HOWARD FINSTER - Godfather of Folk Art
Man of Visions - Visitor from Other Worlds
Born in Valley Head, Alabama 1916 - Born again at age 13 - starting preaching at 16 - became a full time preacher in 1940… traveling statewide for Revivals. He wrote religious newspaper columns and preached regularly on radio.
He retired from preaching in 1965 to spend full time filling in swamp land and creating what later came to be called Paradise Garden….paying the bills by working side jobs like repairing bicycles, plumbing, woodworking and TV repairing. The garden consisted of a jungle like maze of buildings and sculptures made mostly of found objects, recycled materials and just plain junk from the nearby dump. He created art made from trash. It became the most famous and visited folk art environment in the world. A sign at the entrance says:
“I took the pieces you threw away - put them together by night and day — washed by rain and dried by sun, a million pieces all in one!”
After Howard's death, the Gardens gradually fell into disrepair. Every time we'd visit it looked worse than the time before. Thankfully, a couple years ago, the locals realized that they had a valuable tourism asset right in their own backyard. Hundreds of volunteers and tens of thousands of dollars are bringing it back to it's former glory. Unfortunately, it'll never be the same without it's creator.
In 1976 God told him to paint sacred art. Howard’s Sermons in Paint went worldwide. God told him to paint 5000 pieces to spread the Gospel…he finished that in 1985 and kept on painting, at his death in 2001, he had painted over 45,000…(that’s not a typo…he did 45,000 pieces of art...numbered and dated).
His widest exposure was his music cover art. The Talking Heads, commissioned Finster to create the art for the cover of its 1985 set "Little Creatures." That album sold over two million copies and Finster won the “Rolling Stones’ Album of the Year Award.” Howard always said” “when I preached in church, only a hundred people heard my message…look…millions have seen my messages on Talking Heads, R.E.M. and other band’s album covers."
Eventually Paradise Garden became the #1 tourist attraction in the State of George and was the site of many band’s videos and Howard became a world wide celebrity, appearing on the Johnny Carson Show and having “one man shows” at the Smithsonian and dozens of galleries and universities all across the globe. Write ups in Life & People magazines and every major newspaper in the country introduced folks to this formerly unappreciated genre. His fame is credited with bringing outsider folk art into the main stream.
Every folk artist in the country owes Howard a debt of gratitude for opening up avenues for bringing our art to the attention of the general public.
During his years of pastoring churches he married thousands of couples…BUT… how many of those couples can say that they are folk artists….and was married by Howard…in HIS garden. WE CAN! To Sheila and me.... it's a SACRED PLACE. Yes, we’re proud to say that he married us in Paradise Garden Oct 27, 1996.
We Love and Miss You, Howard!
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| When we were married - Oct 27, 1996 |
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Revisting the Garden - August 2014 - Standing under a sign
I made for Howard - two years BEFORE we met him. |
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