Farewell To A Good Man

Josh Carreon, graphic artist, webmaster and investigative reporter for The Ashland Free Press, manager of the AngelPort Internet Lounge, and a lover of Southern Oregon and all that it represents, died on February 16, 2007, victim of a car accident on I-5 near Dunsmuir, California. He was only thirty years old, and hitting a peak of artistic creativity. He left us all too soon. Josh was on his way back from a visit to the Bay Area, where he had been filming music and art performances for the AFP. It was early in the morning a couple of hours before dawn, when Josh's little Chevy Luv pickup was struck broadside by a much larger pickup. He died instantly, and had no pulse when medical personnel arrived immediately after the crash. A wake was held at his home in Ashland, with an extensive exhibition of his art, a wonderful spread of good food and drink, and dozens of wonderful friends of Josh to remember and celebrate his incredible spirit. Around an open fire, Josh was remembered as a “fuck you” rebel by many a young man, and as an incredible sweetheart by many a young woman. We read his poetry, marveled at his art, and swore that in this young man, there was something that all humanity could be proud of and remember as an achievement — he was a good man.


Self Portrait by Josh Carreon

Josh was an extraordinarily sensitive person, equally haunted and inspired by a sense of the depth and mystery of reality. This self-portrait, with its sharp angles both in the subject and the background, and the indefinable expression in the eyes, evokes his presence accurately. The world outside and inside are ambiguous. Is that a circle in the background a sun, or the base of a cartridge? Is that a man lurking in the shadows behind him? What is the ray of green light above him? Why do his ears seem pointed?


Print and Mixed Media Works

Josh created this type of mixed media work painstakingly, using photographs and scanned images to create templates that he would transfer to silkscreen and print, overlapping various images. Then he would apply paint to the print, using masking techniques he developed as a grafitti artist.


More to Come ...

The Ashland Free Press is currently preparing Josh's work for a publication project that will collect his art and poetry in a volume worthy of its quality. And I'll be adding to this page, and other websites will be featuring his work. Thanks for your attention, and remember, when you're having a good time — Josh would like that!

Yours truly,
Charles Carreon
Editor, AFP


Ana Carreon's Tribute Websites Remembering Josh

Ana has created a really beautiful website at JoshCarreon.com , with pages of his art, poetry, and the story of his life, seen through the eyes of a loving younger sister. She has also posted Josh's work at [url=http://joshlove.blogspot.com/]Joshlove , where friends can post comments and responses. There's a really nice slideshow of photos of Josh in a lot of different situations — beautiful!


Ashland Free Press TV Goes Live!

Josh was working on the video version of the AFP when he died, so the launch of this project is of particular importance to us here. Online is obviously where the intelligent people get their video, so it's back to the future of grainy images on flatscreens and tinny sound from computer speakers with you! Check out the noise at Ashland Free Press TV -- it's guaranteed to get you movin'!


Looking For You

April 13, 2007
By Maria Carreón

Take a seat here
Ice and vodka slide in glass across
A single, undivided
Slab of wood
One slice down the middle of a massive tree
Rested upon by unbridled troubles
Vexation and
Calamity
We could collect tears in buckets like rainwater
pouring down from a leak in the roof
A napkin from a stack and
A pen from a stranger's pocket
Help to work out the problem
There is a door, but
It can’t lock out the things I have seen

A sidewalk stretches
Down to rocky edges
Of eastern waters
Where my urgent call is
Swept to the other side
On a filthy wind
Boats glide
This island to
That island
Bridges suspend above the choppy waves
Turnpikes and
Expressways
Freeways and
Highways run between
Tollbooths with
Sweet or surly operators
Factories exhaust diabolical jet-streams
Of black smoke and flame
Industrial wastelands fester
A stone’s throw from
Glittering rivers
Hickory, hemlock and ash
Blanket Pennsylvania
Spindled charcoal trees
Like coarse black hair on the
Wintry back of Chicago
Are you out there with the
Motionless cows
Big sky?
Rolling hills and
Apathetic windmills
Hundreds of hotels and motels
Spilling over with
Seedy propositions and
Unconquerable self loathing
Faces of anguish
Faces of bliss
Dreams of mercury and steel
Wishes hinged on dandelion fluff
Various realities that morph with
Each gust of salt out of Utah
Every aggressive wind
From Brooklyn to Santa Monica
Exalts my declarations of grief
Where are you?
In the Colestine Valley
Dipping far below the California Interstate
Tucked beneath the dirt of our childhood
Among the wildflowers and star thistle

Whizzing over
Row after row of corn and wheat
Drifting past a thousand and one clouds
Crossing patches of ice
Tumbling in tunnels of dust
Living among the stars