About this tour
Some cities keep their art in marble halls. Houston, being Houston, also keeps it in the front yards and backyards of eccentric geniuses who built their masterpieces by hand out of tile, mirror, junk, and tens of thousands of beer cans. This driving trail links the city's great works of visionary folk art — the retired postman's shrine to the orange, the mosaic memory wall built by hundreds of hands, a house sheathed entirely in aluminum, and a museum of the strangest custom of all. These are the monuments no institution commissioned and no committee approved, made by people who simply had to make them. Follow the arm_next chain from stop to stop; hours vary at these small, volunteer-run sites, so check ahead if you want to go inside.