At her London, Kentucky, woodworking studio, collage artist Aleta Stone uses a belt sander to smooth out a piece of wood. This is where she created the 2025 Governor’s Awards in the Arts.
“It’s all people that are linked into the art world in some way that win the awards. And being selected by the Arts Council to create the awards was such an honor,” explained Stone.
The eight awards Stone made are one-of-a-kind collages. For the theme, she was tasked with reflecting the strength and resilience of the people of Kentucky who’ve been impacted by natural disasters such as floods and tornadoes in the state.
“I wanted to create something that would reflect not only their strength and their resilience but also that would show the darkness, the fear, and moving then toward the light to a new day and new beginnings and hope,” said Stone.
In her workshop, she has shelves of recycled wood she uses to fashion most of her collages.
But on this day, Stone drives me to the area of London that was hit hardest by a tornado on May 16th last year, where there was death and destruction. It’s here that she collected debris from the piles of items destroyed in the tornado. She used pieces of what she found to make parts of the awards.
Returning to the area of devastation is emotional for her. She points to numerous white crosses lined up near the road, honoring those who lost their lives.
Each one of the crosses has some sort of messages on them, whether it’s God bless you and your family. You will be so missed. Rest in peace. Some of the other ones, love and hugs for you, sis. I will miss you; see you in heaven,” said Stone.
A few weeks after the tornado, is when Stone was told she could collect pieces of the debris from the destruction. She points out some of the items used in the Governor’s Awards in the Arts collages.
”We found a guitar, so a couple of the pieces had a slice of the guitar put into them. I also had found chairback rails. I sliced those up and put them in some of the pieces. And then probably the saddest piece that I used was, I found a baseball to where the leather had been peeled back, and it was all scuffed up and scratched and dirty, and I brought it home and cleaned it up and I sliced up the leather and put that in some of the pieces to represent the children,” said Stone.
Back at her home, sitting on her screened-in porch overlooking a lake, Stone holds up her iPad with pictures of the awards. She says she was asked to create 8 awards. Each collage is unique and displayed in a 26-inch by 22-inch frame.
She described one of the collages.
“This has the baseball with the stitching, and then this particular one goes up to show the red. Red is the color of fear, and it was an extremely fearful night, but it is also the color of love. And there’s so much love in Kentucky. And this particular piece, I had a little heart, it was a wooden heart, and I broke it in half. And this one was called heartbroken,” said Stone.
Stone said the collages represent the strength and resilience of Kentuckians like Glenna and Fredi Angel. The sisters-in-law live next to each other in cabins on a farm in Laurel County. Their neighborhood was hit hard by last May’s tornado. Glenna’s 47- year-old-daughter Tiffany was killed. The collages Aleta Stone made as the Governor’s Awards in the Arts touched these women deeply. The idea that Stone used remnants of the Laurel County tornado is symbolic to them. Fredi says it’s one way to honor her niece and the others who were killed.
“It means that they’re not going to be forgotten. These people are gone but their spirits are in those pictures,” said Fredi.
For Glenna, who continues to grieve the loss of her daughter, the collages mean a lot.
Glenna.: “It’s heartfelt, and it’s forever. It’s something that is so special that it’s going to last into infinity," said Glenna.
Aleta Stone says she’s grateful her work is meaningful to survivors of natural disasters like last year’s tornado. She says she’ll continue telling the stories of Kentuckians through her art.
