1512051098Steve Ashby19041980Although Steve Ashby created idle carvings throughout his life in Delaplane, Virginia, it was only following his retirement as a farmhand and the death of his wife that he devoted himself to sculpture. Starting in the early 1960s, he created two main bodies of work of mostly human and animal figures. One was concentrated on small pieces cut from plywood, painted with model-airplane paint, and adorned with cast-off objects such as broken toys, saw blades, and bottle caps; the other was focused on large sculptures made from tree trunks and branches. He installed many of the almost-life-size figures of people in his yard, several of them dressed in his late wife’s clothing. Born in 1904, Ashby was the second of twelve children in a family whose ancestors had been enslaved in this rural part of Virginia. A keen observer of his agrarian community, Ashby created sculptures—regularly including moving parts—that interpreted, with a dash of humor, its work and leisure. He adapted the American folk art tradition of wind-activated whirligigs for his portrayals of people milking cows, fishing, and doing laundry. Other kinetic works featuring women with hickory-nut breasts were bawdier, and even erotic; these he kept hidden inside his house. He also borrowed heavily from magazines and catalogs, often pasting faces cut from the pages onto the rough edges of the hand-sawn wood. His assemblages, which he called “fixing-ups,” drew the attention of collectors about a decade after he had started filling his yard and home with these crudely formed yet inventive works. Before his death, in 1980, he was featured in the 1973 exhibition <em>Six Naives</em> at the Akron Art Institute. Although his art was a vivid reflection of the daily life around him, he claimed to be most inspired by dreams: “I wake up with an idea that won’t let me get back to sleep. So I get up and make that idea.” Allison C. Meier, 2025 Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).SteveAshbyhttps://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/27300/fullThe son of an emancipated enslaved person, Steve Ashby grew up and settled in Delaplane, Virginia, in a former schoolhouse with his wife and adoptive son. A farm worker and gardener, he retired in 1950. Following the death of his wife in 1960, Ashby became fully committed to creation. His assemblages, which he called “fixing up,” were made from pieces of plywood and branches, to which he ingeniously attached found materials, such as logs, tools, hickory nuts, plastic toys, fabric, hair, and photographs (usually of faces) cut out of magazines. They all bespeak Ashby’s skill at conveying a range of complex expressions and simplifying convoluted ambiences. The intense vitality of his characters is rendered with outrageous humor, a direct approach, uncouth postures, and raw eroticism. His sculptures express a sophisticated sense of observation and reflect the unique experience of African American culture, summoning up the themes of domestic professions and working-class recreation with a critical eye. Over the years, large works came to occupy the front yard of his house—several of which are dressed in clothing and jewelry that had belonged to his wife. Valérie Rousseau, exhibition label for Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art: Revealing a Diverse and Rich Artistic Narrative. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2019.(1904–1980)DelaplaneDelaplaneWarrentonDelaplaneDelaplaneWarrentonDelaplaneDelaplaneWarrentonSteven AshbySteve Ashby