Fast Bird. Kent Ambler, artist
American Folk Art & Framing (AFA) hosts its 22nd Annual Miniatures Show, an exhibition of small works, from Wednesday, February 4, through Wednesday, February 25. The show opens online at 11 a.m. on February 4, followed by a gallery opening on Friday, February 6, with a reception from 5–8 p.m. Guests at the reception may purchase locally crafted dried flower bouquets, commission typewriter poems from Eddie Cabbage and enjoy live music from Aaron Kruse.
“Each year we ask our folk art family to create these little masterpieces no larger than 7”x 9”, but never restrict their subject matter or imagination,” says gallery owner Julia Mills. “This annual tradition gives them all a chance to bring life to scraps of material or leftover lumps of clay, and tell big stories on a smaller scale.”
Scatterlings. Michael Banks, artist
For some of AFA’s artists, small works are a part of their regular body of work, while for others, scaling down represents a welcome creative diversion. Woodblock artist Kent Ambler does not usually create works this size. “I make woodblock prints,” Ambler says. “I carve the blocks, mix the inks and print small editions of 30 directly from the blocks.” Because he does not reprint from old blocks, he recycles them into abstract works he calls block constructs by cutting the blocks and reassembling them. For this show, he will have both small prints and small block constructs.
“I will say that the small works can take as much time and effort as large works,” Ambler says. Smaller works, however, have benefits. “Most of the work is at a lower price point for people starting out their art collections,” says Ambler. “The mini artworks are also great because the work can fit in small nooks in people’s homes.”
Little Fox. Minnie Adkins, artist
Woodcarver Minnie Adkins began her artistic journey with small creations: toys such as slingshots and pop-guns she whittled for herself as a child. “After I was an adult, I started looking at that slingshot, and it looked like legs,” she says, “and I thought if it had a head and a tail, it could be a rooster.” Today, she is known for painted woodcarvings of foxes, bears, horses and possums, as well as roosters. In Sandy Hook, KY, near her hometown of Isonville, Minnie Adkins Day is held annually on the third Saturday in July. “I sell a lot there,” Adkins says, adding, “The good part is that it’ll always be there after I’m gone, and the artists will have a market.”
Adkins, who will soon be 92 years old, has enjoyed a lifetime of creating small and large works from wood. Her work is in the Smithsonian Institution, the American Folk Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art, among other notable galleries, as well as in private collections.
For more than 30 years, she has collaborated with KY writer Mike Norris on children’s books featuring her carved critters. “Our latest book, Mommy Goose’s Appalachian Melodies, features more than 200 of Minnie’s custom-made pieces illustrating the text,” Norris says.
American Folk Art & Framing is located at 64 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit AmeriFolk.com or call 828.281.2134.
