pay over $5,000 for his work, although I see some here that have gone for as much as $132,000.

There is a very good likliehood that some of Ohrs pots ae still floating around in the wilds of old barns or attics somewhere on the coast. 600 pots were taken from him by hired help when returning to his studio from the World’s fair in New Orleans. His original pottery was wiped out in a fire in 1894 and he recovered what he could from the ashes.

The Official opening of the Ohr-Okeefe Museum is scheduled for November 6 of this year. The museum is offering lifetime membership for individuals for $50 or families for $75. They also offer other membership levels including inscribed bricks on their site at www.georgeohr.org.