Tolson, who carved many representations of Adam and Eve, claimed that "God made the first Adam and Eve and I made the second." This carving represents man and woman in their pure state: "And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.… And the rib, which the Lord god had taken from man, made he into a woman, and brought her unto the man.… And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." VISTA volunteers first documented Tolson's carvings while conducting a survey of Appalachian crafts workers in the mid-1960s. He has since become one of the area's most celebrated wood carvers.