Brothers, Charley (1906-1991) and Noah (1912-1991) Kinney lived in Vanceburg, Kentucky their entire life.Noah married Hazel (1929 - present) in 1960. Charley never married. Neither made it past 3rd grade, and when they inherited the family farm they decided to give it up. They began seriously creating art in the 1970's. Animals were the favorite subject for both brothers, making chickens and foxes out of wood or clay, or frantic pantings of dogs chasing "coons" or a "cheater cat" that Noah had seen in a zoo (the one time he left Vanceburg)
Charley had an extremely active imagination, and vivid memories of past events. Dramatic portrayals of natural and supernatural forces are the subject of his narrative, highly emotional, colorful paintings. Dreams effected the art they produced. With each of Charley's paintings there is a sense of deeply strong emotions attached, as if the scene on the page had been playing in his mind for 50, or so, years.
Noah created a series of puppets and statues that were used when performing in the "Kinney Band". Using a pole and string they would make the puppets dance around. He made 3 life-sized statues of the women from the band (Rose Marie, Kathy Lee, and Ann Mary) playing guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, a "Matt" puppet playing a slide guitar of some sort, and a puppet of "Old Dan Tucker" which is an old traditional song dating back to the 1840's. Charlie played the fiddle and Noah played the guitar.
Wow.. this is amazing. A group of us went to see Mr Kinney play his fiddle with his footpedal puppet once in 1976 or so on this porch. It was so moving! I did a charcoal drawing of the moment back then and my dad framed it and it hung in his office until he retired. It reminded him of his father who played the fiddle in Western KY many years before.
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