“…humans cannot create it.  They can only refine or convert it.

       and they are bound to it by one of the paradoxes of religion:

they cannot have it except by losing it; they cannot use it except

       by destroying it.”

Wendell berry, on energy as a natural resource.

••• 

            To be an Appalachian is to be many things, and can be defined by one’s culture, traditions, religion, politics, or ancestry.  To be an Eastern Kentuckian, a more specific part of being Appalachian, is defined by geography.  Artist Sam McKinney has created for himself a life of quality in Eastern Kentucky, where he was raised, schooled and then self-established as a successful artist; not forgetting the impact the natural environment has on all aspects of life and artistic inspiration.  His body of work includes, among other things:  collaborative mural projects; realistic life size bronze sculptures, busts, and memorials; commissioned formal portraits in oil; personal, abstract and realistic watercolors; and progressive musical recorded compositions in traditional bluegrass.  Through all these art forms, conventional or experimental, is a consistent technical skill and work ethic, along with a touch reflecting that the artist is a unique, resourceful individual (a self-proclaimed Renaissance Hillbilly), more than simply a product of the times or place.