Like so many self-taught artists, Arliss Watford had engaged in creative activities most of his life but did not devote himself to artmaking until later years. Before World War II, Watford was a bricklayer and dry dock worker in Virginia. After the War he opened a used furniture and television-repair shop in eastern North Carolina. In the 1980s, he started to explore figurative carving on a larger scale, working mostly with red cedar wood but also on occasion with cypress knee wood. His sculptures are minimal, direct, and personal. Most are depictions of famous world figures, people from his community, and religious themes. But he also carved images drawn from his African American ancestry, such as the series of medicine men that evoke the Central African tradition of nkisi, ritual figures carved as spiritual vessels to address a particular problem on the part of the supplicant. Each of these figures wears a conical hat and is pierced over its entire surface with nails, tacks, buttons, beads, and other symbolic materials that direct these potent forces.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Totem Figure," exhibition label for Ooh, Shiny!. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.