Large Chuncky Roosters Carved, painted wood 22" x 5" x 13" $130 each

Warty Roosters Gourd & carved, painted wood 19" x 5" x 15" $100 each

Large Fox Eating Chicken Carved, painted wood • 12" x 6" x 34" $300

Possum with Babies Carved, painted wood • 11" x 6" x 29" $300

Cats with Mice Carved, painted wood 8" x 5" x 18" $135 each

Long-Eared Rabbits Carved, painted wood 10" x 6" x 7" $100

Wooden Frog Carved, painted wood 4 1/2" x 8" x 10" $100

Gourd Frog Gourd & carved, painted wood 7 1/2" x 4" x 5" $70

Terrapin Shell & carved, painted wood 9" x 5" x 10" $100

Cow Carved, painted wood 10" x 2 1/2" x 8" $100

Small Pig Carved, painted wood 7 1/2" x 3" x 12 1/2" $100

Large Pig with Corn Carved, painted wood • 10" x 16" x 17" $250

Sitting Cow Carved, painted wood • 21 1/2" x 8 1/2" x 16" $200

Large Gourd Rooster Gourd & carved, painted wood 32" x 12" x 22" $220 each

Medium Carved Rooster Carved, painted wood 16" x 4" x 14" $130 each

Gourd Raccoon Carved, painted wood • 11" x 12" x 22" $200

Standing Dog with Stick Carved, painted wood 7" x 4" x 17" $100

Sitting Dog with Stick Carved, painted wood 8" x 4" x 7" $100

Ram Carved, painted wood 9 1/2" x 3" x 13" $100

Skunk Carved, painted wood 8" x 3" x 10" $100

Large Bear with Fish Carved, painted wood • 9" x 5" x 20" $250

Small Gourd Turkey Carved, painted wood 13" x 9 1/2" x 5" $120

Small Fox Carved, painted wood 8" x 3" x 22" $130

Eagle Carved, painted wood 18" x 13" x 16" $220

Giraffe Carved, painted wood 7 1/2" x 2" x 16 1/2" $100

Noah's Ark Carved, painted wood • 20" x 24" x 11" $500

About the Artists

Lonnie, born in 1949, and Twyla, born in 1952, were both raised along the Jackson/Laurel county line in Eastern Kentucky, where they are now cattle farmers. They have converted one of their milking barns into a studio.

Lonnie attributes his talent as a carver to his great-grandfather who was a carver in Switzerland before immigrating to the United States in 1883. Aside from a cane he carved for his grandfather as a child, Lonnie's first pieces were small, carved animals he made during the 1970s. In the early 1980s, he did piece-work for the crafts-marketing program at Berea College, cutting and carving out basic animal forms for other craftsmen to finish. By the mid-1980s, he began making his own designs for animals, which he carved and painted.

Around 1990, Twyla began working with Lonnie and expanded their output by taking over most of the painting responsibilities in creating the whimsical and finely crafted, carved and painted animals for which they have become well-known.

The lovely rural setting of their farm has inspired a menagerie of animals, both wild and domesticated. Among their favorite subjects are possums, skunks, foxes eating chickens, pigs eating corn, cats, dogs with sticks in their mouths, turtles, roosters, and guinea hens. Some of the animals, like the foxes, possums and skunks, are fairly realistically painted with light strokes of paint over dark brown to suggest fur. The pigs, cats, dogs, and fowl, by contrast, are finished in a variety of color combinations and patterns, such as bull's eyes, star bursts, large and small polka dots, and small strokes of color.

The Moneys' work is represented in private collections throughout the United States. Their work was included in the 1994 traveling exhibition, Generations of Kentucky, An Exhibition of Folk Art with Photographs by Guy Mendes, organized by the Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation in Louisville. Their work is also in the permanent collection of the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art in Owensboro, Ky.