"The Temptation: Edgar Tolson And The Genesis Of Twentieth Century Folk Art" by Julia S. Ardery

Rarely, if ever, have I seen a book which is so meticulously researched, documented, and written. This book by Julia S. Ardery is a masterpiece and one of the most important books in the field of Appalachian Folk Art. The only potential negative in the book is the fact that it is so well written that it can become a bit pedantic at times. But if one chooses to read books written by a potential pedant, this is the book to read. It is based on the well justified premise that Campton, Kentucky, folk artist Edgar Tolson was largely responsible for the popularity of Appalachian Folk Art and, in some ways, the increased popularity of American Folk Art in general. It is also fascinating that the book was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1998 more than 22 years after the death of the author. That fact is a clear indicator that it must have been preserved in manuscript form by her son Major General Phillip P. Ardery who was her sole surviving child at the time the book was published. Julia Ardery was also the editor of another book, "Welcome The Traveler Home" which is the memoir of Jim Garland, a career union organizer. That book was also published after the death of Julia Ardery by the University of Kentucky Press. Edgar Tolson was an enigmatic, garrulous, and sometimes abrasive man whose eventual fame might not have been foreseen in a person who fluctuated between periods of preaching and excessive drinking. He is even credited with once having blown up the little church he preached in with dynamite. But he gained many supporters, promoters, and fans as he moved from a life of itinerant labor to become the premier wood carver in America in his lifetime. He was obviously well respected by Ardery who spent a vast amount of time and resources to compile this book which is sourced with numerous interviews by the author with more than 60 people other than her primary subject. She also did an excellent piece of work in detailing the lengthy relationship between Edgar Tolson and Scuptor and educator Michael D. Hall who promoted Edgar Tolson's work tirelessly, collected large numbers of his carvings, and eventually was able to sell his entire folk art collection to the Milwaukee Art Museum which has an entire wall in one room which is dedicated to Edgar Tolson's carvings of the biblical story of Adam, Eve, and their sons, Cain and Able. Ardery goes to extensive and well justified lengths to discuss how Edgar Tolson's growing popularity in the world of "real art" enabled many other folk artists, both Appalachian and American, to sell their works, gain credibility in the art world, and in some cases to actually make a living from what had previously been known more often as "whittling", "fooling around", or "wasting time". This is a truly beautiful piece of work with numerous photograpns of Edgar Tolson, his art works, his family, and others. The research for this book is some of the best I have ever seen on any topic. If you are a person who enjoys reading a well written, extensivley researched, and flawlessly documented work, this is the book for you whether or not you are already an admirer of good folk art. It is actually capable of inducing you to become another of the aforementioned admirers and collectors of folk art. The book is widely available on most used book websites and well worth reading.

"Mountain People, Mountain Crafts" by Elinor Lander Horwitz

Lately for a variety of reasons, I have been reading a lot of books about Appalachian Folk Art which is one of my favorite types of art and, in my opinion, some of the best art in America. Elinor Horwitz was a very prolific writer who published about a dozen books including at least three on Appalachian Folk Art and/or Appalachian Crafts. This particular book was published in 1974 and I actually learned about Horwitz and her work while reading a classic book on Appalachian Folk Art, "The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and The Genesis of Twentieth Century Folk Art" by Julia Ardery, a Kentucky writer. I will write about that book in a day or two. This particular book has one chapter on woodcarving and that chapter focuses heavily on Edgar Tolson and his work wiht several excellent photographs of Tolson and his work. I never knew Edgar Tolson but have heard numerous stories about him and his work from his son Donny Tolson who is also now dead. Interestingly, the photographs in this book, or at least most of them, were taken by Horwitz's two teenage sons who had traveled with her to visit various folk artists and crafters all over the region of Central and Southern Appalachian. One of her sons also took most of the photographs for another of her books which I will also write about in the upcoming days. This book is directed toward a general audience and makes no attempt to go into great detail about many aspects of Appalachian Fok Art and crafts. But Horwitz and her sons did visit most of the subjects of the book and I am also led to believe that she was a major collector of Appalachian arts and crafts. Some of the photographs are stunning and as good as one could expect to see from truly professional photographers. I haven't yet done enough research to learn if either of her sons pursued photography as a career, but I would not be surprised if they did. She broke the book down into three major chapters plus a short epilogue entitled "Today And Tomorrow" which reflects on the potential future of Appalachian Folk Art. It is a shame that the book was published with all the photographs in black and white. Many of the subjects of those photographs such as quilts, paintings, and other works would have been much more attractive and informative if they had been shot and published in full color. For several types of the work featured in the book, Horwitz discusses at length the process the creators used to produce the work, and her sons provided excellent photographs of several phases of the creative process when they were able to do so with the cooperation of the artists. It is also a good review of quite a few Appalachian Folk Artists and crafters who are now dead. But the book is well worth reading if you can find a copy since it is now more than fifty years old. I found my copy on a used book website and it is actually a former library book which I often avoid buying. But it was apparently not the most read book in that particular library and is in good shape. If you are interested in Folk Art or crafting, the book is worth digging up a copy.

"Artisans Harvest" At Morgan County Wellness Center, August 2, 2025

Yesterday, my wife and I attended Articans Harvest at the Morgan County Wellness Center in West Liberty, Kentucky, which was originally called "Art In The Park" and held at Old Mill Park. But a few years ago, the location was changed due to rainy weather and it has been held at the Wellness Center gym ever since. When it began in the park, it was more a folk art show and sale than what it has become since the move. It is now heavily oriented toward crafts rather and folk art. Minnie Adkins, the famous Elliott County folk artist still attends and Brent Collinsworth from Wolfe County was there last year but did not attend this year. Steve Sargent, who makes nice lamps from whiskey bottles had attended last year but was there only as a spectator this year. There also is a small number of local vegetable farmers who attend to sell a few vegetables. It is not what it used to be. I do understand that since it is organized by the local Agricultural Extension Service office that their funding source probably requires that it include the vegetable farmers and some others such as users of the Extension Service food preparation trainings they sometimes do. But I go primarily to see, and sometimes buy, folk art, and I prefer to see it more heavily oriented in that direction which I am afraid might not happen again. This also reminds me of what used to be called Morgan County Farm, Home, and Family Day which was more oriented toward individual presenters who taught small groups in a classroom setting about a wide variety of topics oriented to life in a rural community. It hasn't been held in several years. But this event now known as Artisans Harvest is a great place to go to meet a few people in the community whom we don't get to see on a regular basis. We ran into Steve Sargent whom I've known for years; Minnie Adkins who is one of my favorite folk artists, and whom I had seen two weeks ago at Minnie Adkins Day in Sandy Hook; Sarah Fannin, the local Extension Agent who was there no doubt in her official capacity; Danny Joe Gevedon, who is a retired banker and friendly acquaintance who also plays Bluegrass bass; Austin and Kathy Shaw, from whom I buy farm fresh eggs; and several others whom I might have forgotten to mention. Since there was only marginal interest in Minnie's somewhat expensive folk art, I was able to spend some time talking to her and got Steve Sargent to take a photo of us. I try to always get a photo with Minnie when we run into each other. Minnie was in a generous mood yesterday and offered to give one of her famous roosters to a female who said she makes handmade brooms. But she declined and insisted on buying one of Minnie's unpainted roosters, staing that getting the rooster was the only reason she had attended the event. Just before we left, Candice happened to drive her wheelchair past Minnie's table, and Minnie promptly stood up and carried Candice a hand carved and painted cardinal which she gave her. It is proudly displayed on a shelf with my two hand painted and carved Evening Grosbeaks from Minnie's cousin Tim Lewis. It was a very community oriented event for us since we saw so many of our friends and acquaintances, got to look at some good crafts work, visit with Minnie, Steve, and Danny. We left the event and chose to drive to the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery near Morehead so I could hike. But I will discuss that in a separate post.

Visiting With Tim & Lola Lewis, July 25, 2025

I had an interesting and fun visit with Appalachian Artist Tim Lewis and his wife Lola yesterday, July 25, 2025, in their home in Elliott County Kentucky. I have known Tim for a couple of years and known about his art for a bit longer than that. Tim is a cousin of the famed Minnie Adkins but his art work is his own and his reputation as an artist is perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet. Tim has primarly been a sculptor in stone for many years but also does wonderful carved and painted wooden birds. I am proud to say that I now have two of those Tim Lewis birds in my own collection. They are actually representations of the Evening Grosbeaks which visited our home for about two months nearly two years ago. Tim had recently completed those two birds for me and we had talked at the recent Minnie Adkins Day celebration in Sandy Hook. But we had also spoken about getting together sometime soon for a while and I decided to take a hot summer drive to Tim's house for a visit.

That drive to the visit was an adventure in itself. Tim's house is not easy to locate even for a person like me who has spent his life in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia. It is located on a back road, up a sizeable hill, and situated in a tree shaded location where it is not possible to see it from the road. But I finally got there and it was worth the trip.

I had also taken a photograph of both grosebeaks together near a wall outlet in order to be able to show them as a pair and to give an indication of their size. This is that photograph.

While I was at Tim's house, he and Lola and I talked about a variety of topics including a lot of art, mostly art actually, and they also showed me several pieces of art from their collection including a small piece by the famed folk artist Howard Finster. They have an excellent carved and painted Native American Chief which Tim created many years ago, a nice little piece of a carved alabaster angel which was Lola said was the first piece Tim ever carved and gave to her when their relationship was young. The house is full of art, exhibition catalogues, and excellent memories. In a wonderful act of generosity, they gave me a copy of a catalogue from a series of traveling exhibitions of Tim's work from 2008 and 2009. Yes, they did have a few extra copies of that catalogue from the past. It contains a wonderful group of photographs of Tim's works from that time period, several very interesting and insightful articles about Tim and his work, and it is truly enlightening to study if you are into the stone carvings of Tim Lewis. It was a truly great visit!

Minnie Adkins Day in Sandy Hook, KY, July 19, 2025

Today, July 19, 2025, my wife Candice & I traveled to Sandy Hook, Kentucky, for Minnie Adkins Day, an annual folk art event which is intended both to honor the great Appalachian folk artist Minnie Adkins and to bring together some 100 or so other folk artists and crafts persons along with folk art lovers and collectors from several states. We try to attend this event every year and I have written about both this event and Minnie Adkins a few other times on this blog. Although Minnie is past 90, she is still able to work effectively and uses the event to both sell her most recent works and to meet both her long time followers and new folk art lovers she has never met. Personally, I love to attend any event Minnie is at. She is a joy to talk to and is a real giant in both the Appalachian and American Folk Art movements. I also use the event to search for good folk art which I can afford to collect, meet other folk artists and collectors whom I know, and to renew numerous relationships which I might only benefit from on unpredictable schedules. One of my favorite artists and a man I consider to be a friend in the great Appalachian folk artist Brent Collinsworth who lives just a few miles from my home. But due to our busy schedules, we don't see enough of each other. I love Brent's work and we have collected several of his pieces which are among my favorites. This year, I happened to encounter Brent at the booth of another of my favorite artists and people, Tim Lewis, who is a fine folk artist also, a great bird carver in particular, and a great worker in stone which is less common than it could be among folk artists. I actually bought two of Tim's carved and painted birds today and I love them. We had discussed more than a year ago the fact that Candice and I had been visited by a large flock of relatively rare birds in Kentucky, the Evening Grosbeak. These birds I bought today from Tim might not have been painted as actual representations of the Evening Grosbeak but they are, if we allow for a bit of artistic license, decent approximations. But, above all, they are simply great bird carvings by an Appalachian folk artist who has work in the Smithsonian.

We also encountered and spent time with our friends Misty Skaggs and her mother, Bonita Parsons, who are both folk artists also. Both of them gave small pieces to Candice which is typical of the kind of generosity they tend to show to the entire world.

Altogether, it was a wonderful day at Minnie Adkins Day and we had a ball.

Market In The Park, West Liberty, Kentucky, August 3, 2024

 

My wife Candice and I attended Market In The Park today, August 3, 2024, in our hometown of West Liberty, Kentucky.  However, today's event was not held in the park as it has been in several years in the past.  Due to an unpredictable forecast with a lot of possible rain, the event was moved to the Morgan County Wellness and Youth Center which sits on a piece of property which is outside town proper by about a half mile but still within the city limits.  The building has a gymnasium, bowling alley, and exercise equipment with a large paved, but poorly engineered, parking area which has too many parking spaces which are too small and make parking difficult in a well attended event, especially when the lot is filled with oversized pickup trucks.  Cars and trucks were parked along the grassy edges of the lot and in an unpaved area across from the main entrance.  But it all seemed to work out well in general.  

 

The attendance was even larger than I had anticipated.  I have no idea how many vendors were present but it must have been somewhere between 75 and 100. There were also a few local musicians, none of which struck as particularly talented. I had decided to attend this year because the renowned folk artist Minnie Adkins, whom I know slightly was listed as a vendor.  I had just seen Minnie on July 20, 2024, at the annual Minnie Adkins Day in her hometown of Sandy Hook in adjoining Elliott County.  But she is now 90 years old and I treasure every  minute I can spend in her company.  The first person I saw when I entered the building was Minnie who was involved in a warm hug with Danny Gevedon, a retired banker and used car dealer from West Liberty whom I have known and had an acquaintanceship with for about twenty years since the bank he was working for had some business with us.  Danny is also a pretty good woodworker and has been a vendor at this event in the past. But he was not selling any craft works today.  I walked toward them saying, "the next hug is mine" meaning a hug from Minnie. But both stepped toward me and we wound up in a three way hug which was a nice surprise.  Then I quickly encountered a local retired prison captain who, along with his wife, I had sold several loads of good collectible glass for when I was still running my auction house.  We engaged in a fairly long catching up conversation when we were approached by our former Commonwealth Attorney who did my taxes for several years.  I had not seen either of these men in several years and had long conversations with both.  Then I went to Minnie's table and had a brief conversation with her and she surprised me by giving me a small painting of a bird, pictured above, which I will treasure for the rest of my life. It is only a 4" x 4" canvas on a small wooden easel. It is not the only Minnie Adkins piece I have in my collection but this one is different since it was a gift from the artist and I bought the others.  Minnie and I also caught up on the recent serious health problems of her cousin Tim Lewis who has had another brief hospitalization at the VA Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.  Tim is also a Kentucky folk artist who has a few pieces in the Smithsonian Museum where Minnie also has pieces.  My wife then told me that our friend Steve Sargent was selling shade lamps which he makes using empty whiskey bottles and I moved to his booth where Candice had selected a lamp she wanted to buy.  But I wasn't carrying my check book.  No Problem!  He sold it to me on credit.  I am a regular at a grocery store which his father-in-law and wife operated near my house. We actually went to the store for lunch after we left Market In The Park.  

Most of the vendors were selling more craft works than art works and I wasn't interested in buying any of those.  We did buy a few cucumbers, miniature tomatoes, and banana peppers from a woman who remembered Candice from her days long ago working at the local food stamp office.  We also had brief conversations with a few others who we knew for a variety of reasons.  There was a couple who used to attend my auctions, our local county extension agent who was also present at Minnie Adkins day last month in Sandy Hook, a local school board member whom we have known for several years, and one or two others who had known us for a variety of reasons in the past.  Events like this are always fun to attend in West Liberty since this community and county has actually done a wonderful job of maintaining a variety of rapidly disappearing aspects of a tight knit community which many other places of roughly the same size have long lost.  I have always felt that the West Liberty tornado in 2012 which destroyed a great deal of the town and killed 6 people had a lot to do with the continued cohesiveness of our  community.  Another event, now cancelled, which helped to keep that sense of community intact was the annual summer event which used to be held to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  Known as the Morgan County Cancer Walk, it was well attended and supported by a variety of people in the community and, for a few years, actually had the highest per capita donations in the state.  This has always been a very supportive community for such events and they have also molded the community into a deeply connected and caring place to live.

Minnie Adkins Day, July 20, 2024, Sandy Hook, Kentucky

 

Roger D. Hicks and Minnie Adkins

My wife Candice and I traveled to Sandy Hook, Kentucky, in nearby Elliott County on Saturday, July 20, 2024, for this year's annual Minnie Adkins Day which is held each year on the third Saturday of July.  Minnie Adkins Day is both a celebration of the life and work of Minnie Adkins and a general, small town Folk Art festival at which numerous folk artists from all around the southeast exhibit and offer for sale their own works. We both really enjoy the brief amounts of time we get to spend with Minnie and have also recently attended an exhibition of her work at the Huntington Art Museum.  Due to the fact that we both love and collect Folk Art, we have come to know several Folk Artists in the Eastern Kentucky area.  Some of them we might see and converse with a few times during the year, and others we only see at this affair.  It is always fun to see the art, talk with artists, other lovers of Folk Art, and a few of our neighbors in the area we might not have seen for some time.  It was also sad to learn at the festival that Lexington collector Thomas "Tom" Clark had died earlier in the year, and I had actually gone there wanting to be able to ask him about someone who might be able to repair a piece I have which has been damaged.  Tom was a great collector and dealer in both Folk Art and general antiques.  For many years, he had operated an antique and Folk Art shop on North Broadway in Lexington which he had closed a few years ago.  I had known Tom in a limited way for several  years since I had outbid him once for a piece at an estate sale.  He was a vast library of information about Folk Art, Folk Artists, and antiques and he will be missed by his many friends and customers.  

Minnie Adkins and Brent Collinsworth

One of the area Folk Artists who has become a genuine friend, and whose work I collect, is Brent Collinsworth who is a wonderful artist, great conversationalist, and a valued source of information also.  We were both able to spend some time with Brent and his wife at this festival and that is always a treat. Brent's work is always interesting, entertaining, and, at times, surprising.  

 

Tim Lewis

I was also able to spend some time talking with Tim Lewis who is a first cousin to Minnie Adkins and also a native of Elliott County.  Tim has worked in both stone and wood and has some of his work in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, as does Minnie.  Tim loves to carve and paint birds and also had a good carved and painted depiction of The Last Supper at the show.  I was remiss in not taking an actual photograph of that piece and some of Tim's other work.  Sadly, he has had some relatively serious health problems this year which resulted in a hospitalization over last Christmas.  As a result, he had probably less work at this show than I have seen him exhibit for sale in the past.  Tim is also a great conversationalist and fun to talk with.  

Minnie Adkins Day is always fun to visit and participate in and has as many as 100 artists exhibiting and selling their work most years.  This year there was a threat of rain all day although it generally only sprinkled but it seemed that this had depressed visitor attendance to a degree. 

 

Minnie Adkins Exhibition, "Story Carvings", Huntington Museum Of Art, Friday, July 28, 2023

 

                                                       Photo By Huntington Museum of Art 

On Friday, July 28, 2023, my wife Candice & I traveled to the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, West Virginia, to see the fairly recent exhibition of the work of famed Kentucky folk artist Minnie Adkins which the museum has titled "Story Carvings".  The exhibition is composed of several hundred small, painted carvings which Minnie created to illustrate several books which she produced with writer Mike Norris.   The books involved were called "Sonny the Monkey", "Bright Blue Rooster", "Mommy Goose: Rhymes from the Mountain" and "Ring Around the Moon: Mommy Goose Rhymes". The muse um website states:  "This collection of carvings is a seamless blend of wood and words reflecting Appalachian culture and covering an enormous range of subjects—from humor to anger, coal mining to creativity, bullying to the might of words."  

                                                Roger Hicks & Minnie Adkins July 15, 2023
 

 I have known Minnie is a superficial way for several years and have written about her and her work on this blog most recently after attending the annual "Minnie Adkins Day" in her hometown of Sandy Hook, Kentucky, on July 15, 2023.  I have a great deal of respect for Minnie and her work, especially those larger pieces which are often seen in museum collections or the homes of well funded collectors.  But this exhibit is composed almost entirely of pieces which are less than 6" and were intended to be utilized in photographic tableaux for the books mentioned above.  They are wonderful work and, if  you know Minnie and her work, they are easily recognized as coming from her hands, paint brush, and pocket knife.  Minnie is now just past her 90th birthday but still going strong as she demonstrated at the recent Minnie Adkins Day.  I suspected that she might not be keeping the same heated pace she did in her earlier years but she still had a great deal of works on display for sale at that Minnie Adkins Day, still posed for photographs with every admirer who asked, and took time to speak to every person who came seeking a little of her time.  I regret that I was not present at the grand opening of this exhibition to see her in her natural element holding court in a museum in front of a crowd of art loving admirers.  

The museum also has a sizeable collection of American Folk Art in their permanent collection and much of it is also currently on display at this time in an adjoining gallery under the title Folk Art: Eclectic Expressions from the Collection.   The museum in their description of the general folk art exhibit quotes their Senior Curator/Exhibition Designer John Farley about that exhibition in this manner: “This exhibition reminds us that living creatively and expressively is not reserved for those with specialized artistic training or academic education, Making things with our hands, our hearts, and our minds is the province of all people." "It is an excellent exhibition, especially if the viewer is one seeking an overview of American Folk Art or folk art of the Southeastern United States.  The first piece most likely to catch a visitor's eye entering the gallery is a wonderful quilt of about 20 individual squares made by Minnie Adkins about 30 years ago.  The top corner squares on each side are of Minnie and her late husband Garland Adkins.  The remaining squares are fabric reproductions of many of Minnie's familar carvings of local animals, both domestic and feral.  Another remarkable piece in that exhibition is by Howard Finster, who was arguably one of the best known of all American Folk artists.  For me personally, a favorite piece and one I had never seen in person despite having represented the artist, Donny Tolson, for a time is called "Dan'l Boone Kilt A Bar".    

It is a phenomenal carving of several separate pieces which have been fitted together to create a composite on a large, rounded wooden base of Daniel Boone in buckskins, knife in hand, in mortal combat with a large upright bear in a small grove of trees.  One of those trees even contains a small carved squirrel spectator.  The entire piece is about 2' x 12" x 16" roughly.  It is masterpiece of the woodcarver's art.  There are also numerous other pieces in this exhibition both of carvings and paintings.  This overall collection is well worth seeing any time you are in the area of Huntington, West Virginia.  The Minnie Adkins exhibition will be available until November 5, 2023.  The overall folk art exhibition will close on September 24, 2023. 

Minnie Adkins Day, July 15, 2023, Sandy Hook, Kentucky

 

Roger D. Hicks & Minnie Adkins

My wife Candice & I traveled to Sandy Hook, Kentucky, in neighboring Elliott County for our second visit to Minnie Adkins Day, an annual one day event which is named for the great Kentucky folk artist Minnie Adkins, whom I have known casually for somewhere near twenty years.  We are  not close friends but whenever I encounter Minnie she always remembers me and refers to me as "the auctioneer".  Minnie Adkins Day is a combination folk art show and sale which draws somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-100 artists and probably close to 1,000 visitors, cum customers, on a good dry day.  Yesterday did not turn out to be a good dry day. Candice & I arrived at about 11am and stayed for about two hours before leaving to go on to Grayson, Kentucky, in neighboring Carter County for lunch at Tres Hermanos Nunez, a pretty fair Mexican restaurant chain in Eastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio.  We decided to leave the event just as we saw ominous clouds moving in from the west and were told by some artists who were watching their cell phones that the weather was headed our way from the Lexington area.  

 

But considering the short time we were there, we  had a most excellent day. I got to see Minnie, converse with her for a short while, (there is always a line to see Minnie, say a few words, and get a photo with her if you want one)  got the photo together which I had never done in our many encounters.  Just in front of me in line to see Minnie was a couple whom I did not recognize but I heard someone refer to the man as Randy Yohe which was a great serendipitous meeting.  Randy is now retired from WSAZ-3 TV in Huntington, West Virginia, and works for West Virginia Public Radio.  I had seen Randy in 1996 when he did a story about me when I was chosen as an Olympic Torch Bearer for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.  I had carried the torch in Covington, Kentucky, and Randy and his camera person had filmed footage with me at Morehead State University, where I was a non-traditional student at the time, and in Covington where I carried the torch in a driving rain at 10pm.  I had liked Randy a lot at the time, followed his work in a limited way while he was still working at WSAZ, and lost track of him when he retired from there.  I introduced myself to Randy and his wife as soon as I had my brief time with Minnie and we reminisced about the Torch Run, caught up on what both of us had been doing in the past 27 years, made a plan for a possible meeting at another event I will be attending in West Virginia next year, and moved on.  

 

Then I checked in with my friend folk artist Brent Collinsworth who lives in nearby Wolfe County and is also a well respected Kentucky folk artist.  I have several pieces of Brent's work in my collection of folk art and we converse fairly regularly.  But it is always good to make contact with him anytime.   He had a few new pieces which I had not seen but, since I had bought a few from him not long ago during a visit to his home, I never bought any of his work yesterday. The crowd at Minnie Adkins Day is generally too large for old friends to converse with the artists except for a few brief words and I quickly moved on to other encounters with a couple of people I knew and a few I  had never met.  

I also made a point to find another local Elliott County folk artist, Tim Lewis, whose specialty is carved and painted wooden birds.  I had seen one of Tim's birds in a visit to Brent's house a few months ago and, due to having had a flock of relatively rare evening grosbeaks at our house for about two months from early March to early May, I had decided to ask Tim is he would accept a commission to carve and paint me an evening grosbeak.  We worked out the gist of the details but I still need to send Tim some photos of the grosbeaks and pay him for the carving which I will do in a visit to his house in a few days.  Tim's work is fairly well known across Kentucky and the adjoining states and he has a few pieces in regional folk art museums.  

Then I had another very serendipitous meeting with someone I have known on Facebook only for quite a while. Candice had moved around on her own in her power wheelchair and was talking to two women at their booth. They are a mother and daughter from the Elliott County area and do work primarily using found objects. Candice had found a piece she wanted, a nesting hen made from a folding cardboard fried chicken box.  We decided to buy that piece and while I was writing the check for it to the mother, I asked what name I needed to put on the check and the daughter said, "Use mine, Misty Skaggs."  I turned and realized that she was my Facebook contact and said, "My name is Roger Hicks.  Does that mean anything to you?"  Of course it did since we share the same liberal politics in general and have often been found on the same side of Facebook discussions of the seriously destructive problems in the country which have been perpetrated over the last several years by TRAITOR Trump and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party.  Misty's mother's name is Bonita Parsons and she was the creator of Candice's chicken.  Candice then decided to stay and spend some time talking with Misty and Bonita while I went around to see what else I could see and whom I might meet.  

Then, as I was walking across the field toward more artist's booths, I met a man walking toward the food booths who recognized me from last year at the event where Candice & I bought a piece from him which hangs in our dining area.  Scott McQueen is his name and he is retired from several years as a minister before retiring and becoming a folk artist.  He lives in Alabama and always comes to the Minnie Adkins Day events.  

Then I ran into Tom Clark from Lexington, Kentucky, who used to run a large gallery there and whom I had encountered at several auctions or folk art events.  He was selling a part of his large collection and we talked for a while about several artists and an art dealer we had known in the past. Someone had also heard Minnie refer to me as an auctioneer and pulled me aside to tell me that a young artist at another booth was in the process of becoming an auctioneer and would like to talk to me.  We conversed for a while and I told him what I could about my experiences in running an auction house, conducting several good estate auctions in several Kentucky counties, and one or two firmly held beliefs I have about how auctions should be run, how a good to great auction crew is put together and my favorite little bit of wisdom that "at every auction someone is in charge, either the crowd or the auctioneer and it should never be the crowd."  Then I realized that bad weather was moving in and hurried over to get Candice and leave.  We just got into the van when the rain started coming down and went to Grayson for lunch. Misty Skaggs communicated to me by Facebook today and told me that most of the artists and late staying customers got really wet in a driving rain after we left.  All together it was a great day!

 

 

Brent Collinsworth--Appalachian Folk Artist

Brent Collinsworth has been a dedicated and well respected folk artist for more than twenty years after retiring from his first career.  He has lived his entire life on the family farm in Hazel Green, KY, where he spent his summer days as a boy helping to produce corn, hay, hogs, cattle, and tobacco.  Today, he spends his time turning the family farm into a walnut plantation for the future of his three granddaughters and producing works of art which find their way into museums and private collections throughout a wide section of the southeastern United States.  Brent paints and also creates three dimensional works of art using a variety of media.  We invite you to view the photos below of Brent's works.  Most of the works pictured here are for sale.  Contact us by E-mail or via the phone numbers which can be found on this blog.  

Brent Collinsworth & Some Of His Art Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Riverside Street Scene Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Death Rides A White Horse Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Wash Day In The Bottoms Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Evolution Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Detail Of "Evolution" (Above) Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Native Harpooner Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Trump Throwing The First Mexican Over The Wall Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Trump Throwing The First Mexican Over The Wall (Side View) Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Trump/Wall (Detail) Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Tower Of Bable Photo By Roger D. Hicks

All art pictured in this blog post is the sole and original work of Appalachian Folk Artist Brent Collinsworth.  All of this work is for sale on a first come first served basis.  Prices will be quoted on request.  Call Brent Collinsworth at the following numbers: 606-662-4091.