As I mentioned in the last message, there was more to this day than could fit into one email. Sometimes at the end of the day it's actually hard to process all that we have seen in the span of 24 hours. Our stop into Pennville, GA was so much more than we will ever be able to describe. I know, I know, these words have been written before but once again this is the reality we must somehow communicate and accept.
Day 40's afternoon:
For the second time in the day, we did not have the correct information and there were few hints to finding our intended art site. Apparently there was some transcription issue because the street did not compute on the GPS and left us flying blind. After a few runs through town and my new hobby, u-turning, it seemed we were going to come up empty on this one. This was baffling as the site we sought is fairly well known. On the side of the road there was a used appliance store with an older gentleman working in the open shop in back. Looked like a local and surely he would know what we were talking about. He thought a bit and eventually told us to head west and turn right at the Church of Christ -- "Seems like I seed something like that thar a few years back." After a bit of haphazard divining rod-like meandering, we found Howard Finster's "Paradise Garden". Note: there is absolutely no signage until you pull into the parking area and they are usually are open only on weekends. Once again we just lucked out that someone was there to let us in. Truth is, we would have climbed the fence if no had been there.
This is the point where it just stupid to try and tell you about what we saw. Keep in mind I took close to 200 photos of this place in the few hours we were there. That is no where near enough to even begin to capture all the incredible things that make up this vast art landscape. As an email recipient, you get to have only 20 images to feed your vicarious curiosity. The photos I took occurred with Rodney the artist/photographer on hold. These are not artsy photos but rather just some sort of documentation. If I were to try to take art photos, I would have to move to Pennville for months. It is art eye/mind/heart/soul boggling. OMG!
"Paradise Garden" is something of a Outsider Art Mecca and has been for years. Some of you may know of Howard Finster by name or through the notoriety he received by designing album covers for both R.E.M. (he became friends with Michael Stipe) and the Talking Heads -- both in the mid-eighties. Those must have been the "heyday" for Howard and his phenomenal creation (has sold 48,000+ pieces of art). Apparently artists and interested alternative life-stylers were drawn to this unique world as many came, stayed and helped around the garden. Many pieces of art were created by artists other than Howard and they added pieces to the ever growing gallery and gardens. There are many structures of varying scale and function. Houses, workshops, galleries, meeting/performance rooms, sleeping rooms and many others are all part of the multi-acre site.
Now the sad news, this place is disappearing fast. It is falling apart and there is no preservation or restoration happening nor in the works. The main tower/gallery is closed (it made us crazy/crazier to not get to see inside the building that was obviously the main event.... ack). We are guessing this is due to safety issues. Most of the rooms are open to the elements and virtually all the sculptures are rotting and succumbing to the elements. Howard died in 2001 and the family has done little to save the work. They have the best intentions but possess few skills and no funding. There is talk of seeking assistance but frankly, it is hard to imagine that any of the people involved have the knowledge or experience in seeking funding for such a daunting undertaking. It would be hard to even know where to begin; surely it would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a dent in saving this fading treasure.
Honestly, our enthusiasm was deeply diminished by the sadness we felt for seeing this man's lifework decaying with every tick of the clock. We were both in awe of what remains and sickened by the loss. It was impossible to not imagine how astounding this place must have been 20 or 30 years ago; it must have been magical.
So it with a sense of privilege and gratitude, we share a few photos of our deeply moving experience on May 28, 2010. Sorry if this takes awhile to download all the pics but believe me, it's worth it. If it causes problems, wait a few days and go to the blog:
Love and under-achieving cameras,
Rodney and Susan
ps. I recommend you take the time to read image #2
No comments:
Post a Comment