The Son 01
©1989 Craig Ashby
4.25″ x 8″
Pen and Ink

The Son by Rochelle Ratner

Every Sunday night
for as long as I could remember
mother would go off alone.

The Son was a strange experiment. Wendy Piper came to me with a poem she thought I could illustrate. At the time it held a special meaning for her, so I obliged.

These are the original pen and inks. Rather than the finished photocopies, which I think are less dynamic. You know I love showing my errors.

As for the poem by Rochelle Ratner, it is heavily laden with foreshadowing of my relationship with Wendy. All the creepy marriage imagery included

A cursory Google search shows that the author Rochelle Ratner has died. See the previous post Leftover for more on finding out about death via the Internet.

I should research her work more. But this will have to suffice for now. This is the beginning of this series. A piece I still adore even though it is too heavy handed with its odes to Mark Kostabi and The Exorcist.

This idea was then to be printed and made into a handmade book. Oh all the things I have never completed. Do they exist in some other dimension?