Howard Finster: From Preacher to Painter

by Matt Shalzi

The main trail at Paradise Garden. Paradise Garden was an environment Finster created and expanded for almost 20 years in Penneville, Georgia. The landscape is a maze controlled by a series of cement walls and decorated with a variety of sculpture, found objects, paintings, and natural habitat. In dedication of such a glorious and monumental display of Finster’s art and life, an annual celebration is held at Paradise Garden during the summer.


	Howard Finster sitting on the “Giant’s Shoe” in Paradise Garden.

Howard Finster assumes the identity of an artist which only seems attainable through the understanding of his rather mythological transformation. His story entails the faith of a man and his willingness to change all that is familiar for the sake of his God. Finster pursued a devotion to his beliefs so unrelentingly that people exposed to him cannot help but appreciate a man with such purpose.

His purpose was to expose the world to the greatness of the Lord and have man absorb that faith. As a Freewill Baptist minister for 40 years, Finster was fulfilling his purpose through daily sermon and Sunday service. However, Finster found that the method of preaching God through sermons was unsuccessful. This realization struck Finster one Sunday night when he asked a man, a member of his congregation, to restate the ideas of that morning’s sermon and he could not remember a single word of the preaching. Following this incident, Finster questioned his ministry and turned to God for an answer. While Finster was in the act of performing an odd job in one of his many skilled trades, God finally responded. Itwas through a white smudge of paint on his hand that resembled a face where God spoke to Finster and told him to “Paint sacred art.” From that moment on, Howard Finster was no longer a preacher through words, but a preacher through paint.

Finster, then at the age of 60, had now found a means to achieve his purpose. Art was a medium that Finster would use to anchor the significance of faith in his audience. Although Finster was skeptical of quickly changing professions and indulging into something unfamiliar, he found his art to have a greater impact on viewers than his forgotten sermons. In creating over 46,000 pieces of art, Finster was able to grasp the attention of the art world and show mankind his great connection to God.


Vision of Mary’s Angel, enamel on wood, 1987.

Finster hardly recognizes himself as an artist despite his artistic following and his decoration in the art community. Finster does not intent to make people in awe of his art; rather his objective is to put visions of God into a tangible format. Regardless of Finster’s reasoning for creating art, his achievements and lack of formal artistic training expand the definition of an artist to any one who is eager to represent thought through image. The artist is a person, like Finster, who is able to enlighten the world with visions of something seemingly unknown and independently familiar to a larger audience through any necessary processes. It is as if the artist represents and preaches something that is always mysterious, and the visual representation is meant to answer some of the mystery.

Finster’s work is no exception, however his reasoning is perfectly known. The fact that Finster knows precisely what he is making and why he is making it is remarkable. He sees something and documents that sighting, without a high degree of interference. His hand seems to be directly attached to his mind as if he sees and paints all in the same motion. Unlike so many artists that disrupt intentions through symbolism and outrageous representation, Finster is an artist who makes clearly understood artwork.

Howard Finster’s message continues to flourish even after his recent death on October 23, 2001. Mythologized during his life, Howard Finster lived so immensely that his legend stands alone in a domain where only a few men deserve such placement.


Sculpture in Paradise Garden.		Christ and the Birds		Coca-Cola

References
Finster, Beverly. “Howard Finster: Biography.” Online: www.finster.com/HFBiography.htm.
Girardot, Norman and Ricardo Viera. “Howard Finster (interview).” Art Journal Spring 1994: 48-50.
Patterson, Tom. “Paradise Before and After the Fall.” Raw Vision Summer 2001: 42-51.
“The Art of the Reverend Howard Finster.” American Artist July 1991: 10.
Turner, J.F. Howard Finster: Man of Visions. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1989.