Woodcut Drawing
©1987 Craig Ashby
8″ x 8″
Pencil

Woodcut Drawing was another almost happened. In a parallel dimension. Or not. Who knows anymore?

You can see the same fusing that happens in my current work. Even in high school. It really is unique and authentic to me.

All these repressed gay feelings from Governor’s School chopped up into little elements. This was bits of photos of a guy named Martin Farrell. I was crushing hard.

I never could tell him. I told people I was friends with but nobody else. The truly sad nature of growing up gay when I did. You couldn’t tell anyone because of that old innate fear of death thing.

Many years later I found him while driving on a back road from Durham to Chapel Hill. I was going to get my then boyfriend’s daughter. Another sad story for another time.

He was stopped on the side of the road with bike trouble. I pulled over to say hello. It wasn’t as harsh as much of the found again past I have experienced. But it wasn’t warm either.

Cordial and obligatory we reacquainted. It ended with a handshake and no way of staying in contact. Shaping and foreshadowing many of the historical meetings.