Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens - The Art Envi
Visionary Artist's World Folk Art Chapel, Gardens & Park Now Open
Jun 9, 2009
Whitney Nave Jones, an artist, who owns the Paradise Gardens Gallery beckons one inside and gives visitors an overview.
Paradise Gardens an Art Environment
In the late 1940s, Howard 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.”
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.
Paradise Gardens Re-Opens to the PublicIn 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.
World Folk Art Chapel
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 sprouting 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 – the sun bounces off the glass as it does on 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 before the 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 a surveying 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; he 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 of Finster 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 the website.
 |
 |
 |
