Angel
©1991 Craig Ashby
3.875” x 3.875”
Collage

Angel is another piece from the nineties that doesn’t come from a series. Just a little noodling and playing with ideas. The only intent of these was fun.

The central figure is a vintage angel, once again from Thomas Malic. The background I want to say is a Lancôme ad. But where is the circumflex?

Everything else comes from industrial supply catalogs that I still own today. Notice the yellow danger sign in the bottom right. You can see these again in 11-Kate01. See how it all meshes together?

The most evident influence I see in this piece is Peter Saville’s cover for New Order’s Technique. In 1989 that album and artwork probably scarred me as much as 23 Envelope’s work for 4AD.

So I relegate the many colors of Mr. Saville’s work for the cover of Technique to the background elements. This leaves the central figure untouched. It wasn’t a time when I had access to computers so no gorgeous curve color alterations like the original inspiration.

I love the naiveté of these early pieces. I am just making things with no goal but to create something I find beautiful or interesting.

Posting everything gives me a chronology of work. Maybe it’s my attempt to show what I have done so as not to focus on what I haven’t done. Focus on the positive.