MAZE06
©2012 Craig Ashby
7.75” x 9.375”
Collage

MAZE06, sixth in the MAZE Series, is coming up faces. January Jones and Salma Hayek on top versus two unknown models to me on the bottom. This piece has grown on me tremendously over the past weeks. The more I look at any of these pieces the better they get.

The cut-up technique of Burroughs and Gysin is working well here. Four faces peaking through each other to alter the reality of the human face. I’m almost a t-square plastic surgeon here.

The mirror flips work well too. The red lipstick of number 3 that mirrors the frame of number 4. The impoverished children of number 2 winking through is a perfect fashion magazine cliché.

Once again my lucite viewfinder nails the images. All those years of photo-editing have given me strength to improve a picture by cropping. It’s a skill that comes in handy with a project that requires great crops before the cut is made. It also helps to lay them out on the cutting mat properly before the cutter/plotter does its job.

And now I must balance my critique of the cutter/plotter by saying that I am happy with my purchase. I know I have complained about it extensively, but I do love it. It fills my head with numerous ideas and that’s enough to outweigh the bad. Now the responsibility is mine to make the process better and easier.