Art environments
are cutting-edge forums today for contemporary artists and viewed
by many as something new and revolutionary. A trip to the Southeastern
United States, specifically through Georgia and Alabama, pokes
a hole in this theory by presenting art environments along the
roads, also known as yard art, which has been around for more
than half a century if not longer.
Summerville,
Georgia is a tiny town two hours northwest of Atlanta and home
to Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens. This 4-acre environment
includes freestanding sculptures, meandering mosaic walkways,
a spectacular chapel, a building made of glass bottles, biblical
messages and a tremendous sense of place and history.
Howard Finster,
a Baptist preacher, was born in Valley Head, Alabama on December
2, 1916. Before his death in October 2001, at the age of 85,
his oeuvre included more than 46,000 paintings in addition to
Paradise Gardens’ buildings, sculptures and mixed media
works. His wife Pauline, with whom he raised 5 children, survives
Howard but does not, and has never, shared in his desire for
public attention.
The Art World has
anointed Finster with many labels including Folk Artist, Outsider
Artist and Naïve Artist. The one moniker that is most apt
is Visionary Artist, the only genre in this group that does
not include derogatory allusions to the artist’s mental
state, level of education or race. This is a subject that rankles
the soul of the liberal thinker and one that is so broad of
scope that it calls for an essay of its own. In short, Anglo
males of European descent are known simply as artists -- perhaps
with a modifying word that links them to a particular school
of thought and style. Women are always referred to as female
artists with little regard to genre and formal or informal training.
Those who do not fit neatly into one of the aforementioned groups
are most often categorized by a variety of attributes, most
of which are outside their control -- such as race, access to
formal training and education, place of birth, choice of neighbourhood.
Visionary
Art is defined as the attempted or purported
transcendence the physical realm through a wider lens of awareness
with an emphasis on spiritual or mystical subject matter. 
According
to Finster, he had his first vision at the age of three. His
deceased sister, Abbie Rose, appeared to him and told him that
he would be a “man of visions.” This first played
out in the form of country preacher -- Finster was “born
again” at a Baptist revival at the age of 13 when his
years of formal education had come to an end and he began preaching
at the age of 16. His career as a full-time pastor started in
1940 at Rock Bridge Baptist Church, he then led the parish at
Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Fort Payne (Alabama).
As lore has it,
his epiphany came in 1976 when he realized that by Sunday evening
his followers had forgotten his sermon but they didn’t
forget his art. Not wanting to forfeit his avocation as a man
of god, he preached through his art. This is not a unique vision
but one shared by artists of many genres. George Balanchine,
renowned choreographer and creator of New York City Ballet,
once said, “God creates, I do not create.”
Colourful, detailed
and painted on a flat plane without perspective, Finster’s
paintings are covered with words and Bible verses. He felt people
would absorb the scripture “better” that way.
Finster was known
to have stated, “Christians were not supposed to be famous,
they were supposed to be servants of God.” However, in
serving God through his art, Finster achieved an unrivaled level
of fame for a Visionary Artist. He was profiled in Esquire
Magazine in 1975 by a reporter (whose name we could not
track down) who dubbed Finster’s environment Paradise
Gardens. He appeared on the Johnny Carson show in 1983 and has
a league of followers that continue to create in his style and
support the restoration of Paradise Gardens today. An R.E.M.
video was filmed at the Gardens and his cover art for a Talking
Heads album garnered awards and accolades. In addition to many
books about Finster, one of which he co-authored, there are
YouTube videos featuring the Garden and well-worth viewing.
In
the late 1940s, Finster began building his first art environment
in Trion, Georgia. His desire to collect “one of everything
man made,” and his near obsessive interest in perpetual
motion co-joined with nature resulted in an on-site exhibit
entitled, “Inventions of Mankind.” It was a celebration
of mankind through mechanical inventions and a tribute to “God’s
creations.” Running out of land, he moved to Summerville
in 1961 and began creating anew. Finster was known as a man
who did not sleep; he “napped and worked.”
Drive up to Paradise
Gardens and the first glimpse is overwhelming. Whitney Nave
Jones, an artist who owns the Paradise Gardens Gallery, beckons
one inside and offers visitors an overview. If one is lucky
enough to be there on a day when Tommy Littleton (Chairman of
Paradise Gardens Park and Museum, Inc. and a miniature artist)
is there you will experience a curated tour from this Kris Kristofferson
look-alike (from the rocker’s younger days) that feels
as if Howard (as Littleton calls him) is striding alongside
you.
The move to Summerville
brought a job at the local mill but Finster soon opened a bicycle
repair shop on his property. For 25 years he contributed a weekly
column to the Summerville News.
In 2005, Finster’s
daughter Beverly donated Paradise Gardens to a non-profit organization
for the restoration and preservation of the Gardens and Finster’s
legacy. The project is called Paradise Redemption and work accomplished
to date has enabled the Gardens to re-open to the public. The
so-called ‘masterpiece’ of Finster’s art environment
is the World’s Folk Art Church, not yet open to the public.
On a recent visit,
and as a member of the media, I was permitted a sneak peek inside
the chapel. Up the winding stairs, bumping my head despite Tommy
Littleton’s warning, it was staggering to see from the
inside out what Finster had created as a tribute to his vision
of the Kingdom of Heaven where all the world will unite. On
the main floor of the Chapel a wooden bookcase holds jars of
preserves of every imaginable kind put up by Finster -- living
proof that a man and not an imaginary creature inhabited this
space.
While the chapel
is indeed extraordinary, what captured my attention were the
two “towers,” one entitled the Hubcap Tower, which
sprouted a massive rose bush, and the other, The Bicycle Tower,
constructed of bicycle and appliance parts.The
petite Bottle House was created from original 2-liter glass
Coca-Cola bottles and interspersed with cobalt blue Milk of
Magnesia bottles, allowing the sun to bounce off the glass as
well as off the nearby house paneled with mirrors. There’s
also The Picture House, which chronicles his travels through
words and postcards. A Meditation Room is filled with church
pews where Finster often delivered sermons in front of a white
coffin, somehow not unnerving within the scope of the Gardens.
Live goats are on hand to keep the ever-present Kudzu from overtaking
the Gardens.
“Pauline’s
House” built on the property was constructed as an inducement
for Finster’s wife to be happy in the place he loved so
much--– though they never inhabited it. Littleton says
the plans are to turn it into a B&B. The mouth of an upraised,
covered bridge begins at this house and wanders through the
Garden (Finster even built a wheel-chair accessible ramp long
beforethe ADA even thought of this as a requirement in public
spaces). Walking through the bridge one see’s paintings
by other artists -- including Purvis Young who visited with
Finster) and many by Finster himself. The windows from the Bridge
provide an all-encompassing view of the Gardens.
Interested in the
way people related to icons, many of Finster’s paintings
include Elvis and George Washington, among others. All were
painted with dark hair, to keep the subjects youthful, including
the self-portraits where Finster was always depicted as Atlas
carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He was a man of
enormous talent and versatility. He played the banjo, wrote
songs, lectured, had a major exhibition at the High Museum in
Atlanta and made music boxes that he sold off the hood of his
car at flea markets. There aren’t enough words to capture
the depth and breadth ofFinster but a trip to Paradise Gardens
opens up his world and encourages guests to seek out and gobble
up the proliferation of information available.
The perfect way
to describe Finster’s art is from his own words inscribed
in the Garden. “I took the pieces you threw away and I
put them together by Night and Day. Washed by Rain and Dried
by Sun A Million Pieces All in One.”
For public hours,
directions, information about the restoration and the artist
visit www.finstersparadisegardens.org
Also
by Dindy Yokel:
The
Art of Purvis Young
Quilts
and Quips
