05-Karen01

Karen Mulder

05-Karen01
©1992 Craig Ashby
Collage
3.75″ x 3.75″

Number five has me landing on Dutch supermodel Karen Mulder. It’s the only one of Karen Mulder in the entire series. I love all the women here, but not everyone holds Linda’s special place in my heart.

Until recently this was not a favorite. I didn’t like the distance from the central figure. It leads to the composition being less than dynamic. Maybe choosing a runway shot from (I think) the Claude Montana show was the initial failure.

Now fast forward to 2001 and we have Karen completely melting down on French television. The allegations she made were shocking (just google her). Followed by an extended stay in a psychiatric hospital and suicide attempt. Very grim moments indeed.

The precognitive synchronicities alone make this piece valuable to me. So let me add them up for you but also reiterate the date of these pieces as 1992. So we have Stonehenge, monarch butterfly wings, a clockwork face and finally a Claude Montana dress. Google Claude Montana for more intrigue.

You might wonder if I believe in the conspiracy to which Karen alludes. I am to fickle to believe in much of anything. But I am amazed that without any knowledge of those ideas, I nail it down visually a decade before it happens. Through pure intuition.

It’s that intuition that is more valuable than the piece or her story. It shows that I am connected to a series of ideas that I am finding in my present. Ideas that grow with meaning as I grow older.

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Laura

    9 Oct 2012

    I would like to see some of that scratchy surface interference on the faces of these too… seems they are too precious, avoiding time, decay, age.. maybe you meant that? xo

    1. Craig Ashby

      9 Oct 2012

      It was totally intentional. Through the eighteen pieces no faces are severely scratched. Although each has some kind of mistake due to my destructive fervor. It’s the least I can do seeing as I can’t actually stop time, age and decay for them or myself.

      But I must say I should work the destruction overall when I revisit this idea. It has to be more extreme and less precious.

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