John Ashbaugh

This book is about a vision quest,

that began in the early seventies,

and continues to this day.

After my city-bred American mind

was awakened to the cycles and phases of Luna

in the night skies over the sandy shoreline

of the Bay of Bengal in South India,

and after watching the dawn and the rising sun

emerge from the waters of the ocean

every morning for nigh on two years,

and after returning to urban America

to pick up where I had left off

in my academic journey,

only this time with a little twist

turning from International Economics

towards Cultural Anthropology,

I began my study of artistic and linguistic expressions

of cultures worldwide, past and present.

It was a short step to begin painting my own compositions.

Along the way, I was attracted to the design of the Aztec calendar stone,

and began to draw my own images from that construct.

I began incorporating symbolic images from other cultures

into an evolving series of black and white, pen and ink drawings.

I found the symbol of the intersecting rectangles

at the heart of the Aztec calendar stone

and thought, “How perfectly elegant.”

I went on with my drawings, selecting images from

the Egyptian, Tibetan, Celtic and Mycenaean civilizations.

I studied Archaeoastronomy and became particularly interested

in the alignment between Giza, Stonehenge, the Yucatan, and Easter Island – Rapa Nui, which I had seen illustrated in an exhibition at the Madison, Wisconsin Art Museum around this same time, the late seventies.

I published 400 copies of my first compilation of 33 drawings in 1978.

I continued drawing and published 400 copies of 57 drawings in 1980,

which included and built upon the original 33.

I was asked to explain in writing what all of these drawings are about.

I published 400 copies of a 52 page collection of poetry

under the same title as the book of drawings in 1981,

with the idea that they are companion volumes,

a visual poem and a linguistic poem.

I wrote some additional material and polished the original

and put that all together into an 88 page poetic presentation in 1983.

Later on, I came up with four additional drawings

of our planet in astro-archaeological perspective,

including the final pair which puts the alignment between

Giza, Stonehenge, the Yucatan and Rapa Nui

in relationship with our equator and ecliptic.

I put these 4 drawings together with 12 drawings selected from

my original collection, into a 16 page booklet in 1995.

I learned Photoshop in the later nineties

and scanned my drawings in and colored them up in 2000.

I published a polished version of the verse

and included the final two drawings

in a booklet of 40 pages in 2010.

I met Stewart Warren in early November, 2011,

and with his skill and insight as a publisher,

all of this material, drawings and verse,

is coming out as I have long wished it would.

.

I make no claim to astro-archaeological precision.

I’m an artist who paints and draws.

I have a twelve inch globe, some string,

a ruler, a compass, and some pencils and paper.

Here is a story from my spirit,

my mythological construct

in pictures drawn from my hand,

and verse written from my heart.

As for the title:

The time is the past,

the time is the future,

and the time is Now

for all of us to work together

in our mutual self-interest.