Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden: the Unpublished Photographs.

This morning, I published an article titled “Roadside oddities: Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden” on Examiner.com, which you can read by clicking here. Of the many photographs I took during my visit the Paradise Garden, only one could accompany the Examiner article. The purpose of this post is to share the rest of the photographs, the ones that remain unpublished.

Rusty windmill. In front of the World’s Folk Art Church at Paradise Garden, a rusty windmill turns in the early spring breeze. Like the rest of the objects in the garden, the windmill was made by Howard Finster, from castoff and scrap either found or donated.

Curios behind glass. A great many odd items can be found around the gardens, not the least of which includes the pickled baby alligators in a jar (left) and the baby doll head (right) pictured behind glass here. I can only speculate as to what things I carelessly bypassed or otherwise simply did not notice on my initial visit, and what might present itself if I went back again.

James 1:22. Just one of many Bible verses painted all over Paradise Gardens. It may be true that no one quite knows how many of such verses exist throughout the property. This particular one is located within the Meditation Chapel, and although it is difficult to tell in this photograph, there is an open empty casket in the background.

Scrap in the yard. Howard Finster himself described his work best: “I took the pieces you threw away, put them together by night and day, washing in the rain, dried by the sun, a million pieces all in one.”