01-Linda01
©1992 Craig Ashby
Collage
3.75″ x 3.75″

Where were you in ’92? A question asked by Zomby and M.I.A. which I mentioned a post or so ago. I was creating this series among other things. This piece of my favorite supermodel of all time, Linda Evangelista, was the first.

These pieces were created shortly after the death of my mother. At that time I had been drawing pictures of her in the previously mentioned Ephemera sketchbook that was stolen. All these drawings were shrines with Catholic/angelic imagery.

Pair this with my “at the time” obsessive fashion magazine collecting and supermodel adoration and voila, an idea. I started these without thinking about it at all. There is a naive quality that is both charming and currently embarassing in a good way.

I post these regardless. They clearly show a personal aesthetic and mindset that is my own. I borrow heavily, as everyone does. But there is something here that you can see in everything I have done. It is uniquely me for better or worse.

I vividly remember going to lay Linda down on top of the other glued down pieces. The paper was really wet from gel medium and in a flash I damaged her black turtleneck with a giant white splotch of tear. And at that moment I thought back to Dolph’s daughter telling us that you can only cover or expose a mistake.

I waited for it to dry and sanded it lightly, tearing and damaging the piece selectively. Even before the NYC/African aesthetic settled into my bones, I destroyed them in the Post No Bills poster style.

The way the lower layers edges create shapes of damage in layers above them is perfect. It exposes exactly how I made them. Hiding nothing. Unveiling my process.