Playfully poking at the dichotomy of life through his creations, self-taught artist Chris Hubbard, also known as CHUB, reminds viewers that “good” and “bad” cannot exist without the other.
For many years, his Heaven and Hell art car—a mobile art installation covered in rusted metal and wooden sculptures of angels, devils and saints—would turn heads whenever it rolled into town. Today, his tongue-in-cheek artwork, often carrying messages such as “a little good, a little bad, like most folk” or “thou shalt not, but probably will,” can be found on display at the World Famous or for sale in Indie South’s shop. When Hubbard appears in the 2021 film Ragged Heart, a dramatic thriller filmed in Athens, it’s no surprise that he simply portrays himself. It’d be difficult to write a character more interesting and authentic than he already is.
Hubbard’s creative roots trace back to the underground alternative scene of Nashville during the early ‘80s. At the time, he was a tour manager for the band In Pursuit, which would occasionally tour through Athens to share stages with the likes of Guadalcanal Diary and Dreams So Real. He could sense a parallel between the two Southern towns that both had fascinating countercultures bubbling beneath the surface, and represented the South in a much more progressive light than the stereotypes that permeated mainstream society.
With experience as a microbiologist in his rear view mirror, he eventually decided to return to a career in the sciences, and began working for an environmental company that specialized in the disposing of hazardous wastes. A few years into his new role, he re-entered the music scene, this time as a photographer focused on capturing live performance shots of alternative bands in small clubs.
Around this time, he also began taking interest in folk art environments and photographing them when possible. This curiosity was partly piqued by R.E.M., who used Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden as the setting for the “Radio Free Europe” music video, and later used the visionary artist’s work as the album cover for Reckoning. The band also filmed “Left of Reckoning” and the music video for “Pretty Persuasion” among R.A. Miller’s yard full of whirligigs.
Hubbard eventually moved to Tampa, FL in 1992 to be closer to family, and soon immersed himself into the music scene by taking photographs for alternative publications there, all while continuing to work for the environmental company. While working at the business’s corporate office in Columbia, SC, he realized that Miller’s home of Rabbittown, GA, was only a few hours away and decided to find him. Miller, whose “Blow Oskar” sculptures are notably collectible, was a self-taught artist who began covering his property with hundreds of painted tin cut-outs and whirligigs later in life.
“When I got back to Tampa, I cut out a star, moon and little devil out of tin and painted them,” says Hubbard. “I had never done anything like that, but he inspired something in me.”
Sometimes life has a way of suddenly rerouting its path, and that moment came in 1996 when a road detour around a car wreck sent him driving past a very unusual home in the nearby town of Safety Harbor. Whimzeyland, also known as the “Bowling Ball House,” is a dazzling, candy-colored spectacle covered in mosaics, sculptures, bottle trees and other unusual decorations by artists Todd Ramquist and Kiaralinda. The duo, who were partly influenced by their visits to other art environments across the country, continue to pass the inspiration forward to others today through their nonprofit Safety Harbor Art and Music Center (SHAMc).
Hoping to photograph and curious to know whoever was behind the eclectic home and art car parked outside, Hubbard decided to reach out and left a message in their mailbox. They called him later that evening and invited him to a party at which Harrod Blank would be screening a new documentary about art cars. The creator of three art cars himself, Blank has been instrumental in bringing art cars to a national audience through his films Wild Wheels and Automorphosis, photography books, various exhibitions and even a museum called Art Car World in Douglas, AZ.
In addition to the couple’s art car, Blank’s documentary featured many cars from the Houston Art Car Parade. With the annual event’s upcoming date just around the corner, Todd and Kiaralinda invited Hubbard to ride along with them and photograph what he saw. After making a pit stop in New Orleans to caravan with other art cars, they hit the road for Houston—a first-hand experience that launched Hubbard into the peculiar scene. The following year, he traveled with several artists to an art car event all the way out in San Francisco, again as a photographer, stopping at a few folk art environments and self-made worlds along the way.
“I was seeing this real connection between art cars and folk art and outsider art, partly because of the connection to alternative underground music,” says Hubbard. “It was all kinda counterculture.”
In 1998, the environmental company Hubbard worked for announced that it was closing its Florida office to consolidate facilities, and gave him the option of either relocating to a different city or accepting a severance package equivalent to a year’s salary. Recognizing a rare opportunity, he decided to use the severance pay to support himself as he set out to create his own art car.
“You don’t have to have a theme,” says Hubbard. “It doesn’t have to really mean anything or have a name. You can just take stuff from a flea market or out of your garage and put it all over a car and people are going to be curious. So, it didn’t seem intimidating to me to try to make an art car.”
After considering several different ideas, Hubbard settled on the theme of heaven and hell. He had always been drawn to religious art, whether it was Southern folk art by Miller or Finster, Italian Renaissance paintings by Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, or the hand-carved santos sculptures of saints he had seen during his travels throughout the Southwest. Though influenced by his Catholic upbringing, he’s kept an open mind about spirituality throughout his adulthood, and his art car invites viewers to do the same.
“I can look at nature, and I can look at molecules and protons and electrons and neutrons and how all that makes life, but it also can make the stars and the moon and all that,” says Hubbard. “There’s some kind of plan behind all this. To me that’s a sign of God. That all this stuff works… Whether it’s a beautiful tree or the color of the sky on a given day at sunset… It works too nicely together most of the time to just be totally random, I think. But beyond that, I don’t know.”
Since its conception 25 years ago, the Heaven and Hell Car has clocked 365,000 miles and is currently in need of considerable repairs. Though it may now have one wheel on the rainbow road, so to speak, it can still be spotted outside of his home in Farmington.
The first time Hubbard ever took his Heaven and Hell Car to the Houston Art Car Parade, he won a third place prize out of nearly 300 entries—a very affirming experience that motivated him early on to keep going. He began navigating a nationwide circuit of art car festivals and parades, and quickly picked up how many spectators were inquiring as to whether or not he sold any of the little figures that decorated his car.
Whereas most art car owners decorate their vehicle as an extension of an already established body of work, Hubbard instead began creating art objects as sellable souvenirs for these events. Influenced by the folk artists he admired, he naturally gravitated towards working with rusted tin and a variety of old salvaged materials. While participating in the Artscape festival in Baltimore, a woman even asked to purchase his entire collection of wares, later identifying herself as an employee who ran the American Visionary Art Museum’s gift shop.
Eventually, Hubbard felt a desire to “move north to get back to the South,” and turned his attention to Athens. Drawn to its reputation of having a strong alternative scene—and taking Miller and Finster’s connections to the town as a good omen—he felt that his artwork might be well-received, too. In 2000, he participated in the AthFest Music & Arts Festival—the first time he had ever applied to an art market that wasn’t specifically a call for art cars—and even won an award from the juror. He officially moved to Athens the following year.
As the demand for his artwork gradually grew, his focus shifted from art car events to galleries and art markets. Since then, he has sustained his creative lifestyle by participating in a handful of regional craft markets throughout the year. For the past two decades, he’s been a staple at both the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, AL and the Fearrington Folk Art Show in Pittsboro, NC. He’s also participated in Finster Fest at Paradise Gardens in Summerville, as well as self-taught artist Butch Anthony’s legendary Doo-Nanny in Seale, AL.
This weekend at Bishop Park, Hubbard will join over 100 other artists and makers at the Springtacular, Indie South’s biannual open-air market dedicated to all things handmade. Active with Indie South since its earliest days, he has been a trusted advisor and instrumental sounding board to owner Serra Jaggar as the business has grown and evolved over the years.
“He has a big ol’ tender heart and tries to see the best in people no matter what they’ve done or what’s being said about them,” says Jaggar. “I love that Chris chooses to create artwork that is deliberately provocative and humorous around religion while living in the bible belt, knowing that a lot of people will reject it based on that alone. I think his work is such a reflection of who he is—full of character, a little rusty, sometimes serious but more often humorous and uplifting.”
WHO: Chris Hubbard at Indie South’s Springtacular
WHEN: Saturday, May 6 & Sunday, May 7, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
WHERE: Bishop Park
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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