How Soon Is Now?
©1992 Craig Ashby
2′ x 2′
Mixed Media

Here I am at the sister to The Catch Trap. This one being a painting of Wendy Piper, the other most influential person from my college years.

It’s obviously not as complex as the Thomas Malic piece. A singular Amiga based image (which I will feature later on its own) set up as an odd table setting. Hugely influenced by The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. It was as though I was inserting a feminist icon from my personal history. After that everything is a muddy mess as to why I created what you see here.

So let me skip all that and the critique and tell the short story of Wendy Piper. Tiny snatches of who she was. She is and will always be the most iconic person I have ever met. A total weirdo. She would come to class in full Marilyn Monroe drag. She loved Kate Bush and Nina Hagen but was also cool enough to adore Coldcut. She was Magenta in the Memphis Rocky Horror.

Even after I left Memphis she and I would visit each other and write and phone. I spoke to her the day Heaven or Las Vegas was released. I remember that conversation so well. After that both of my parents died and life became extremely different for me.

This was all pre-internet. So finding people was extremely difficult. I never stopped thinking about her.

So years go by and I hear about her from a zine in Colorado. A few more years and I start to hear more news. Then Facebook happens and I find an old boyfriend of hers that hated me. So I wrote him.

He tells me she works in a tattoo parlor in Denver. I Google the number and call. Then a lot of wow. But like the new wow that happens which isn’t really wow but more woah.

I call and ask if she is in. The person on the phone says yes. Muffled conversation. She asks who is calling. I give my name and then Wendy says, “Oh, my first gay crush.”

It sounds charming in isolation but it immediately altered the playing field. I was an historical novelty. I sighed my way through it.

Just wanted to let her know that I had thought about her so much over the years. I tried to explain that I had lost touch due to the deathly implosion of my entire family. Wanted to show interest in her current life. Ask if she was doing anything. But it was like the years had hardened into armor for her.

She didn’t do the internet. She was “old fashioned.” No video games. Not a lot of art. She loathed that I lived in NYC. “Isn’t that where people go to die?” These are all vague quotes. But the gist of this interaction was this. Funny you called. Goodbye.

At the end, I didn’t even try to offer my phone number or address. It was just over and we both knew it. Easily one of the saddest moments of recent history. Funny how you can paint a picture of someone who values you far less than you value them.