The Catch Trap
©1992 Craig Ashby
2′ x 2′
Mixed Media

Where were you in ’92? Oh Zombi and later M.I.A. No, really, where were you?

I myself was painting this portrait of Thomas Malic back in ’92. A portrait that makes so many references it’s hard for me to remember them all.

The initial idea was to equate relationships with games. Hence the Monopoly board layout.

Transfers of cigarette packs we both used to smoke. Tiny inside jokes. Jean Genet and Zeus gay porn and flowers. Shoes I coveted. Anything I could think of that would capture the things I felt then. Matt Wagner’s Etrigan being the kitchen sink.

It works. It sums up that time so perfectly. Simultaneously it shares so much in common with my current work. You can see foreshadowing of the PR-RAW and the most recent Jerome Isaac pieces.

The quote from Marion Zimmer Bradley also holds up after all these years. I will have to see if The Catch Trap, from which it comes, holds up as well. I should order it from my current online shopping addiction Abe Books.

I should say here that this is one of a pair. The pair consisting of the two most influential people I met at college. The other one is of Wendy Piper and is hysterically called How Soon Is Now? That will come with a long story of finding a missing friend.