Ephemera
©1992 Craig Ashby
11” x 8.5”
Copy Art

Ephemera shows the past up of a long lost sketchbook. The original cover done in North Carolina long before my move to the big city.

The original was copy art on acetate with touches of gold leaf and acrylic paint. Affixed via tape to one of those black hardbound sketchbooks. It was lovely.

It had sketches of a piece I was planning of my mom. Tons of other sentimental tidbits and that great first image from the ITEK series. It was a great loss so let me tell that story now.

It was at the beginning of my time here in New York. Truly wild times where I had little money and was really unaware of what this city was. A naive era of pure sluttery.

So I agree to meet an old friend at The Hangar, a notorious Christopher Street gay bar. Just a normal night out of drinking and leather daddies and porn stars playing pool.

While waiting for the friend to show, an out of town daddy started chit chatting. Nothing serious just good conversation. Suddenly the urge to piss overwhelmed me and I asked the daddy to watch the bag. He said sure.

A fatal mistake. When I came back my sketchbook, buttery black leather rucksack, keys, several mementos of my mom’s and everything in that bag was gone.

I asked what happened and he said he wasn’t responsible for my things. Did you see who took it? He said they ran out. I could have slapped the bitch, but I too ran out hoping I could spot them.

No luck. Like so many other beloved things it was gone forever. This story isn’t done yet though.