Greetings!
Spiritual, sacred and scary. Shannan and I went to Pennville, GA to visit
Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden. We had been to the home and workshop of
Georgia’s beloved Folk Art Evangelist previously. This weekend proved different
as we left heavy snow on the ground in the Metropolitan Atlanta area to stay in
the Finister cottage across the street from the Garden. A very interesting
amenity of renting the cottage comes in the 24 access to Paradise Garden. We took full advantage and toured the
property over and over in the light of day, dark of night and the amber glow of
early morning’s dawn.
Over a twenty-six-year
period Finster repurposed three acres of swamp land and crowded it with many of
his nearly 47,000 mixed media works of art. The landscape with its varying
structures and fixtures made it hard to navigate, even for a very short run.
This was complicated even more by icy conditions, wooden bridges and mosaic
sidewalks were particularly slippery. So, I did not engage in a full on run through the property. I used the opportunity to the best of my ability to appreciate the
influence and inspiration of the place, the man and his message.
Create
Shamelessly. Run.
Tom
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