A Kentucky folk artist hopes to inspire the next generation of creators and artisans.
Willie Roscoe is a woodcarver from Hopkinsville.
The Kentucky Folklife Program hosted a discussion and demonstration with him at Western Kentucky University.
A proclamation was read declaring it Willie Roscoe Day.
Roscoe uses natural resources to create his sculptures.
He spent more than four decades sculpting art from driftwood, metal and animal hides, many of it foraged from Kentucky lakes and woods.
It's a difference in the wood and techniques.
Is so much involved.
And my daddy was a builder.
My daddy was a builder all his life.
And so we are associated with wood from an early age.
We wanted our sons and my daddy and God give me this gift.
There's an out of town.
This is a gift.
And when God gives you, no man can take away.
So that's why I'm still at it.
To this day.
Good thing he is.
Willie Roscoe has a permanent collection at the Kentucky Folk Art Center.
In 2020, he was the recipient of the governor's Awards in the Arts through the Kentucky Arts Council.
Well-deserved.