Two visionary North Georgia artists, Howard Finster and R.T. Henson, will be celebrated this month in events large and small. What they had in common were offbeat lifestyles, relentless creativity and a drive to transform their homes and surroundings with art.
To step into their worlds is worth the short trip from the metro area.
Finster Fest
Howard Finster, the banjo-playing preacher from Pennville, may be Georgia's best-known contemporary artist. He's certainly its most prolific. A one-man factory, he cranked out more than 48,000 numbered works of art in a variety of media, celebrating Elvis, UFOs, Coca-Cola and the gospel.
This weekend thousands will attend the Finster Fest Art Festival held at Paradise Garden, the phantasmagorical folk art garden near Finster's home that was his central preoccupation for much of his career.
The event will feature 60 folk artists, live bands and an opportunity to see a slice of the Finster universe. Though the High Museum purchased and removed numerous significant sculptures from the Paradise Garden before Finster's death in 2001, the landscape can still boggle the mind.
The nonprofit group that tends the garden will be seeking donations to stabilize structures there, including the 50-foot "World's Folk Art Church," a fanciful wedding-cake folly recently rescued from the debilitating effects of the swampy environment.
R.T. Henson
Known as "The Birdman" because of a "flying suit" that was one of his inventions, Henson was a well-known figure in Ellijay, riding his highly decorated bicycle from place to place.
Also interested in UFOs, as well as time travel and quantum physics, Henson painted, sculpted and worked steadily at making his home a poured-concrete work of art while patenting some rather unusual devices, including a square-barreled .22-caliber rifle.
Henson, who died in 2007, left his house and belongings to the Ellijay Church of Christ, and church member (and nephew) Danny Tibbitts has, with the help of a small group of volunteers, turned the house into a part-time museum of Henson's work. May 21-22 will mark one of the rare times the house is open to the public.
Event previews
Finster Fest: May 14-15, 84 Knox St., Summerville, free admission; information: 423-619-8154; finstersparadisegardens.org/.
R.T. Henson home tour, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 21; 1-5 p.m. May 22; free; parking at Gilmer County Courthouse, 1 Broad St., Ellijay; shuttle provided by Ellijay Church of Christ; information: 770-926-0475; www.rthenson.com/.
About the Author
