Avoid the Horrors of SATAN, thru Viewing Art !

[The Super Powers, Finster, 1985]

If the approach of Easter has your eyes peeping for more signs of holy happenings, then head on down to Auburn University's Jule Collins Smith Museum and give witness to the most recent Exhibition - STRANGER IN PARADISE: THE W0RKS 0F REVEREND H0WARD FINSTER. Finster, a self-proclaimed evangelistic preacher in paint and man of visions, saw himself as a sacred artist, fulfilling visionary prophesies revealed to him by God through a heavenly, 'outer-space' world. Such a perspective is only too clear in the sweet, darkly twisted accretions of paint and other objects he left behind.

But if contemplating this skewed beauty, or the possibility of holy outer space worlds and their visual representations isn't enough, Finster also believed he was designated to disperse holy warnings to people - to save their souls from the horrors of hell.

Regardless of your position on the fiery-flames, it's probably a good idea to check out the exhibition either way.

While Finster's visions, art-work and language were often quite complicated and multiply layered, there is a simplicity and intensity of meaning that is generally easy to perceive, as evident in a quote regarding the beauty he brought forth in his Paradise Garden: "I took the pieces that you threw away and put them together by night and day, washed by the rain, dried by the sun, a million pieces all in one."

STRANGER IN PARADISE: THE W0RKS 0F REVEREND H0WARD FINSTER provides an in-depth survey of Finster's career, covering the variety of themes inherent in his paintings as well as objects from The Plant Farm Museum [Paradise Garden]. The show was curated by Glen C. Davies and is organized by Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and runs through March 12.