Howard Finster
Howard Finster
Howard Finsterwas an American artist and Baptist minister from Georgia. He claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the design of his swampy land into Paradise Gardens, a folk art sculpture garden with over 46,000 pieces of art. His creations include outsider art, naïve art, and visionary art. Finster first came to widespread notice in the 1980s with his album cover designs for R.E.M. and Talking Heads...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth2 December 1916
CountryUnited States of America
So all I have to do is just when that Holy Spirit says to do something, I know that's supposed to be done, regardless to anything else.
And I just started a church. I called it the World's Folk Art Church. I bought this old church. There was no deacons or pastors or anything.
And since they wasn't able to turn my art over, I sort of just switched off to Phyllis Kind, she's really my agent. She has a gallery in Chicago.
You know, I been accused - people call me crazy like they did Noah, you know. Some people think I'm insane, like, maybe a percentage like insane?
When I'm building my dome in my chapel, and I had a vision - I've worked on perpetual motion and I haven't never give it up yet. I still think it could be done, perpetual motion. I had a vision of a un resist able windmill.
I had a call to the University of Miami where I'd run a revival in 1950.
When I'm makin' lectures to these universities, I tell 'em I like that little building because when I run short a audience, if I can get three people in there I've got a good crowd.
Every time that we've ever fought, we fought to keep from bein' destroyed. We've never started a war.
But, when I had this feeling and started painting sacred art, as I had this feeling to do, then it come to me: my problem is I'll get a lot of criticism and another problem is my work's not good enough to sell.
I took the pieces you threw away, put them together by night and day. Washed by the rain. Dried by the sun. A million pieces all in one.
My work begun to spread out. And calls to the universities begun to take me out of my garden, you know.
I never met someone I did not love.
You can't smear acrylics, you know, it dries too fast.
Sometimes I don't even pull my shoes off for six weeks at a time, except, you know, just to take a shower. I just take breaks between 24 hours a day, just a break now and then, it don't take me long to rest; maybe 20 to30 minutes sometime, or maybe an hour.