
Jennifer Engelbart-Tatar
“All of my dragons have stories,” says Stephon Ashley, below, with pipe cleaner sculpture.
Stephon “Chill” Ashley is a 17-year-old senior at Madison West High School whose wild multimedia depictions of dragons have earned him a solo show in the school’s Colucci Gallery.
He also has earned celebrity status at West.
During a visit at the school with Ashley, a student with special needs who is known as “The Dragon Maker,” he is approached by students and staff, some for a quick fist-bump, others to talk for a bit about his work.
Ashley’s untitled show on the school’s second floor gallery, which will be up through the first week of April, is a coup; the school rarely holds single-artist exhibitions.
Walking into the well-lit room, the volume of works astounds. The gallery is filled with dragons of all shapes and sizes — on pedestals, framed as drawings on the wall, in sketchbooks, and even hanging from the ceiling. One series of dragons is crafted from pipe cleaners, many of which are hung on clear wire from ceiling tiles, lending the impression of flight.
“Pipe cleaner dragons are my favorite kind,” says Ashley. “They inspire me to think of other dragons.” Stretched out, these coiled, serpentine forms would extend more than six feet in length. Constructed by deftly weaving multiple colored strands of pipe cleaner together, each creature becomes a bright, multi-layered creation.

Ashley’s appetite for creation in this medium is ravenous, says Sue Moberly, the school’s metals and glass instructor. “Last semester alone — we ordered boxes of 1,000 pipe cleaners at a time — he went through 9,000 of them.”
Ashley’s latest passion is ceramics. He is currently enrolled in instructor Phil Lyons’ ceramics course and has been creating a new line of ceramic dragons. The sculptures — displayed on pedestals — have intricate features and are hand-painted in fresh, bright colors.
It’s hard for Lyons to pick a favorite, but he nominates Ashley’s “Dragon Box.”
“[It was] an assignment to make a slab box with a lid, and of course the dragon’s torso is the box,” says Lyons. “One thing about Stephon that makes me very proud is how he plans out his sculptures by drawing them in his sketchbook, and then his ability to transfer the ideas from 2-D to 3-D. He’s really found a groove with his creative process.”
Ashley’s pile of sketchbooks is also on display, brimming with one-of-a-kind dragons, and ink and marker drawings hanging on the walls give viewers a glimpse into Ashley’s active imagination.
“A lot of my dragons have stories; a lot of my dragons come from my dreams” says Ashley, recounting the particular inspiration behind a creature who escaped from a mad scientist.
Adorning the walls of West High to promote the show is a glossy picture of the senior — one he is especially proud of — eyes ahead, arms crossed in front of him, hand-crafted dragon perched neatly on his shoulder.