The spry 69-year-old Adkins has received many awards for her art, which has been included in numerous museum exhibitions and collected by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby. She was recognized for her lifetime achievement at a folk art exhibition in Louisville that was organized by Phyllis George, the former first lady of Kentucky. George, a folk-art collector herself, has been instrumental in bringing national recognition to Kentucky folk artists. But as Adkins herself will tell you, “My art is not about the recognition; caring about people is where it’s at.” One of her greatest legacies has been encouraging younger artists to keep the folk-art tradition alive. Her cousin, the esteemed stone sculptor Tim Lewis, who lives just up the road from Adkins, is one of many who have counted her among their inspirations.

Husband-and-wife team Ronald and Jessie Cooper of Flemingsburg, retired grocers who are noted for their playful carved-and-painted figures and paintings on found objects, also are intent on passing the torch to the next generation. Their son, Tim, and his wife, Ruthie, also have produced folk art. The Coopers’ art, like that of another Kentucky folk painter, Hagan McGee, is inspired by their Christian faith and nostalgia for the past. But it also has been a healing force, having given Ronald hope and solace while he recovered from a near-fatal car accident that left him disabled for years.

The authenticity and generosity of spirit that I found among Kentucky’s folk artists were life-affirming, like warm breezes softening the soul-numbing noise and stress that often accompany living in New York City. As I headed home to Manhattan, I recalled some urgent lines in a poem by William Stafford: “For it is important that awake people be awake … the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.”