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WD_325/ 2007 - Satoshi Kinoshita
WD_325/ 2007  
( Satoshi Kinoshita )

Series: Works on paper: Drawings 4
Medium: oilstick on paper
Size (inches): 25.6 x 17.7
Size (mm): 650 x 450
Catalog #: WD_0325
Description: Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.



Howard's last messages to the world:

Call upon the name of Jesus, even in your last breath,
Pray the Lord's Prayer,
Pray without ceasing,
Love one another,
Forgive your brother, Win his love,
Jesus is coming in great power and glory,
Be ready to go.

The Reverend Howard Finster (December 2, 1916- October 22, 2001), preaching his heart out to his family, friends, and anyone who would listen, until his feeble body of 84 years of age could take no more. He is still preaching today through the sacred arts and prints that he left behind, all the videos, tapes, and memories stored in our minds, hearts, and souls that he won for God.

-www.finster.com/HFBiography.htm



Artist: Talking Heads
Title: Little Creatures
Date: 1985
Label: Sire Records 25305-1

Cover Painting by: Rev. Howard Finster
Back Cover Photo: Neil Selkirk

Notes: This is a pretty happy, scrappy little record here from the Heads. "Stay Up Late" was FM radio ready and brought the Heads attention from some who missed their output up to that point. Smooth musicianship, clever lyrics and funky beats made this group what it was and served them well. A painting in the primitive mode and a photo with the band dressed to kill completes the package.

Line Up:
David Byrne: guitar and vocal
Chris Frantz: drums
Jerry Harrison: keyboards, guitar and background vocals
Tina Weymouth: bass and background vocals

Track Listing:
Side 1 -
And She Was
Give Me Back My Name
Creatures of Love
The Lady Don't Mind
Perfect World
Side 2 -
Stay Up Late
Walk It Down
Television Man
Road to Nowhere

-tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/T/theads_creatures.html



Howard Finster -

The Reverend Howard Finster (December 2, 1916- October 22, 2001) was a folk artist from Summerville, Georgia who claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the environment of Paradise Garden and over 46,000 pieces of art.

Finster was born at Valley Head, Alabama and lived on the family farm as one of thirteen children. He attended school from age six into the sixth grade. He said he had his first vision at three years old, when he saw his recently deceased sister Abbie Rose walking down out of the sky wearing a white gown. She told him, "Howard, you're gonna be a man of visions."

He became "born again" at a Baptist revival at the age of 13 and began to preach at 16. He gave the occasional sermon at local churches and wrote articles for the town newspaper, and became a full-time pastor at Rock Bridge Baptist Church in 1940.

Finster started building his first garden park museum in Trion, Georgia in the late 1940s. It featured an exhibit on "the inventions of mankind" in which Finster planned to display one of everything that had ever been invented, models of houses and churches, a pigeon flock and a duck pond.

When he ran out of land in Trion in 1961, he moved to Pennville and bought four acres (16,000 m²) of land upon which to build the Plant Farm Museum "to show all the wonderful things o' God's Creation, kinda like the Garden of Eden" (Finster 1989, p. 108). It features such attractions as the Bible House, the Mirror House, the Hubcap Tower, the Bicycle Tower, the Machine Gun Nest, and the largest structure in the garden, the five-story Folk Art Chapel. He also started putting up signs with Bible verses on them because he felt that they stuck in people's heads better that way.

He retired from preaching in 1965 and focused all of his time on improving the Plant Farm Museum. In 1976 he had another vision to paint sacred art. "And one day I was workin' on a patch job on a bicycle, and I was rubbin' some white paint on that patch with this finger here, and I looked at the round tip o' my finger, and there was a human face on it... then a warm feelin' come over my body, and a voice spoke to me and said, 'Paint sacred art.'" (Finster 1989, p. 123).

His images range from pop culture icons like Elvis Presley to historical figures like George Washington to religious images like "The Devils Vice" and "John the Baptist" to his own visions. His paintings are colorful and detailed; they use flat picture plane without perspective and are often covered with words, especially Bible verses. Every painting also has a number; God had asked him to do 5,000 paintings to spread the gospel and he wanted to keep track.

He finished the 5,000 a few days before Christmas in 1985, but continued painting and numbering until the day he died. By 1989, he was already numbering in the ten thousands.

He first started receiving outside publicity in 1975. That year, Atlanta television station Channel 5 ran a story and he also appeared in an Esquire magazine article that first dubbed his museum Paradise Garden. He made his first exhibition appearance in 1976 and painted four paintings for the Library of Congress in 1977. He was also selected to be part of the Venice Biennale in 1984.

Finster gained national fame after his collaborative work with Athens, Georgia-based rock band R.E.M.. The group filmed the video for their debut single "Radio Free Europe" in Finster's Paradise Gardens in 1983. The following year, the band's singer Michael Stipe and Finster collaborated on a painting for the cover of their second album Reckoning. After that the band made the song "Maps and Legends" (in its third album "Fables of the Reconstruction") as an homage to Finster. Along with R.E.M., Finster also appeared in the documentary film Athens, GA: Inside Out, filmed in 1985, in which he tells the story of how he came to be an artist.

The Talking Heads commissioned a Finster painting for Little Creatures in 1985 that was subsequently selected as album cover of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. Other artists to use Finster as an album cover designer include Memory Dean, Pierce Pettis, and Adam Again.

Howard Finster was responsible for introducing millions to outsider art, but even with his fame, he remained focused on spreading the word of God. He said of the Talking Heads album, "I think there's twenty-six religious verses on that first cover I done for them. They sold a million records in the first two and a half months after it come out, so that's twenty-six million verses I got out into the world in two and a half months!" (Finster 1989, p. 197).

References:

* Finster, Howard and Patterson, Tom. (1989). Stranger From Another World: Man of Visions Now on This Earth. Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-902-7.
* Turner, J.F. (1989). Howard Finster: Man of Visions. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-57961-5.
* Peacock, Robert and Jenkins, Annibel. (1996). Paradise Garden: A Trip Through Howard Finster’s Visionary World, Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-1197-2. ISBN 0-8118-0941-2.

-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Finster


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Series Works on paper: Drawings 4
WD_298/ 2007WD_299/ 2007WD_300/ 2007WD_301/ 2007WD_302/ 2007WD_303/ 2007WD_304/ 2007WD_305/ 2007WD_306/ 2007WD_307/ 2007WD_308/ 2007WD_309/ 2007
WD_310/ 2007WD_311/ 2007WD_312/ 2007WD_313/ 2007WD_314/ 2007WD_315/ 2007WD_316/ 2007WD_317/ 2007WD_318/ 2007WD_319/ 2007WD_320/ 2007WD_321/ 2007
WD_322/ 2007WD_323/ 2007WD_324/ 2007WD_325/ 2007WD_326/ 2007WD_327/ 2007WD_328/ 2007WD_329/ 2007WD_330/ 2007WD_331/ 2007WD_332/ 2007WD_333/ 2007
WD_334/ 2007WD_335/ 2007WD_336/ 2007WD_337/ 2007WD_338/ 2007WD_339/ 2007WD_340/ 2007WD_341/ 2007WD_342/ 2007WD_343/ 2007WD_344/ 2007WD_345/ 2007
WD_346/ 2007WD_347/ 2007WD_348/ 2007WD_349/ 2007WD_350/ 2007WD_351/ 2007WD_352/ 2007WD_353/ 2007WD_354/ 2007WD_355/ 2007WD_356/ 2007WD_357/ 2007
WD_358/ 2007WD_359/ 2007WD_360/ 2007WD_361/ 2007WD_362/ 2007WD_363/ 2007WD_364/ 2007WD_365/ 2007WD_366/ 2007WD_367/ 2007WD_368/ 2007WD_369/ 2007
WD_370/ 2007WD_371/ 2007WD_372/ 2007WD_373/ 2007WD_374/ 2007WD_375/ 2007WD_376/ 2007WD_377/ 2007WD_378/ 2007WD_379/ 2007WD_380/ 2007WD_381/ 2007
WD_382/ 2007WD_383/ 2007WD_384/ 2007WD_385/ 2007WD_386/ 2007WD_387/ 2007WD_388/ 2007WD_389/ 2007WD_390/ 2007WD_391/ 2007WD_392/ 2007WD_393/ 2007
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Biography of 'Satoshi Kinoshita'
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