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HOWARD FINSTER In 1976, at the age of sixty, Howard Finster was divinely inspired to pick up a paintbrush and can of tractor enamel to "paint sacred art:' Painting passages from the Bible on masonite from the backs of old television sets, the Reverend made primitive renderings which reflected the fire and brimstone sermons he gave as a revivalist, when he traveled the South on a mission to save as many souls as possible. These "sermons in paint" became ornaments and "signposts to salvation:' wired to the fence, trees and display buildings in his "Paradise Garden" (a three-acre environment in the backyard of his home in Summerville, Georgia). The Garden, started in 1961, as a combination roadside attraction and Bible park, was built by Finster to lure in the sinners and the saved alike to audience the hourly sermons of salvation by the "painting preacher!' As if inspired by the Sherwin Williams paint slogan "cover the earth;' Finster painted obsessively roundthe-clock to get his messages out — completing two and three paintings a day. Fearlessly, he worked in as many materials as he could salvage, using wood, metal and plastic to create astounding sculpture and found-object assemblage. Although Finster says "I started as a baby in art;' his vocabulary as an artist grew rapidly. From the early Bible paintings, he expanded his subjects to include cultural icons like Henry Ford, Elvis Presley and George Washington. Finster's paintings have a direct quality, touched with humor, which caught the eye of a young and ever-growing audience. His paintings, which now number in the ten thousands, have found their way into countless newspapers and magazines like Life, The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Finster's paintings have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, the White House and Fall 1989
MAN OF VISIONS BY J.F. TURNER
Self Portrait — My Brain is Like a Wirehouse; 1980;Ink on paper;Collection ofMarion Boulton Stroud.
numerous university and gallery shows throughout the country. His position as the best-known twentieth-century selftaught artist was assured after an appearance on the Johnny Carson Show in 1983 and a painting, commissioned by the Talking Heads, that was used as the cover art for their album, "Little Creatures;' released in 1985. Following are excerpts from the forthcoming book Howard Finster: Man of Visions by LE Turner;copyright © 1989 by J.F. limner; to be published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. "My name, Howard, is a rare name.
You don't find it in the Bible.I was born December 2nd in Valley Head, Alabama, about twelve miles north of Fort Payne. My Mother told me I was born in 1916, but maybe it was 1915. There was thirteen of us children. I was the last child home. My Dady (Samuel) was a lumberjack and owned a steampower sawmill. He cut timber and built our own colonial home. My Mother made our bed quilts and I only had flour-sack diapers when I was a baby. I remember just about everything since I was about a year old. The only thing I can't remember is when I first nursed. They didn't have bottles back in them days. Babies nursed their Mothers. I can remember when I was kinda being weaned off the breast but I can't remember when I started on the breast. "My Mother (Lulu) was a Christian but my father was a sinner. He would not even go to church, and when good people would come to our house from the church, Dady would dart out the back door and and go to the woods. One night my Dady took the old truck and loaded us all up and drove us to Lee's Chapel Baptist Church to a big revival, but he would not go in the church. And that night Preacher Harrison, a young preacher, was there from Rome, and I looked and Richard Phillips, my schoolteacher, was in the quire and I made my way to the quire and sat down by the teacher. He was the first one I told about my calling. I said, 'Brother Philips, I have been called to preach: After the service began, they heard a voice sound out. It was my schoolteacher. He said 'Folks, I have an announcement to make. Tonight, Howard Finster is called to preach: No one there laughed about it. In fact, they took it seriously, and he said, 'Howard will confess his calling tonight: and then I stood up behind that sacred desk and began to speak. From then on I felt like I was a preacher. I felt like I had begun and also finished my preaching because such a big load was gone. But I 39