Tradition/Innovation : Minnie Adkins

Tradition Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art

Minnie Adkins
Isonville, KY
Woodcarver
Traditional Artist

About the Artist

Woodcarver Minnie Adkins grew up in Elliott County around carving, watching the men in her family whittle. When hard times hit this rural part of Kentucky, she picked up a jack knife and helped establish Isonsville as a woodcarving center. Like many artists from this region, Minnie Adkins’ work is deeply rooted in her community, reflecting farm life and rural folkways.

Websites

http://www.anntowergallery.com
http://www.folkart.org
http://www.womeninkentucky.com
http://alumnus.caltech.edu
http://www.ket.org
http://www.outsider-folk-art.org
http://www.lighthouse.ca

Experience the Exhibit

Wood Gallery

Relationship to Place Gallery
Complete audio interview
Complete audio tour

Left to right:

Rooster, 1989
Painted wood
31" x 16" x 6.5"

Fox, 1997
Painted wood
13.25" x 39.5" x 3.5"

Possum with Babies, 1995
Painted wood
5" x 15.5" x 2.25"

All items are from the permanent collection of Kentucky Folk Arts Center

Photo by Luis Quiles, 2007

What is mastery to Adkins?

“I see my role as I was the first one that ever started doing wood carvings here [Elliott County, Kentucky]. I was the beginning of it, but I don’t feel that I’m no bigger or no better that the rest is, you know. Anybody can do what I’m doing if they apply themselves, but there is work goes with it.”