Connie Jenkins and her award-winning sculpture, “Keeping the Tradition.” NATIVE TIMES Photo BY LISA SNELL“Sometimes, they are for someone in particular. I know the significance. Sometimes, I don’t. But I do know that each piece I do will mean something special to someone, and that is the person it was meant for,” Cherokee artist Connie Jenkins said.
Jenkins has been a professional artist for 21 years. Her work has been featured in three books and a documentary. She has claimed many awards for her acrylic paintings during the years, but she also enjoys sculpting with clay, stone or wood.
During her career, she has done eight clay sculptures. Her eighth sculpture, “Keeping the Tradition,” is perhaps the most personal piece she has ever created. It is definitely the most decorated. Earlier this month at the Cherokee Art Market in Cherokee, N.C., her sculpture “Keeping the Tradition” won Best of Show from all divisions, Best of Division and the Judges’ Choice Award from each of the four judges. Jenkins’ eighth sculpture came home with eight ribbons.
On the way to the competition, she said she prayed.
“Lord, I’d really love to win that Best of Show,” she said. “And I realized, there were at least 100 more saying that same prayer.”
She was up against not only other sculptors, but also art from many genres in the Best of Show category.
“You had to win your division. Out of those winners, they chose Best of Show. The Judges’ Choice Awards also came from the division winners,” she said.
“Keeping the Tradition” swept the categories.
“It was a very humbling feeling. The competition was so outstanding,” Jenkins said.
The sculpture is of a grandmother in Cherokee dress. Barely peeking out from under a fold in her shawl is the face of the baby being carried on the woman’s back.
“I was looking at her, and I realized, she was me, a grandma caring for her child,” she said.  “Everyone is responsible for raising a child.”
That realization made the sculpture’s recognition even more meaningful.
“I had tears in my eyes. I wanted to cry,” she said.
Jenkins is raising two of her grandchildren – Gracie, 3, and Bub, 1.
“They are a gift. Kids have been important to me all my life. It all stems from babies,” she said. “That last little hug and kiss before you go to bed at night… it makes everything OK.”
It’s a challenge sometimes, she said, but the children go with her everywhere. They are with her while she works and travel with her to art shows and markets. Gracie even “helps” her paint.
“I had forgot to put up the little gate in the doorway,” Jenkins said. “Gracie put her mark all over this huge painting of Sequoyah (the creator of the Cherokee syllabary) I was working on for the Cherokee casino. She had painted all over it,” she said laughingly.
Since it was acrylic, she said it was just a matter of cleaning it up and touching up a few places. At first, she thought, “oh no!” but she laughed. Gracie had even painted “way up high.”
Bub found his way into Jenkins’ work in a less exasperating way. The little boy is featured in her painting “Wren and the Cricket,” an acrylic of a baby bathing in a clay pot. His thick mop of hair is tousled and water is dripping from the rag he’s holding over the pot’s side. A wren is watching the water drip. Or is he commiserating with a cricket nearly hidden in the shadows? The boy means trouble for them both!
Jenkins said while mothers and children inspire her, the Lord keeps her.
“I have a little prayer I keep on the refrigerator. ‘Lord, it is in your hands,’ it says. Sometimes, life is hard. That little prayer reminds me to leave it to the Lord,” she said.
And pray she does. And not just before an art show.
“I’m thankful, too,” she said.