Julia Postcard 1
©1987 Craig Ashby
4″ x 6″
Pen and Ink

Julia Postcard 1 features full frontal nudity. Scratchy washes of black and grey and very little realism. A riff on the paintings I did at Governor’s School.

My idea was this. I would create a series of postcards that I could then send to those friends I had met that summer. And I did.

I had them printed on colored card stock and mailed a ton of people. This was back in the days of photocopiers and snail mail. The ancient days of yore.

I never thought until just now how weird this might be. I just thought of this now, I am not kidding. Receiving a weird nude drawing in the mail when you are just seventeen or eighteen.

I wonder if it caused anyone hardship. I certainly hope not. That wasn’t my goal.

I was just reaching out. Trying to keep in contact with people who didn’t hate me. Vainly trying to regain my self esteem.

Sadly the connections eventually vanished. Even on Facebook I am only in contact with a handful of GSE alums. And those are just Facebook level connections.