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Strangers from Other Worlds

Grade level: 7-9

Subjects: Social Studies / English / Language Arts

Overview: This activity focuses on the kind of worlds some visionary artists envision. Using the Off the Map Web site as a starting point, students are asked to create a new planet or world and include descriptions of the creatures and beings who live there. How do they live? How do they get along? What are their cities like? How are they different from human beings? What do they look like? Students will also evaluate the potential successes and predict the possible failures of their imagined society and compare them to our own earthly communities.

Background: Visionary artist Reverend Howard Finster did paintings of the inhabitants of planets he had seen in visions. In one of his visions, he saw and completed a painting depicting a planet called Sivika. According to Finster, Sivika was a planet full of creatures of all sizes who would work together peacefully: the tall creatures could reach the high things and the small creatures would get things from little holes in the rocks.

In another painting, Finster shows us the City of Conol on the planet of Criptica, where there were “no motor vehicles here, open streets. All mansions for all people, no one has any special mansion they use any mansion they wish. They can change mansions daily if they wish. They know nothing about fussing. They only know peace and love. No such thing as suffering or death. They have no laws or rules—anything they wish is there. They want for nothing. No sleep. No rest. No weakness. No Pain just perfect eternal life.”

(For more information and visuals, see Howard Finster: Stranger from Another World; Man of Visions Now on This Earth by Howard Finster as told to Tom Patterson, Abbeville Press)

Visionary influences in Off the Map: Many of the other artists presented in Off the Map had visions that led them to create their art.

Eddie Owens Martin (a.k.a. St. EOM) conceived of Pasaquan after being directed by spirit guides.

Leonard Knight felt he was called on to spread the word of God through his art.

Helen Martins wanted to create a personal Mecca, which she imagined filled with animals.

Postman Ferdinand Cheval believed that the rocks and stones around him were special, and used them to create a palace that depicted animals, icons, and other features from many cultures, combing them into one structure.

Nek Chand felt that each stone he used contained the spirit of a person or deity, and used them, along with unwanted waste, to create his own kingdom. These artists, and many other visionary artists, envisioned new worlds and created their art as a way to bring that vision into their own lives.

Activity

After viewing Off the Map and seeing for themselves the kinds of worlds these artists envisioned, students are encouraged to imagine their own world. Perhaps it is a planet in a faraway galaxy, or an alternate world filled with creatures similar to themselves.

•  Would the creatures that inhabit that place look like humans?

•  What would their society be like?

•  Could they overcome earthly problems that we here on earth have had trouble resolving, like pollution, racial unrest, etc. and if so, how?

The students should be able to articulate their ideas in a written essay, and be able to explain why they think this “other world” would ultimately be better or worse than their own society.

Students may share their imagined worlds with the class orally or as Finster, in an illustration or painting.