Those of you who know me well know that I’m a (small-time) collector of folk pottery and folk art. Folk art is, I suppose, an acquired taste. It’s pretty “out there” in terms of color, mediums, and subject matter. Those of you who know folk art know that folk artists are generally untrained, and can sometimes be pretty “out there” themselves. Those who are really “out there” are known as Outsider Artists. Their art is described as art created outside the boundaries of official culture. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasies or visions.
I’ve met two of those outsider artists. I met the late Howard Finster when I served churches in Chattooga County. Finster was born at Valley Head, Alabama, and lived on the family farm as one of 13 children. He attended school from age six into the sixth grade, and became a Baptist preacher at the age of 16. He had his first vision at age three, 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 was. And he expressed those visions in art. His art laid bare the exquisite pain he felt for a world turning its back on God.
Missionary Mary Proctor is a hoot! I met her in Atlanta, and talked (listened) to her at an art show. Mary was a self-described "Junk Dealer" for years, until a tragedy struck her family. Her grandmother, aunt and uncle were all killed in a house fire. Shortly after this, a grief-stricken Mary was given a vision. A voice told her to paint one of the many old doors in her junkyard. Mary listened to the voice and soon found herself painting everything she could find. Her art is filled with visions of angels, peace, and hope. She is a self-proclaimed missionary for God through art.
Both artists were deeply affected by tragedy, and both found faith-filled ways to respond to that pain.
Reading Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel, evokes in me those folk-art raw responses. Lamentations gives the Jewish people a form and a vocabulary for dealing with the loss and pain that came with the devastation of Jerusalem and exile to Babylon. Ezekiel saw in wild and unforgettable images what the Jewish people couldn’t or wouldn’t see - God at work in a catastrophic era. In a time when the circumstances gave no reason to obey or trust God, Daniel’s stories and visions supplied what society did not. Daniel shot adrenaline into the veins of God-obedience.
Sometimes conventional perception is not sufficient to convey the message. - Dr. Steve Winter, Executive Pastor
