folk art | HYPERCOMMON

It was the weekend of Finster Fest, a gathering of folk artists in Dowdy Park in Summerville. I was working in Atlanta at the time, so I headed north that summer day to wander in the fantastical Paradise Garden of Howard Finster. Leland and I have known of his Bible-inspired paintings since the late ‘70s or early ‘80s when we dealt in Americana, folk art, and American Indian goods. Back then self-taught artists like Finster were categorized as ‘outsider’, ‘visionary,’ ‘naïve’ and folk – sometimes all of these, depending on who was writing.

The U.S. Bicentennial spurred interest in all forms of Americana – from colonial furniture to the quilts of Gee’s Bend and the independent visual voices of folks like Finster. We had worked with Dale Eldred and the Kansas City Art Institute to acquire and preserve the works of Jesse Howard. We found Robert E. Smith after seeing his paintings at the Missouri State Fair. Leland found a stack of Edward Patrick Byrne’s paintings of futuristic houses in the back room of a north Missouri antique shop. So my day trip to Summerville Georgia really was a pilgrimage.

In the intervening decades, Finster’s work had been recognized, collected, exhibited and become the subject of academic and museum publications that placed him and likeminded artists in a legitimate cultural context. Catalogued and preserved in museum collections, documented, inventoried and explained as his work is now (the High Museum in Atlanta has a large collection on permanent display), I was curious to see his built environment, Paradise Garden.

Finster’s couple of acres were buzzing with visitors. The small frame house, well decorated by his hand and tastefully expanded by the Paradise Garden Foundation to include a gallery of works, held a small gift shop, a couple of rooms of prints, video room with an interesting documentary playing on a loop. We roamed the garden and buildings freely, wandering from Mirror House (all mirrors inside and out) to Mosaic Garden, past the bicycle tower and Serpent of the Wilderness concrete sculpture. According to the Self Guided Tour booklet, Howard was fascinated by real snakes (“Please stay on the path,” the booklet cautions.) The High Museum has one of his snake sculptures; another was created for an album cover for sort-of-local rock group R.E.M. (from Athens, Georgia). Bits of glass and ceramic are inlaid into meandering concrete sidewalks and rock walls. “I built this park of broken pieces to try to mend a broken world of people who are travelling their last road,” he said in Man of Visions. It is a wondrous place.

It wasn’t always this way. Finster’s 2.5 acres were once a low-lying, swampy place with not much to recommend it. But his vision saw a beautiful garden, with trickling streams and flowering vines and dancing light. A place where angels would appear. And he made it so. He ditched and drained and planted and built. He recycled long before recycling was cool. He organized the leftovers of life and machines – and then made something out of them.

Larry Schlachter, owner of Folk America (www.folkamerica.net), a shop just down the road from Paradise Garden, knew Howard Finster. In his recollection, Howard was not as concerned with maintaining the existing structures as he was with creating more. The Foundation has done a good job of restoring and maintaining the grounds, which had become overgrown and worn. Schlacter handles a number of artists as well as carrying pieces from Finster and family members.

Athens Georgia rock band, R.E.M. graced the cover of Rolling Stone, April 20, 1989, labeled America’s Hippest Band, in an article entitled R.E.M.’s Brave New World by Anthony Decurtis.

Finster did not make the cover himself, but got a five-page color spread inside. “God’s brushman,” David Handelman said, was hip, his art making the album covers for both R.E.M. and David Byrne (Little Creatures).

Click on any image to see the full gallery.

Happy birthday, Bob!

For years we supplied Bob with materials—paints, brushes, artist’s board, and occasionally an object like this guitar. We then paid him for the finished art and sold them to collectors and dealers on both coasts. When he began to find local buyers at higher prices we bowed out but kept in touch through the years.

Today would have been Robert E. Smith’s 92^nd birthday (October 14, 1927-Feb. 13, 2010). The calendar reminder pops up every year and makes me smile. The indefatigable Bob Smith rises front and center in memory – from our first encounter at his room in a white frame boarding house on North Main Street in Springfield to meetings and phone calls over decades as his art developed and his audience grew. We were delighted with his success.

We first saw his work at the Missouri State Fair in 1977. Across a not-too-crowded room in the Fine Arts Building was a cheaply framed picture of Stalin in the Shower Room, with a camel, some birds and a monkey-like creature. This was an artist we had to meet. Some weeks later we found him in his rented room in Springfield. Somewhere we have an audiotape of that first meeting. From that time on, Bob was a fixture in our lives – as he became with so many people. Through those early years we placed around 200 of his paintings, the majority going to the Larry Whiteley Folk Art Gallery in Los Angeles.

Google the name and you’ll find a lot of Robert Smiths in the world. But there is only one Robert Eugene Smith, Springfield folk artist.

To the best of our knowledge we suggested Bob write down the stories for each artwork. We tape-recorded him telling stories whenever we saw him. He acquired his own tape recorder and began recording his stories, songs and poems. He was prolific and we were able to provide a market for everything he sent us, which helped him realize he could make a living from his art; he could be a professional artist.

When we interviewed him in 1993 for an article in the Maine Antique Digest (see separate post tomorrow), he questioned the term Outsider Artist, a label that had been applied to him. “Well, what is the term outsider art anyway? I’m not exactly an outsider. I been there before. I’m more broken in—I’m not no outsider. I’m a folk artist. If you’re not known [you’re an outsider], aren’t you?”

When we settled in Springfield we heard from him frequently. For years he called a couple of times a week to update us on his busy life. And a busy life it was. Bob was very mobile. He roamed the country on Greyhound buses – to California and St. Joseph and Little Rock. He took the bus to St. Louis for Cardinals baseball games, where he might have sold beer/soda to pay his way. Tales of his trips were very entertaining and usually inspired more art.

Bob Smith became a Springfield celebrity. Artists in the community were fans. Bob was a performer and local musicians and bands played with him. His story paintings are full of animals, usually in incongruent locations and most have names, and monsters and action scenes. Vehicles race down crooked roads; birds and aircraft, even hot air balloons skim through his skies. Some surrogate characters show up often in the stories – Baby Huey and an artist named Abraham Smitty Boob are frequently present.

Robert’s cousin, Grace Mathews, has put up a blog where friends have posted memories and pictures. http://roberteugenesmith.blogspot.com/ The stories are personal and entertaining. Bob made his mark on everyone who knew him.

Once again – Happy birthday, Bob! We’re so glad we knew you.

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