Stranger in a Strange Land

For years I thought Howard Finster was Georgia's one and only eccentric folk artist. Now, thanks to a documentary on IFC, I have learned about Eddie Owens Martin, who dubbed himself Saint EOM, the Pasaquan. Martin was born in 1908, the son of sharecroppers in South Georgia, moved away for thirty years to New York City, where he earned a living as a fortune teller and street hustler, among other things, and then moved back to Georgia for the last thirty years of his life until he killed himself in 1986. He settled back in Buena Vista, near Columbus, and turned the four acres of land and small house he inherited from his mother into a living canvas. With his multicolored robes, dangling jewelry and homestead painted in all colors of the rainbow, he stood out in his otherwise plain, small town. "I built this place to have something to identify with," he said, "'cause there's nothin' I see in this society that I identify with or desire to emulate." The house and grounds were donated to the county historical society upon his death and is now overseen by the Pasaquan Preservation Society. The site is open several times a year on special occasions and I hope to have a look at it some day.