The home and life-long visionary art project of Eddie Owens Martin, a self-taught Southern artist. Drawing inspiration from Pre-Columbian and Native American cultures, he developed a 7-acre technicolor compound that he named Pasaquan. Eddie’s artistic journey started at age 14 when he left his hometown of Buena Vista, Georgia in 1922 to embark on a hitchhiking adventure to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., before settling in New York where he worked as a male prostitute, bartender, gambler, marijuana peddler, and a drag queen (called “The Tattooed Countess” —what a hero!) After his mother’s unexpected death in 1957, Eddie came home to Georgia and moved into her farmhouse, and used savings from telling fortunes and leading seances to help fund his vision of Pasaquan. Over some 30 years, Eddie created six major structures from the original farmhouse, decorated with mandala murals and more than 900 feet of elaborately painted masonry walls. A wild architectural mashup, Eddie incorporated both spiritual concepts from ancient cultures and futuristic ideas of levitation transportation, renaming himself St. EOM (pronounced “Ohm”) in the process. Part-shaman and part-entertainer, he kept two German shepherds that he trained to stand on his left and right side, and told unfriendly visitors / local homophobes that he would set snakes on them if they ventured on to his property. He told a biographer: “I built this place to have something to identify with, ‘cause there’s nothin’ I see in this society that I identify with or desire to emulate.” St. EOM committed suicide in 1986; in the end, he was able to communicate the traditions of Pasaquoyanism to the viewers of the future with colorful, pluralistic designs that cover the entire site. Ever since his death, the Pasaquan Preservation Society has worked tirelessly to preserve the site. During 2014, philanthropic organization Kohler Foundation Inc., PPS and Columbus State University partnered to bring the visionary art site back to life. Thank you Charles—the current steward/restorer/historian of the compound—for the incredible tour.