The Paradise Garden Foundation’s mission is to preserve, maintain and showcase Rev. Howard Finster’s visionary artistic site, Paradise Garden.Reverend Howard Finster, a self proclaimed “Man of Visions”, Finster was one of America’s most widely known and prolific self-taught artists producing over 46,991 pieces of art before his death in 2001. He saw himself as a sacred artist, tirelessly recording his visionary prophesies and providing glimpses of a celestial outer space world that God revealed to him. These visionary journeys were very real for Finster, providing a limitless variety of images for his creative endeavors.
Born in rural Alabama in 1916, Finster went on to become a preacher, tent revivalist, and “master of 22 different trades” before building his roadside tribute to inventors the Plant Farm Museum. Later dubbed “Paradise Garden,” this rock and junk encrusted wonderland became the focus of Finster’s life work. In 1976, however, this focus shifted. As he was using his fingers to apply paint to a refurbished bicycle, Finster noticed that the paint smudge on the tip of his finger had formed a human face. A voice spoke to him, saying, “paint sacred art.” Finster began churning out thousands of sermon-laden artworks with subjects ranging from historical characters and popular culture icons like Elvis Presley to evangelistic fantasy landscapes and futuristic cities. Most works are meticulously coated in Finster’s own hand-lettered words and Biblical verse.
Paradise Garden, a ramshackle compound of curated chaos filled with murals, bike parts, concrete sculptures bedazzled with found objects, and a painted Cadillac. The Mirror House shines on stilts in one corner; The World’s Folk Art Church, a tiered wooden chapel, stands above it all. Paradise Garden was once the physical manifestation of Finster’s vision.
