Touring the Doll's Head Trail

The Atlanta Preservation Center's program Phoenix Flies is a favorite of mine. 

I try to go on several of the more than 200 free tours over the course of the two weeks they're offered. I had such a busy winter that I didn't make a Phoenix Flies tour this year until the first day of spring, which was the last day Phoenix Flies tours were being offered, BUT it was a tour that I'd read about for years and one that I'd been wanting to go on...a tour of the Doll's Head Trail.

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

The description of this tour said, "requires the ability to walk two miles over rough terrain." I found it invigorating! It's definitely good exercise and you want to wear walking/hiking shoes, but the two miles goes fast...I thought.

The Doll's Head Trail is only a portion of the path that wraps all the around Constitution Lakes, a Dekalb County Park. Some of the total pathways are brand new boardwalks and some of it raw path, with boardwalk construction in-progress.

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

This particular display, pictured above, was one of the images on the cover of the brochure for this year's Phoenix Flies program. I'd see the image for years, but it was still pretty cool to see the real thing. 

The computer geek in me (my college degree is in technology) was trying to figure out what the framing device once was. It looks like a portable television with a floppy disc reader of some sort. Who among my readers remember using floppy discs and did you learn not to leave them on the dashboard of your car the hard way? 

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

This Doll's Head Trail tour was led by its creator, Joel Slaton. He shared with the group that one of his inspirations when creating the neo-folk artwork filled destination was none other than longtime Georgia resident and artist Howard Finster.  

If you've been to Howard Finster's Paradise Garden, you'll totally get the correlation, but if you've not been to Paradise Garden, you're totally missing out on a mesmerizing experience!

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

One of the first two attributes you'll notice about the park is bright red mud—and lots of it—and approximately a bazillion bricks! The Doll's Head Trail is the former site of long-defunct South River Brick Company.

Joel calls what he's doing a Restoration Park. It's a noble cause and a great gain for Atlanta. History Atlanta offers an in-depth description and history of Doll's Head Trail. I encourage you to delve into what they've written...it's rich in history and quite fascinating!

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

"DON'T DRINK & TEXT & DRIVE"...in that scenario there's never a happy ending. The Doll's Head Trail comes with some excellent advice and a few life lessons. Some of it is surprisingly jovial and clever, but on occasion it offers bits of wisdom that one might have a better life for heeding. 

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

In addition to a Smurf, you're going to see fishermen (Yes, you can fish here!), lots of wildlife including some spectacular birds, plants you've probably never seen, and a beautiful, serene landscape that you'll hardly believe is inside Atlanta's I-285!

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

You don't have to travel to Orlando or abroad to see a princess...there's at least one at the Doll's Head Trail, probably a few, in fact. There is indeed lots to take in! Joel pointed out one spot on the trail where he retrieved 75 doll's heads! 

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

Getting there might be a little tricky, unless you've done your homework before you leave the house. Looking at Google Maps, the address of S. River Industrial Blvd, SE, Atlanta, GA 30316, puts you at the entrance of the Trail. On my visit, I used GPS, which put me on the wrong side of S. River Industrial Blvd. 

If you're traveling South on Moreland Ave, SE, you will want to turn LEFT at S. River Industrial Blvd, SE, not the opposite direction that my GPS sent me. I hope this saves you a few minutes and a lot of frustration. My bad for not looking it up before I headed out.

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

Just when you think you have a leg up on what's going on, you're going to see a totally unexpected sense of "clever"...you're going to see a lot of that, actually! I particularly found "The age-old question" and the "pet rock" delightfully funny. You'll see what I mean when you visit. 

Doll's Head Trail, Atlanta

Remember the first photo in this post, where it was written: "Taggers: Really? Well, at least, LEAVE THE SHARPIES!" I'm not exactly sure what was being referring to, but the latter sounds like a sensible request to me.

Slaton generously leaves Sharpies for visitors to write messages and drawings on pieces of terracotta tiles scattered throughout the Trail. The above was was left by a tagger named Corrine, a lovely youngster visiting with her family, who we saw had tagged something seemingly every few feet! You gotta love enthusiasm. 

I think Sharpie should contract Joel Slaton as a spokesperson!

When you're looking for something quirky that's also filled with vibrant nature, check out the Doll's Head Trail. Thank you, Joel and Atlanta Preservation Center for adding this informative, insightful tour to this year's Phoenix Flies program!  

Paradise Garden is a Folk Art Paradise

Many have seen Howard Finster's art at the High Museum of Art or the World of Coca-Cola or any number of other venues, but until you experience Howard Finster's Paradise Garden in Summerville, Georgia, I don't think you've truly experienced Howard Finster. At least I hadn't.

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden | Travis & Summer Loftin

I and my best friend Barry were guests of my beautiful friend and brilliant interior designer Summer Loftin, whom I first met in 2011 and interviewed in 2013. The sponsor of our Atlanta Bus Tour group was Jim Thompson of the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company. "Thank you", Summer and Jim! What a wonderful day of making incredible memories.

The day—and it was a full day—was magnificent! Here's a quick rundown of the day's events and then I'll share more about the Paradise Garden experience.

We arrived at ADAC and were greeted with leis made of Jim Thompson fabrics, which we immediately donned and then joined our new found friends in a champagne toast to our sponsor and host, and to what we already knew would be a fantastic day!

We enjoyed a Victory Sandwich Bar lunch on the bus on the way up to Summerville (the onboard activities were so well planned that the drive went very quickly).

We arrived at Howard Finster's Paradise Garden, where we spent a few hours (I'm totally going back to explore more!) and just before left, we installed the projected we'd worked on on the way up.

We then rode to Finster Fest! The festival has grown so much since its inception in 1992 that it's now held in Dowdy Park. In previous years it was held in Paradise Garden. Finster Fest, which was great fun, is an art and music festival—a fundraiser for Howard Finster's Paradise Garden.

From Dowdy Park we walked to the Couey House, built in the early 1840s, where there were a number of fantastic music groups performing. We sat in the shade with Summer and others from our group and relaxed and listened for a while.

Now evening time, we went over to the nearby Summerville Depot, built in 1889 and now fully restored, where there was yet another music concert—"Tunes on the Tracks"...and Barry and I ate our BBQ on railroad tracks! That was awesome. 

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden | Prayer Flags on the Folk Art Church

One of the things that we did on the way to Finster Fest and Paradise Garden was to make prayer flags, something I can honestly say I never thought I would do. What an amazing opportunity to honor departed loved ones and recall beautiful memories while doing so. 

Our group made hundreds of them, which were installed on the World's Folk Art Church at Paradise Garden while we were there. 

I made flags in memory of my grandmother, Evelyn Dockery (my mother's mother); my recently departed Great Aunt Kathy Burrell (my grandmother's sister and an award-winning poet); and one for one of my best friends who passed away in 1993, Todd Cleveland. Thank you, Summer and Jim, for the opportunity to memorialize family and friends I love. 

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

Finster's famous Cadillac, which I've shown only the front of in the above photo, features drawings of a number of well-known stars, so even as a Baptist minister, Howard was versed in pop culture. 

Why did Howard Finster build Paradise Garden? It was started in 1970 and originally called Plant Farm Museum. Here's what Howard himself said about the reason he did it:

"I built the park because I was commissioned by God. I started the Garden in 1970 about one hundred feet into the backyard, built a cement walk and put up a haul shed and started to display the inventions of mankind. My park is a memorial to inventors. The inventors don’t get recognition. They don’t have an Inventor’s Day. To represent them, I’m trying to collect at least one of every invention in the world."

As it turns out, roadside museums were an influential part of Howard's childhood. My family moved around a lot when I was a kid, so they were a favorite distraction for me as well. They might even have influenced my own love for tourism. I wouldn't be surprised to make that connection, however I've never had a desire to create an attraction such as Howard's. Although this blog has become a collection of experiences, a collection I treasure.

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

You can imagine how excited I was to discover that Howard had incorporated the Millennium Falcon, from Star Wars, into one of his works, right along with a "KEEP ON TRUCKIN" belt buckle from the same decade we first met Han Solo.

When you visit, I think you're going to make many, many memory-eliciting discoveries. I can't imagine there's anyone who can't find something that is personal to them, whether it evokes a memory of childhood, life experiences, faith, or even seeing a painted face that resembles your Aunt Mildred.

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

Speaking of Aunt Mildred, I do have one, but, I didn't see her likeness in any of Howard's paintings. But his people paintings are certainly distinct. Once you've explored his work, you'll recognize it anywhere. In his lifetime—starting at the age of 59—he created nearly 47,000 works of art, so it's quite possible that you've already seen some of it. 

Howard was one of 13 children, as was my Aunt Mildred (on my biological father's side) and my own mother was one of 13 children that my grandmother raised. That's a LOT of kids. I sometimes still don't know how mother raised a grand total of three children!

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

My first glimpse into the Mirror House, seeing all the green and gold, immediately evoked memories of The Peacock Room in the Freer Gallery of Art, a magnificent Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. The Mirror House is considerably smaller and it's folk art, not the majesty that the Freer offers, but it's still mesmerizing. 

If you've ever seen "fun" mirrors at the county fair—the ones that make you skinny, fat, big headed, etc.—you know that they really are fun. They do not, however, prepare you for the experience of the Mirror House at Paradise Garden. I'm not sure what its intention was, except maybe to let you see things in a different way...it's spectacularly dazzling. 

Warning, LADIES in dresses: The mirrors reflect to/from every direction!

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

The Giant's Shoe is a visitor favorite. It's in nearly all the reviews of Paradise Garden that I've read and even when I was there, it was a popular photo-op locale. 

When we first arrived, I didn't know just how large Paradise Garden really is. I had assumed it didn't go beyond the Folk Art Church, but I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover that it goes on and on and on. I actually panicked a little when it started dawning on me how much there was to see and we only had a few hours to see it. This can totally be an all-day excursion, and a great place to bring a picnic!

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

One of the surprises that I found shocking, remarkable and delightful was the discovery of so many cultures being represented in Howard's art. Having had certain conversations with Baptist ministers when I was a kid, this was the last thing I expected to see (the shock), but it gave me hope (the remarkable). It was indeed a true delight to see that perhaps Howard truly was inspired by ALL of the world.

I even saw dinosaurs, spaceships, Elvis and Santa Claus! What Finster did with other people's junk and trash is beyond astounding...and curiously mesmerizing. (There's that word again..."mesmerizing"...because it truly is!)

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

The story is that this (photo above) is Howard Finster's casket. A local funeral home had asked him what they could do for him and his clever answer was to give him his casket. Howard, being the man he is, invited people to write a note on a 2" x 2" piece of paper, sign the other side, and he would put all of those in the casket with his cremated remains (his reasoning for cremation are quite profound. I encourage you to look it up.).

Unfortunately, his wish for his corporeal remains were not honored—having wanted to be cremated. Instead, he was buried in a nearby graveyard, later exhumed and moved to Alabama, where he was born. What a shame what he wanted for his remains wasn't respected.

That's not the only nod to earthly remains you'll see at Paradise Garden. There's a crypt that Howard himself made that supposedly has the remains of an "unknown body" of Chattooga County, which is the county you're in when visiting Paradise Garden.

The experience can't compare, but having visited the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" in Arlington, Virginia, Athens, Greece, and Moscow, Russia, this wasn't a new experience for me, but a rather unexpected one. But you'll get a lot of the unexpected in Paradise Garden, of the pleasant sort.  

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

I'm a major proponent for recycling, but perhaps Howard was one of the greatest recycling and repurposing masters of our time: 

"I TOOK THE PIECES, YOU

THREW AWAY AND PUT THEM

TOGATHER BY NIGHT AND DAY,

WASHED BY RAIN, DRIED BY SUN,

A MILLION PIECES ALL IN ONE."

There was also live music when we were there! A younger man and woman were playing for visitors. He was playing guitar and drinking from a mason jar and she was playing violin and had silver toenails. They were quite charming...I wish I knew if they have a CD or play for a band. They were fantastic and I enjoyed listening to them.

The restoration and preservation efforts of the Paradise Garden Foundation is in its infancy, but you can already tell that there are many great things in store for the increasingly popular Georgia tourist destination.

Howard Finster's Paradise Garden

Paradise Garden is a place to relax, reflect and explore...lots of exploring! It's also a place of fun. That's Andrea and Teresa who we had the pleasure of chatting with later at the train depot just before the Tunes on the Tracks concert.

This post may sound like a lot, but it's a mere fraction of what we did on our excursion to Paradise Garden. I think you'll enjoy the experience when you go.

Howard was an interesting man, to say the least. Some might say he was a "divinely inspired artist and devoted man of God". Howard called himself "Man of Visions", and I'll leave that research to you. Personally, I have enjoyed his artistic legacy and find myself lost in the awe of it all. I can hardly wait to get back to Paradise Garden to continue the exploration!

If Howard Finster's message and Paradise Garden resonate with you, the Paradise Garden Foundation will, with great appreciation, accept your help in their multi-year plan to renovate, preserve and restore Paradise Garden, be it a contribution, becoming a volunteer, buying a membership, shopping in the online store, or the best...visit Paradise Garden and tell all you friends how awesome it is!

I'd like to again thank Summer Loftin for being such an awesome host (and friend) and Jim Thompson for his sponsorship of our day. I can hardly wait to go back to Howard Finster's Paradise Garden and spend a whole day exploring!

A Polar Bear & A Vault

I'd not been to the World of Coca-Cola in a while, not since the Vault of The Secret Formula exhibit opened, so I was anxious to see it. AND, I was hopeful to finally make a photo with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear. I'm happy to report...mission accomplished...on both counts!

Coca-Cola Polar Bear and Travis, World of Coca-Cola

I've wanted a photo with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear since the first time I knew photo ops were possible, I just never had the opportunity when visiting to make it happen...the timing wasn't right. On this visit, the timing was perfect. 

I was impressed that the Coca-Cola Polar Bear made my particular photo so much fun. Most of the folks going up for a photo—which you can purchase from the museum and/or use your own camera (they have two photographers on duty—very nice!)—were kids, parents with kids, or families. I was on my own that day, but instead of it looking weird, the Coca-Cola Polar Bear made it fun, mussing my hair and getting a giggle from the crowd. "Thank you, Coca-Cola Polar Bear!"

Would you believe that the Coca-Cola Polar Bear was first introduced in 1922?! Color me surprised!

World of Coca-Cola

So, when you visit the World of Coca-Cola, you'll learn immediately that it's an experience unlike most museums. Instead of just walking in and exploring, you and the folks who arrived around the same time as you are invited into a 'waiting area' where you'll momentarily be treated to a docent-led introduction and video presentation. 

In the waiting area is a collection of giant carved and decorated Coca-Cola bottles and a video wall that features the various cultures that enjoy the world-famous bubbly beverage.

World of Coca-Cola

After a laughter-inducing introduction to the World of Coca-Cola—seriously, our docent was hilarious!—our group was invited into a theatre to view the new, full-length Moments of Happiness film, which showcases 'happiness', surprisingly not so much the Coca-Cola product...a brilliant move by the museum—says one who has made a career in Corporate and Marketing Communications.  

Finster, World of Coca-Cola

One of the other motivations in revisiting the World of Coca-Cola was wanting to see the new Howard Finster exhibit. His art isn't quite my cup of tea, but I do find it fascinating. Especially given that he was a self-taught, Georgia artist...Finster passed in 2001.

Finster also has a permanent installation at the High Museum of Art. And his outdoor museum, Paradise Garden, has been on my to-visit list for quite a while...I think it's time to head up there.

World of Coca-Cola

I love old postcards—and love that World of Coca-Cola features many that showcase Coca-Cola and cities across the United States. 

I lament the lost art of writing. Seriously, when was the last time you received a handwritten letter...or card...or even an abbreviated postcard? I have to admit that even I have fallen out of the habit of making an occasion to write letters and cards to friends and family, which I love to do just so they get something in the mail other than junk mail or a bill. I should really get that going again. 

Are you up to the challenge...send one letter, a card or a postcard to someone you love or like a lot this week! Challenge accepted? 

The Vault, World of Coca-Cola

The Vault of the Secret Formula exhibit is FASCINATING! It's so much more than I was expecting. Vault is my new favorite exhibit at World of Coca-Cola...they did an amazing job on it, not the least of which is the entrance!

The technology in the Vault exhibit is attention-grabbing...totally attention-grabbing. The exhibit chronicles Coca-Cola from its innovation in 1886 to how its marketed with 21st Century technology. 

World of Coca-Cola

The photo above is a display that one could easily miss, just make sure you don't (I was very close to the glass to get this photo). It's totally mesmerizing! It 'discusses', if I can say that, the copycat onslaught following the success of Coca-Cola. 

This display, through the use of mirrors and other technology that I'm unfamiliar with, puts on a "3D show" of copyright infringement and how the company has rallied to protect its brand. I'm impressed.

World of Coca-Cola

On your way out of Vault of the Secret Formula, there's a photo-op unlike any I've seen,and I've seen a LOT! I love this! There's a screen, with a camera pointed toward visitors, that morphs them into a bubbly Coca-Cola...and I thought the closest I'd ever get to effervescence was Alka-Seltzer! 

It's a super cool effect and timed right, you can easily get a fun selfie! Yes, that's me in the photo above, bubbling (pixelating) away, just like hundreds of helium balloons disappearing into the night sky... It was time to move on to the next exhibition anyway.

World of Coca-Cola

There's so much more to see and experience, but I'll leave that to you—our visiting AND local tourists. And I invite you to share your experience here. I'd love to know what you think of the museum and its exhibits. And I hope you get a photo with the Polar Bear!

World of Coca-Cola

The 'grand finale' of visitors' experience of World of Coca-Cola is a tasting. You not only have the opportunity to sample Coca-Cola beverages from around the world—and believe me, there are some fascinating, lip curling, would-not-have-missed-that beverages—you get to experience Coca-Cola Freestyle...a unique beverage machine that allows visitors to sample more than 100 refreshing beverages! It looks like so much fun!

This was the first time I'd visited the World of Coca-Cola in a couple of years, but I've been visiting since they were at the old location a block or two from the State of Georgia Capitol Building. I'm so glad I returned and hope you get to experience it soon, whether for the first time for once again.

ATLANTApix: The Coke Bottle

Coke Bottles at the World of Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola bottle has been synonymous with the Coca-Cola beverage practically since Coke has been around. The World of Coca-Cola has an exhibit of the first artistic expression the drink inspired...its bottle.

The Coke bottle has intrigued folk artists like Howard Finster as well as formally trained artists like Norman Rockwell. Sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, inspire unique, event-specific bottles that are remarkably beautiful. Many of them have become collector items over the years.

Throughout the World of Coca-Cola there are bigger-than-a-person painted Coke bottles on display. The Coke bottles in this photograph are on display in the main lobby of the museum.

ATLANTApix of the tourATLANTA blog features a "photo-of-the-day" of Atlanta. Come back tomorrow for a new one!