Finster began preaching as a teenager in the South in the 1930s. But it was not until he received a revelation from God at the age of sixty that he began to make sacred art. This book explores the life and religious-artistic significance of Finster and his work.
"Utilizing an original religious-studies perspective, Girardot opens up the scholarship on the visionary image maker who thrust the imagination into uncomfortable spiritual acrobatics and countercultural mythological intuition."-David Morgan, Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University, and author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling
"Envisioning Howard Finster is a mythological tale rooted in serious and extensive scholarship that greatly enriches our knowledge of Finster and his context in late twentieth-century American culture."-Colin Rhodes, author of Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives
"Introducing astute comparisons between Finster and other artists, spiritual leaders, and historical figures, Girardot raises timely, provocative questions regarding Finster's place in the art world, Southern evangelical Protestantism, popular culture, and American history."-Tom Patterson, freelance writer, independent curator, author of Howard Finster: Stranger from Another World and St. EOM in the Land of Pasaquan
"Densely written but supremely readable. Much of its density comes from the author's often hilarious and often riotously poetic language, which echoes the ecstatic excesses of Paradise Garden itself. . . . His inquiry, which both complicates and elucidates the Finster myth, demonstrates why Finster's lifework matters."
