Tim Lewis is known as one of the best self-taught stone carvers in the nation.  Working in sandstone, some of which is salvaged from chimneys of burned down houses, Lewis creates Biblical subjects, animals, and other figures.

After serving six years in the Army following high school, Lewis returned to the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky and built a house just down the road from his childhood home.  He held a number of jobs including operating heavy equipment at a strip mine, farming, logging for a sawmill, and driving trucks for a coal company.  When he was injured in a crash on a mountain road, Lewis took up carving walking sticks and then decided to try his hand at carving stone.

In October 2007, the Folk Art Society of America recognized Lewis with their Artist of the Year Award.  He is featured in a solo catalogued traveling museum exhibition originating at the Customs House Museum, Clarksville, TN July 10 through October 2008. The show will travel to Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH) November 14, 2008 through February 22, 2009, then to Mennello Museum of American Art (Orlando, FL) April 15-June 30, 2009, and Kentucky Folk Art Center, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY October 1 through December 30, 2009.

Works by Lewis are included in many private and museum collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum;  the Mennello Museum in Orlando, FL; the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, OH; and the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, KY.   He was commissioned to produce a permanent installation for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

Read the Spring 2008 Folk Art Messenger article about Tim Lewis.  "Time Made Real: The Carvings of Tim Lewis" by Ned Crouch

Watch brief videos of interviews with Tim Lewis produced by Kentucky Educational Television's "Mixed Media" program:
Online Video Available  Mixed Media / Episode #712 / Dec 28, 2004
Online Video Available  Mixed Media / Episode #820 / Apr 21, 2006

	Noah's Ark (1998) 32"l x 12"h x 8"d SOLD
	Moses and the Ten Commandments (1997) 23"h $4500
	Adam and Eve (1996) photos of side A / side B 17-3/4"h x 14"w x 4"d $2500
	Adam and Eve (1998) photos of side A / side B 13-1/2"h x 24-1/2"w x 5-1/2"d $3000
	Angel (1997) 18"h x 7"w x 11"d $2500

References:
Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art (Sellen and Johanson, 2000)
Outsider Art of the South (Kathy Moses, 1999)