Directors explore Howard Finster's legacy in new doc
Film puts folk art icon's Paradise Garden back in focus.
- Joeff Davis/CL File
- EYE OPENER: "It struck me how the messages were still being communicated, just as he intended," Director Ava Leigh Stewart says. "I wanted to find a way for the audience to experience the same feeling."
The late Howard Finster defined Southern folk art with his self-taught works. A born-again Baptist pastor, Finster famously dedicated his creations to God, tallying up to about 47 thousand works during his lifetime. Among those efforts was Paradise Garden near Summerville, a 2.5-acre slice of land holding various worship temples, structures, and countless tiny Christian devotions Finster made. Found objects like tiny toy guns, re-imagined baby dolls, marbles, and bottle caps transformed into mosaics. Broad paintbrush strokes encapsulated the bodies living in Finster’s sometimes enormous murals. A verbal component was also usually present — either a Bible verse of a Finsterism. It started as an ode to Garden of Eden, but since Finster’s 2001 passing, it’s shifted into something bigger: a beacon of hope.
Paradise Garden: Howard Finster’s Legacy, a documentary from Art West Film explores the renovation of Finster’s art installation and his influence over the creative world at large. “Upon arrival to Paradise Garden, I had no idea what to expect,” Director of Photography Jeremy Oliver Miller says. “Paradise Garden was like something from another world — from the sculptures and glass encased in stone to the colorful murals painted on the side of an old house. It was remarkable.”
Finster’s creative clout spread into the mainstream in 1984 when fellow Georgians R.E.M. used his art for the cover of their album Reckoning. The following year, Johnny Carson invited Finster on his late-night show.
“When I visited the garden for the first time, I was taken by the messages on every wall, fence, stone and ceiling,” Director Ava Leigh Stewart says. “I thought it was remarkable he made the entire garden out of recycled objects. It struck me how the messages were still being communicated, just as he intended. I wanted to find a way for the audience to experience the same feeling.”
Shortly following Finster’s death, the garden fell in disarray and existed in a forgotten sphere until a major facelift in 2012. Paradise Garden has since been intermittently open to visitors and is constantly under construction.
“The genius of the garden is that as time passes, the messages impact each generation in their own way and illustrates that his artistic legacy is evolving,” Stewart says. “Making this film shows that a diverse group of individuals can come together to tell a compelling story because of art. The garden reminds us of our history, the days of wagon wheels, typewriters, and telegraphs. It is a place where kids can learn and adults can reminisce.”
Miller says Finster’s unwavering dedication and faith continues to blow his mind. “The whole reason he began creating sacred art was because of a vision he had of a little face on his finger which instructed him to ‘paint sacred art,’” he says. “That is fascinating to me. I think of my parents — who are close to his age when he started his mission — and how people would react if they just quit their jobs to paint because a little face on their finger told them to. It takes a lot faith and tough skin to be able to pursue a calling like that.”
It’s ripe time for us to remember the self-dubbed "Man of Visions" Stewart says. “The garden renovation inspires Georgians to think that things will get better and gives them hope,” she says. “As an artist, I think it is amazing to see such a clear example of how art can transform lives. ... people need to be reminded of that. As funding for the arts is dwindling, it reminds all of us that art should not be discarded. There is a power in art to create transformation.”