Born in 1975, Arthur Thomas Ashcraft career as an artist at the
age of 28. A self-taught painter, he began to receive recognition in his local
community as an up and coming fine artist. Ashcraft would go on to be
awarded many ribbons and the people’s choice award for the Grundy County
Corn Fest Art Show for this painting “End of Innocence”, that is displayed in the State of Illinois Stratton Building. Ashcraft’s work has been featured in
newspapers and the book Illinois Courthouses an Illustrated Guide for his 349 sq. ft. floor to ceiling mural in the Clerks Office in the Grundy County Courthouse. In 2008, at the age of 32, Ashcraft suffered a brainstem stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side, unable walk, draw or paint. Ashcraft after much determination, learned to walk again. It would be almost two years after the stroke, before he would paint. Arthur Thomas Ashcraft has since recovered from the ordeal.