Once a year, the beautiful, art-laden grounds of Paradise Garden in Summerville, GA bustle with activity. Finster Fest, a two-day celebration of fine art, folk art, crafts, and music, brings a plethora of talented artists to the home of late folk artist and preacher Howard Finster. Now a museum and immersive art experience, Paradise Garden is an idyllic and unique setting for this folk art festival.
Launched in 1991, Finster Fest is Summerville’s biggest event that draws more than 2000 guests from across the Southeast. The 2023 festival will feature 65+ self-taught artists and crafters from 14 states, a full lineup of music performances, artist talks, a children’s art area, and plenty of great Southern festival eats.
Special speakers include local favorite Black Cat Tips, a prolific folk artist and the author of children’s book Smile a While as well as Peter Loose whose exhibit Reflections of Paradise is featured in the Finster Museum. Fifteen music performances over the two-day festival will include folk, Americana, gospel, bluegrass, indie, and country.
I recently had the opportunity to connect with two local artists who are gearing up to participate in the 2023 Finster Fest.
Terran McCanna is an artist who makes original, hand-crafted wood and acrylic jewelry and small art. McCanna’s jewelry work features animals and flora that embody playfulness and a love for nature.
Originally from Oregon, she developed a deep appreciation for the colors and natural elements of wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. “My earliest memories are of living in the woods up the Chetco River in Brookings, Oregon in a tiny tarpaper shack that my parents built,” said McCanna. “My parents have always been avid gardeners and nature lovers, and passed that appreciation on to me.”
As a young girl, McCanna was very close to both of her grandmothers, in particular she cites a relationship with Grandma Daisy who was instrumental in raising her and her brother.
“She was born in a tiny Yup’ik village far up the Yukon River in Alaska – you still can’t get there by car – but was placed with her siblings into a religious boarding school when they were very young after their mother died. As was common at the time, the teachers and administration forced the children to assimilate into white society and to feel shame for their Yup’ik heritage. It took many years of her children and grandchildren asking questions for her to really open up about her childhood and to share the few pictures she had managed to retain.”
It was only after many years that Daisy opened up about her childhood, and when McCanna first saw a picture of her great-great-grandmother Kaiaghok, or Kayakiak, she felt a deep connection that has sustained and encouraged her to create art to this day.
After high school, McCanna embraced her love for nature by pursuing biology in college, but eventually switched over to library science. Today, she works for PINES / Georgia Public Library Service and fills her weekends with markets where she sells her handmade goods. “I’ve never lost my love of nature,” she continued. “I never feel as deeply calm and settled as I do when I’m out in the woods by a creek or when I’m by the ocean. When I’m drawing and painting my pieces I channel some of that same joy, and I hope that I pass a little of that along.”
McCanna moved from Oregon to Florida after meeting her now husband who grew up in Ohio. Though she enjoyed certain elements of Florida, together they decided that they didn’t want to live there for the rest of their lives. Once they visited Atlanta they both knew that it was their new home.
This year is McCanna’s second year participating in Finster Fest. “I still marvel at how fortunate I am to be invited,” she told me. When friends and family come to Georgia to visit her she often takes them to Paradise Garden during their stay. “There are certain places that resonate with me on a deep level that I really can’t explain, and this is one of those special places.”
Kristin Replogle is a mixed media artist who feels a unique connection with Howard Finster. “I was always an artist,” Replogle told me during a recent phone conversation. She earned a BFA in Painting from Georgia State University and has been working as an artist ever since.
Some of Replogle’s earlier commissions included faux finishes and murals inside homes, and she describes many of her early charcoal works as being dark. “My work did not look like what it looks like now,” she explained. “Now it’s more colorful and spiritual.” Her dreamy, ethereal paintings seem to exude magic and peace.
Everything changed for Replogle in 2003 when she was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoma, a cancer that forms in white blood cells. She was successfully treated and cured of Lymphoma, but during the treatment her doctors had discovered blood clots in her lung and under her arm that had until then gone unnoticed. Following the cancer treatment she was prescribed blood thinners which she took for about a year and a half until she developed an allergy. The doctors rotated her prescriptions, hoping to find one that wouldn’t cause a reaction.
In the meantime, Replogle felt hopeless. “My doctor told me that he couldn’t do anything else for me and basically sent me home to die,” she told me. “I went home and had finished all my treatments. I was just praying, I said ‘God, I can’t fight anymore. I can’t do this.’ I was just crying. And then I felt a pop in my neck and suddenly felt normal.” She went back to see her doctor again and he found that the clot was gone. “It was completely gone.”
Ever since what she refers to as “the miracle,” Replogle has received visions and dreams that have inspired her to make artwork. Accompanied by prayers and messages, her pieces shifted to become more hopeful and peaceful in nature.
“The way that I feel most inspired by Howard Finster is his use of his spiritual connection,” she continued. “He loved God. He always incorporated scripture or messages in his work, and I feel connected in the same way.”
Much of her work features birds and nature, with some depicting “little saint people.” For Replogle, birds are representations of the Holy Spirit, and the pieces are meant to inspire and bring comfort to those who own them. Her most popular offerings, small pieces painted on wood, are called “Prayer Panels.” They feature scripture and phrases written on the backs, and have been purchased by fellow believers worldwide.
2023 marks the sixth year of Replogle’s participation at Finster Fest. She told me that while she attends a variety of artist showcases around the city and across the nation, it’s the people at Finster Fest that make the experience so meaningful.
“The environment is just so wonderful,” said Replogle. “I just love seeing everything that he created, that he thought of all of it kinda blows my mind. He made everything there, he made that garden. There’s so much symbology there and significance of the things he made.”
Admission to Finster Fest 2023 is $10 at the door, and there is free parking at the nearby Walmart with an accompanying shuttle to the Paradise Garden. Check the website for more information, a full weekend lineup, and a detailed map of the festivities. Paradise Garden is located at 200 North Lewis Street in Summerville, Georgia, 30747.