If William Blake had been born on northeast Alabama, he might have looked a lot like Howard Finster - artist, musician, a man who identified himself as "not of this world." Finster created Paradise ...

Finster Fest is no ordinary art festival. Yes, there will be an artist market, live music, a children’s activity area and food vendors. But it becomes clear when talking to both organizers and ...

He remains one of the most famous self-taught, do-it-yourself folk artists, who inadvertently created a mecca by filling his Paradise Garden with tens of thousands of his creations. Each year, fans of ...

Some people call it “outsider art.” Others “naive” or “primitive” art. Still others simply call it “folk art.” Whatever the label, the art of Howard Finster remains a prime example of those ...

There's a moment during Howard Finster's 1983 appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson — after his open-armed entrance and the "I never dreamed of being on your show" small talk — when the ...

“Howard was like a combination of Billy Graham and Mr. Rogers,” muses Larry Schlachter. “With a bit of Bob Vila, the home improvement guy, thrown in.” Schlachter—tall, 72, serendipitous purveyor of ...

Introduction : once upon a time: encountering the word made flesh -- On the Finster trail : the business of Howard Finster's divine busyness -- Signs of the times : Howard Finster and prophetic ...

Local fans of Howard Finster, the legendary Baptist preacher-turned-folk artist responsible for more than 46,000 works over a 25-year painting career, used to have to trek all the way to Georgia to ...

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden will host its annual Finster Fest art and music extravaganza Memorial Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 25 and 26, in Summerville, in Historic Paradise Garden.

The Rev. Howard Finster, a Baptist preacher turned folk artist who called his crudely drawn, brightly colored artworks “sermons in paint,” died Monday at a medical center in Rome, Ga.--near his rural ...

One person’s eccentric is another’s crazy. Sometimes with Howard Finster, one of America’s most celebrated folk artists, it was hard to tell when he was which. Something, though, drove this rural ...

"The Reverend Howard Finster (1916-2001) was called the 'backwoods William Blake' and the 'Andy Warhol of the South,' and he is considered the godfather of contemporary American folk and visionary art ...