Howard Finster Portrait to Museum Collection

Anyone ever hear of the Reverend Howard Finster? I made a series of portraits of Howard in 1981 in "Paradise Garden", his masterpiece folk art site built on reclaimed swampland in Pennvile, Ga. Pennville is about three hours north of Atlanta in the mountains and I spent a lot of time with Howard while co-producing a documentary video, "Howard Finster: Man of Visions", for a cable tv station in Atlanta with a friend, Calvin Burgamy.

Howard was about to become the most famous folk artist of modern times. He had just completed album covers for Talking Heads and REM and within a few years had won wide acclaim in the art world and become a pop culture celebrity, even appearing on the Tonight Show and cracking up Johnny Carson.

Howard was one of the most charismatic people I have ever met and his colored pencil drawing I purchased when our filming was finished, is one of my most prized possessions. See more of his work here.

I am currently preparing three of my portraits of Howard to ship to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, in Atlanta, which has acquired them for their permanent collection.