Band-AIDS
©1991 Craig Ashby
3.875” x 3.875”
Collage

Band-AIDS is definitely from my time working at the CDC National AIDS Hotline. I know there have been numerous “good old day” eras in my life. I am thankful that I had any at all.

Let me wax nostalgic for a moment. It was a time of reading tons of comics. Lynda Barry and Daniel Clowes. Lots of sharing of ideas and an almost cult like group of friends that ate, drank and slept together. Wow, that has happened a bunch in my life.

Laura Farrow was as amazing then as she is today. Encouraging me to make art. Throwing art parties. Playing cadavre exquis when not taking calls. Maybe I should post those old drawings if I can find them.

Same red apocalyptic background as To Your Scattered Bodies Go. Then two triangles of the AIDS virus. Two Band-Aids and two alligator tails from those Lubriderm advertisements.

It’s obvious I am playing with more abstract arrangements. Less figurative focused work. All in all a much more sinister message. Even now I feel the subtle rage.

Around this time I had just read Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On. The Band-Aid is an obvious symbol of the government’s lack of action during the AIDS pandemic.

It is also a personal reflection of how I felt about the corporate homophobic work environment of that time. Another job with great coworkers but the company fell extremely short. Hey, that sounds recently familiar.