ELLIOTT COUNTY, Ky. — An Eastern Kentucky American folk artist spent the Pandemic months whittling.
Soon her wood art will be featured in an upcoming children’s book written by a Lexington author.
Minnie Adkins whittled away during isolation.
“I pay the boys to go in the woods and gather the sticks for me. I pay them to get me sticks,” Adkins said while she carves a rooster.
“I love it all. I just enjoy doing it so much,” Adkins said.
She grew up in the 1930s right after the Great Depression. At 10, she picked up whittling to make her own toys.
“When I was a child I wanted toys to play with and I would make slingshots and bow and arrows and things to play with,” Adkins said.
Her intricate collection is housed in a barn that sits on her property in Elliot County.
“I’ve got seven great-grands and I call this my Mimi Museum,” Adkins said as she shows off her collection.
Although the pandemic brought its own challenges, carving wood kept her busy.
“Well I whittled for a children’s book that Mike Norris and I are making,” Adkins said.
Mike Norris is a children’s book author in Lexington. He and Adkins have worked on several projects in the past.
“It’s definitely a pandemic project,” Norris said of his upcoming book.
Norris writes rhymes to tell a story. His work includes various topics such as bullying and its effects geared toward children.
“When COVID [-19] hit, and Minnie was isolated in her home. She called me up. She said 'Well I’m just stuck here by myself, we might as well do another book, you might as well send me some rhymes,'” Norris said.
Their current book is called "Ring Around The Moon," released weeks before the pandemic began. They thought they could take a break but the pandemic brought in isolation.
“It’s been a really hard time on people you know. And I just tried to stay in because you know of my age and stay away from people,” Adkins said.
So the duo began working on another book with a working title called "Appalachian Melodies."
“Something about the concentration of her being alone and having nothing else to really focus on. She did a fantastic job in Ring Around The Moon. She did 180 figures and I thought she had never top that but for this book, she's done 200,” Norris said.
Two hundred intricately carved and painted wooden figures, characters to pair with stories from eastern Kentucky. “I'm really blessed that I’m able to be making roosters and have done books and things that 87-years-old, a lot of people's not that well when they to get 87. So god has really blessed and been good to me,” Adkins said. The Lexington author said publishers are hoping to release the book by some time next year.