Folk artist Chris Hubbard talks life, death and Catholicism

When I pull up to Chris Hubbard’s bright red house in Farmington, the first thing the artist does is help me fix my car.

The front bumper of my busted Kia Forte had been dangling ever since my partner hit a dumpster a year ago. Hubbard greeted me, then grabbed some zip ties from a bag shoved behind his front door.

“I got some in black,” he said. “Makes it look classy.”

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If it’s one thing Hubbard, alias CHUB, knows about, it’s cars. After hitching my bumper up, he showed me his pride and joy – the Heaven and Hell Car, so named for its ornate modifications representing the two Christian afterlifes. The car was once a common sight around Athens (where Hubbard would visit friends and run errands), but after two decades of traveling to art shows round the country, it no longer runs like it once did.

Nevertheless, his artwork remains a fixture in Athens. Go into the World Famous and you’ll see a little saint carving on the way to the bathroom. In the back of Indie South, you’ll see a gallery wall covered with cherubs. Hubbard’s art has even made an appearance in some films.

"I guess a lot of people still appreciate some of my sense of humor and my irreverence in my art," he said.

A little good, a little bad

Hubbard first started customizing his car back in 1998, on the tail end of one evangelical revival and a few years before another. He didn't set out to make religious art - in fact, he almost took his Honda in a completely different direction. 

"I even thought about calling it the Handy Honda," he said. "And it would have had a bunch of hands on it."

But he also recalled feeling frustrated with the religious right at the time, particularly televangelists like Jim Bakker and Pat Robertson and politicians like George W. Bush.

"It's the pushy religious right," he said. "People can be right wing Christian, they can be ultra conservative, whatever they want to identify as, but it's the ones that are really pushy - they're the ones that need to go back and read their own Bible about judging other people and stuff."

After showing me the Heaven and Hell Car, he invites me into his house. His walls, counters and floors are covered with art - all of it professing faith in nuance.

"A lot of my stuff just talks about, like, 'A little good, a little bad, like most folk.' That's one of my most common pieces," he said.

Hubbard doesn't mean to call out certain faiths or political leanings. He said he doesn't want to fight preachy with preachy.

"If I start trying to offend very religious people with my art, well, then I would be no different than those pushy evangelical types," he said.

Instead, he worked with folk artist greats like Howard Finster and R.A. Miller to make art inspired by Christianity - both the good parts and the not so good parts.

"You got to have one to define the other," he said. "What's good if you don't have something to compare it to?"

Making religion accessible

Hubbard was born to a Catholic family in Kentucky. He spent many of his Sundays in hushed masses, sitting silently while robed priests conducted services in Latin. Though he still attends mass while visiting with his mother, he didn't like how far away his faith felt. 

"The Catholic upbringing had an influence I say, partly because look at all the saints and statues," he said. "And all the way that the nuns and the priests dressed especially back in my day."

He grew to be inspired by other Christian traditions. As he walks me through his workshop, he tells me about how traditional Eastern Orthodox paintings inspired his saint carvings, or about the influence of Mexican ofrendas, or altars, on the language he uses in his paintings.

Instead of painting gilded icons, he makes cherub figures out of rusty found materials, or crucifixes out of broom handles. Rather than putting faith on a pedestal, his art makes it accessible.

"A little sarcasm was somewhat of a reaction to my Catholic upbringing," he said.

'Never long enough'

When Hubbard still drove around Athens in the Heaven and Hell Car, a passerby would occasionally ask him: if heaven was on the roof and hell by the tires, where's purgatory?

Sticking his arms out both windows, Hubbard recalled, he would respond, "It's all here."

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He delivers the same line in one of his most recent projects. Ragged Heart, an independent film directed by Evan McNary, invited him to co-star as himself, sharing artwork and little bits of wisdom with the main character Wyatt (played by Eddie Craddock).

And though it's still a fun punchline, he has been thinking more about his time here lately. Some of it is due to his personal life: his mentors Finster and Miller have passed, as have a few of his friends. But he tells me that death seems to have a stronger presence throughout society nowadays - specifically COVID-19 and climate change. At the time of our interview, his family in Florida were gearing up for Hurricane Ian.

"I'd say the last 10 years, I have a few more pieces that address death," he said.

He tells me about one piece in particular: a painted skull face next to a tape measure.

"Down near the bottom, it just says, 'Never long enough.'" he said.

But that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the ride. He's still amazed that he got to work with Finster and Miller - and that younger artists now see him as an inspiration.

"I am starting to have a few artists say like, 'Oh, you're one of my big influences. I'm so glad to meet you!'" he said. "Standing in Howard Finster's Paradise Garden 25 years ago, I was telling him the same thing."

Above all, he's just trying to live his life: a little good, a little bad, like most folk. At the conclusion of our interview, he lit another cigarette and gestured toward my now slightly less busted Kia.

"So you can try to untangle all, however you want to put it out on the page. I just hope it didn't come out making me sound too judgmental of others."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Chris Hubbard: Folk artist talks life, death and Catholic faith