CUP #21 Coffee Cup Collection

Eddie Owens Martin was a trailblazer. He was a Georgian, an artist, and a creative soul who lived his life passionately building Pasaquan. 

My greatest take-away from the visit to Pasaquan was how humans manufacture narratives in the pursuit of preservation. The next paragraph or two are my assumptive psychoanalytical pseudo-philosophic musings. Take it for what it is worth, but this is what I saw, and thought, and wondered when I visited Pasaquan.

At the site of Pasaquan, I learned several facts about Eddie’s life. He was born into a sharecropper family here in my beloved state of Georgia. As a child he was beaten by his alcoholic father and sexually assaults by locals. At fourteen he fled to New York where he hustled as a prostitute.Eddie was always drawn to the arts and a higher cultural pursuit were it in music, theater, or visual arts. In later years, he created a following as a mystic tea-leaf reader. When he inherited his mother’s property in 1957 Eddie returned to the south. Why? He could have sold the home. I believe Eddie had a deep seeded need to be accepted by the community and culture of his birthplace.  

My first assumption is that Eddie, regardless of his conscious acts of running away from his parents, his family, his home, his town, his state, wanted to be loved not hurt and discarded by these social institutions. In the book, I am Mammal, the author establishes man’s psychological need to be accepted and climb the hierarchy of our social environment. In Eddie’s case, since he was forced out of his tribal home by abuse and into the cultural epicenter of New York. I believe he transferred his felt sexual and familial and cultural rejection into the avante gaurd arts. Basically, Eddie wanted to be accepted by the art world like a child wants his parents. 

Eddie was not uneducated about the arts. He was also a hustler and survivor. He’d used his body, he was not opposed to using his mind, thoughts and creativity to become an important folk artist. Eddie might have believed in Pasaquanism, but I propose that Eddie believed more deeply in the creative pursuit of a all encompassing art project. I see Pasaquan as a fine art project more than a man living out his personal religious beliefs. I see the narrative created by Mr. Martian as a personal shield to the community of nonbelievers and an intoxicating and tantalizing bizarre soothsaying antidote to the more educated, influential establishment. 

In no way do I think any less of Eddie Owen Martin’s work. Anyone who dedicates their life to an idea that they believe in. Who tirelessly work to create an extensive and intricate world has my respect. 

Whether you're drinking your morning coffee, evening tea, or something in between – this mug's for you! It's sturdy and glossy with a vivid print that'll withstand the microwave and dishwasher.

• Ceramic
• 11 oz mug dimensions: 3.85″ (9.8 cm) in height, 3.35″ (8.5 cm) in diameter
• 15 oz mug dimensions: 4.7″ (12 cm) in height, 3.35″ (8.5 cm) in diameter
• Dishwasher and microwave safe
• Blank product sourced from China