The BCC presents a new series of interviews with ground breaking collage artists from around the world, with your collage guide and founder of the Brooklyn Collage Collective, Morgan Jesse Lappin.

tuesday, september 8th: Interview with: kendra morris / @kendramorris

MJL: You're a phenomenal musician AND collage artists. What came first, collage, or music?

KENDRA MORRIS: Thank you! Definitely music came first. I've always been singing and writing songs since I was a kid and as soon as I graduated high school I knew that I wanted to be a performer however I was always drawing or painting or trying to make my own clothes growing up too. My dad is an illustrator and plays guitar/sings and my mom sings really well  so you could say I grew up in a pretty creative household... I think I started  dabbling with collage art .. about 11 years ago and then collage animation maybe 5 years ago. Wow.. I've dated myself! haha..

MJL: You're an amazingly talented musician, and you were able to combine collage and your music. This is something I've been doing throughout my life, and is rare to see. You took it a step forward and started making animated collages, which are some of the best I've ever seen. Tell me more about how it all fell into place?

KENDRA MORRIS:  I started collaging when I worked day shifts at this east village dive bar; The Library. They had all these old books on the walls and I'd be sitting around with maybe one customer for the first 5 hours of my shift trying to keep busy so I'd start cutting things out of the books to make use of all the dead time. I collaged on anything I could find; you name it. I'd sit though work shifts doing the art for all my show fliers and song releases so I wouldn't feel like I was wasting any time. It was fun because my one or two customers would get into collaging too while they had their lunchtime drinks with me. 

 When it comes to making music, I always go to a visual place in my head.  Often when I  get an idea for a melody it'll make me think about a specific color, a vibe or a set of imagery.  The merge of the two came about at a point when I wanted to put out a new song & video and didn't really have the budget for one so I figured i'd make my own. A friend teamed up with me on that first video and I'm glad because we were like drill partners. Stop-motion can be tedious and it kept us going when it could've been so easy to quit. I started building out a collage and letting one visual action lead into another scene and then somehow the music kind of would que me up for where things could go next. After that I realized how much I loved watching my images come to life so I continued making mini animations for bits of songs of mine and posting them. This kind of led to peers in music catching onto my collage animation and asking for videos of their own.

   With the Czarface, MF DOOM video for 'Bomb Thrown'; 7L and Esoteric reached out to me after seeing one of my mini animations. I was already singing on some of their tracks but they didn't know I did collage animation. One of them reached out inquiring on who did it and I just kinda took a shot in the dark and said "if you ever want one.. I could do it!". Next thing I knew I was 8 weeks into a massive stop motion project and trying a bunch of crazy new ideas. For the Bomb Thrown video I wanted to combine different elements with each verse in order to keep the visuals constantly moving so after some basic storyboarding, I did collage animation for the first verse, had my friend Josh who us an after effects wiz take on the 2nd verse and some post work and then i did animation with toys and built a sci fi set in my parents garage while I was there on a holiday. 

KENDRA MORRIS: With Skinshape it was another kismet moment where I discovered his music and reached out just to say how much I dug his stuff. I sent him some of my video and music work and left the door open to hopeful future collaboration. He shortly reached out and was interested in my collage stop motion work and could I do something for his song 'I Didn't Know'.

KENDRA MORRIS: With that video I went more of the way I did my first. I didn't storyboard which I find helpful with a lot of my bigger collage animation projects but I just kinda listened to the song over and over and started cutting materials that popped out at me while I was listening and dove right in. I was set on the idea of making a video where each scene led directly into the next, a constant current of imagery. My goal was for the animation to completely follow the music in it's rhythm and flow. It was a huge challenge in that I had to bury myself in the momentum of each animation in order nail each sequence. I missed a lot of sleep over the course of the 5 weeks it took to make it.

MJL: What are your top sources for your collage work?  

KENDRA MORRIS: My top sources are mainly old lifestyle and nature magazines from anywhere between mid 1960s to late 1980s, vintage nature books and any other random old picture books I can get my hands on. I especially love educational books from the 70's.

MJL: Hit us with your top ten bands/albums to collage to?

KENDRA MORRIS:

Beach Boys

Les Baxter

Ennio Morricone

Pink Floyd

Burt Bacharach

Dionne Warwick

Fleetwood Mac

Jackson 5

Dusty Springfield

Tommy James & The Shondells

MJL: When you first started collage, what other collage artists did you run into that remain you're favorites today? 

KENDRA MORRIS: To be honest.. I never started collaging and following many other peoples' work. I think maybe because of that I was able to build out my own style and work at my development at a steady pace. Social media can be a treacherous path for an artist's spirit. There's always someone else who we can compare ourselves to and then say 'Ahh they’re so much better or further along or have more 'followers'.. maybe I should just quit' . But we forget that art isn't meant to be about that! It's not a contest.. it's a language! 

Since you ask though, I guess I would say that Salvadore Dali would be the ultimate collage artist. Technically his medium was more paint but still, to me, his surrealism has always tapped into a place I can only keep working and hoping to find. 

MJL: Out of all your collage work, which piece is most important to you and why?

KENDRA MORRIS: The 50 individual collages I made for my EP Babble. I worked for a year on making 50 collages on each record cover and hid tiny portraits of myself in each. Each cover was on the bottom left corner of the record and was a tiny strange scene I built for myself to live in. Sometimes there was a lizard eating me or floods washing me away. It was a lot of fun and kind of bittersweet when I sold out of the originals. ( I don't even own one!)  I felt like it was a major way that my fans really got to understand me as an artist on all levels. 

MJL: How do you find the time to do all of this, and do it so damn well?

KENDRA MORRIS: I don't sleep. Haha no ..kind of just kidding.  I try to stay focused and if I get stuck on something.. I switch mediums. If I'm writing a song and get a block I work on a collage or draw for a bit. I don't really watch a lot of television or sit around much. In a weird way stop motion has really helped me to appreciate time. You just kind of disappear when you make it and next thing you know 8 hours have passed.  I like being in a constant state of creation.. I love art so much and it never feels like work when I'm completely immersed. 

MJL: Your work sends a positive message, and It’s powerful and inspiring. How do you see your work helping to change the world?

KENDRA MORRIS: Wow! Thank you! I guess I hope it just sends the message that art can be an outlet and an escape. I think a lot of people feel the weight of the world on their shoulders right now and so many don't realize that they have some form of creativity within themselves and it can be a buoy out of the mess. I think it's just about tapping into it and ignoring the buzz and the bullshit outside. The less time I spend on my phone and away from distractions and more time I'm making something, using my hands, my voice, my brain.. the better I feel. 

MJL: Tell us about some of the projects you’re currently working on.

KENDRA MORRIS: My video for my latest song This Life. I wanted to make an old Vegas style brochure come to life. This took a lot of planning, storyboarding and design. My head kind of felt like it was going to explode when I did this. Everything besides the found footage was done by hand with the animations. No after effects or fancy programs and just a green screen and Premiere for the editing stuff. I invested in a great printer a few years ago and that took my collage animation work to a new level and consistency with being able to resize or print multiple images at super high quality

A new record! Been writing and recording it the last year or so.. Finally wrapping up the songs and another new tune from it will drop this fall!

I worked for the last year or so on collage animation sequences for this documentary about the late improv guru Del Close called 'For Madmen Only'. He was a pretty wild guy.. trained most of the Second City and SNL greats and also wrote for the DC Comic Wasteland in the 80's. They had all these old taped interviews with him talking about his early start. I built out stop motion sequences to illustrate his interviews. That was a lot of fun and it actually pushed me to take my storyboards up a notch. Having intricate storyboards helped me brainstorm and find more materials as I went in prior to the actual animation process. The movie isn't out yet, it was set to premiere at SXSW this last year but Covid had other plans.. I think it might come out soon though!! 

Working on a pretty wild collage video right now for the hip hop group Sons Of Yusuf. 

Dead Phone Productions which is my buddy Julia Haltigans and my baby project. It started with us making these weird B Horror films on our phones with friends when we'd go out at night (which we still do when it makes sense)  but it's evolved into a production house where we do low budget videos or animation projects for other people. We like to keep things kind of wacky and always rough around the edges.

This Life is out now on Karma Chief Records - CLICK TO listen on spotify

saturday, MAY 9TH: INTERVIEW WITH: Nick Baccari / @Mr.Babies / mr.babies2

MJL: Let's start with the most obvious question. Why Mr.Babies!? 

MR.BABIES: Well, funny you should ask this question because apparently, when I shave, I look like a giant man baby. I recently shaved off all my facial hair and that had made me revisiting the days when I first started making collages.  those days are.....far far away. The moniker was given to me by my partner, who is still with me. 

MJL: Absolutely amazing, now we have to see you in full baby mode. Ok, with that out of the way... when and how did collage invite itself into your life?

MR.BABIES: The first known memory, like most of us, would be in grade school making mood boards or collages to represent what we "liked" way back before Facebook, or instagram, to introduce ourselves to our classmates for the new school year. I can remember doing that from a very young age for a couple of three years as an ice breaker. I got back into it more than ten years ago following a drastic shift in lifestyle. I moved from Texas, left a broken relationship and walked away from a toxic work environment to start over in Sedona, Arizona with not more than $200 in my account, 2 chihuahuas and a 1986 Ford Bronco. It was a suggestion from my present day partner Tom Leon, to go to the local recycling center to pick up some old magazines and such to make collages with. I had nothing else going on at the time and decided to go to the center one day while he was working to gather up some materials to make something for him when he got off of work. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a large stash of national geographic magazines and I went to town. Sitting down and making those first few collages were very freeing and therapeutic. They still are, but on a different level. 

MJL: With you, collage is life.. you have a great following on instagram. What was collage life like before Instagram appeared? 

MR.BABIES: This picks up I guess right where we left off with the last question. Life, before instagram,  was very organic and I was much more keen to risk taking before posting works to the general public. This is something I need to work on, but back then I didn't feel a certain time restraint when making a new piece. I could sit with a piece overnight and ponder a few changes here and there. I still find myself doing that to a certain degree nowadays, but now it seems people demand more and more at an ever increasing speed. I would certainly love to revisit those days before instagram, but I am thankful everyday for the platform for what it has provided me.

MJL: It must be amazing to be such a positive influence to the collage community and beyond. What's the most rewarding part of your collage quest?

MR.BABIES: I could list a million things here, but I can't so...a few things. First, and foremost, would be the barrage of messages daily I get from people telling me that my work makes them feel a certain sense of calm and peace in this chaotic and crazy world. That somehow my arranged clippings and instill an inner  peace within someone humbles me and makes all the late nights and craned necks worth the work. I can't thank these individuals enough because I have been those people and it brings me extreme pleasure that I can be a beacon of light for those dark times. I am a natural healer and this is my work to heal. Lastly would be creating particular pieces that do hit harder and make me feel proud that I made them. 

MJL: What is your number 1 magazine/book of source material. 

MR.BABIES: I love Omni and Heavy Metal Magazine hands down. Those are my top two. Finding those two together at a used book store is a wet dream for sure. I love old children's books too. Love the heavily saturated works of Holling Clancy Holling. I also really love to use amateur photography books from the 60's, 70's and 80's. 

MJL: Hit us with your top ten bands/albums to collage to? 

MR.BABIES: Would love to go way in depth here, but on a time crunch, so will list my favorite artists: Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Acid Bath, Rose Ringed, Baby Alpaca, The Chemical Brothers, Cocteau Twins, The Crystal Method, Frank Ocean, Gang Signs, GoldLink, Interpol, James Blake, Jessy Lanza, King Krule, Yaeji just to name a few. 

MJL: Have any big collage plans in the near future? 

MR.BABIES: No immediate plans, since I do focus on what is happening right now, but hopefully I can continue to make work that connects with people and I can create art for myself that can continue to heal the dark shadows of my psyche and soul. 

MONDAY, MAY 4th: Interview with: KIKE CONGRAINS / @CANSON_CITY / @COLLAGE WAVE

MJL: I had the honor of meeting you at the International Collage Summit in 2018 in New Orleans. I realized immediately that our souls have known each other in previous lifetimes. It was one of the greatest experiences in my life and have always been blown away with globally adored, CollageWave. Give me a little info on the moment the idea to create collage entered your mind?

KC: I was 30 and worked for 10 years as a copywriter for different advertising agencies, but I didn’t  like the office life, couldn’t adapt to it. So, decided to go freelance and had so much time in my hands that I started to experiment with different things like stencil and stop-motion. When I did my first collage, I knew I had something on my hands, so I started to do more and more and the rest followed.

MJL: I know you’re a great writer as well, and you’ve done some amazing work combining images and story telling. Can you tell us a bit about your process?

KC: Thanks mate! I’m trying to build a fun mythology around Canson City, an imaginary town where I’m the Sheriff. The storytelling process begins after the collage is finished. I don’t do collage thinking of the story, its more like an improvisation exercise in writing, I try to do the story as quickly as possible. I’m in the process of putting together the Canson City book with all the stories, and with some luck will be published this year.

MJL: I'm a huge fan of your work, you range from bright lovable works to dark and on controversial pieces. Have you ever had to deal with negative criticism because of those works? 

KC: Yes, quite a lot actually. Peru is a very religious country so I’ve grown surrounded by Christian imagery. I play around with the idea that nothing is sacred because I believe that religion is detrimental to the advance of the human race. The Catholic Church is an evil organization.

MJL: Has your approach to creating collage change over time, and if it did, how? 

KC: Yeah, if you do something for a long time, you’re gonna get good at it. I’ve doing collage or almost 10 years now and my technique has gone through many phases, I used to like precision cuts and intricate work now I’m more about the plasticity of the piece, I’m using my hands, and other tools besides blades. I’m always experimenting.

MJL: Which of your works is your favorite, and why?

KC: Has to be my dear Felacurx. This was one of my first collages with an anti-religious sentiment. It’s such a fun image that I decided to use it as my business card. Every time I hand one of those eyebrows are raised and I love it. 

MJL: You do amazing work with your community in Peru and abroad. Can you tell us a little about that, and if you're currently doing anything online considering the current global lock down due to Corona.


KC: I miss giving workshops for kids. Lima is a very big city and I usually give workshops in poverty-stricken areas in the outer limits in the city. Due to coronavirus I’m staying home like everyone. I had the chance to give an online workshop for 40 people last week and it was a fun experience. I felt like a webcam girl.

MJL: What are your tool’s of choice, your favorite source of material, and your human measurements? Are you single? Wanna cuddle?

KC: Scissor, xacto knife, cutter and glue. But since I can’t buy any blades due to lockdown, I’m starting to grow my nails to rip paper apart. I’m a rusty human scissor now. I’m 1.86 cm. that’s 6’1 in your obsolete imperial system. For you I’m always single baby.

MJL: I know you're obsessed with music like me, can you talk about how music ties into the work you make and rock us with your top 10 Band/Album's to rock to when making collage.

KC: Yeah, music is always present when I work, and I love any project related to music. Specially designing album covers which I have done a few. Here’s some records from the top of my mind:

The Cramps – Songs The Lord Taught Us
Slowdive – Souvlaki
Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious
Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today
Mr. Bungle – California
Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä
The Gun Club – Miami
Television – Marquee Moon
T.Rex - Electric Warrior
The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle

MJL: Got any interesting future plans for CollageWave, and any inspiring words for beginner collage artists?

KC: CollageWave is growing like crazy man!! It’s one of the biggest pages of collage in IG right now and I couldn’t be happier. Collage is a very wide medium and I try to showcase the whole range of styles that exist. CollageWave is also an annual exhibit here in Lima, but I would love to do it in other countries.

MJL: Last but not least, what other collage artists inspire you?

KC: I get more inspired by movies, books and music than other collage artists. The curatorial work for CollageWave has led me to discover so many amazing collage artists that it would be unfair to name just a few.

The BCC presents a new series of interviews with ground breaking collage artists from around the world, with your collage guide and founder of the Brooklyn Collage Collective, Morgan Jesse Lappin.

 Monday - SEPTEMBER 24th // Interview with JAY RIGGIO

MJL: In 2013 I started the Brooklyn Collage Collective, and was privileged to have you as part of the original line up. Now I'm going to squeeze the juice out of your finger tips... where are you originally from, and how did collage become a part of your life? 

JAY RIGGIO: I’m originally from Long Island, New York. I was always making things growing up. Taking photos, drawing, and writing but I didn’t really know that what I was doing was making art. In my teens I started painting a bit, cutting up pamphlets and photos and making mixed media pieces. I still didn’t really know that it was art. All I knew was that it felt good to do. Ever since, I’ve been making things... and cutting and gluing paper has somehow stuck around in some form or another.

MJL: Who is your daddy, and what does he do?

JAY RIGGIO: I’m not sure if I believe in god, but if I did, I’d say he’s doing a pretty piss-poor job at keeping this thing he created from imploding.

MJL: Me and you have a good amount in common, and thats a big reason I enjoyed working with you. We spoke a lot about our work experience, and how me and you shared the same anxieties of dealing with a 9 - 5 job. Can you tell us about when you hit the point of no return, followed your heart, and took on collage as true profession.

JAY RIGGIO: I worked all kinds of full-time jobs for 15 years. I was never happy. I was miserable actually. I’d go to work, come home exhausted and try to make art. Most times I was too burnt out to do anything else but sleep. With the help of some encouragement from loved ones, I experienced a gradual shift in consciousness. I’m not good at half-assing things. I started to wonder why I had been half-assing the only thing in life that I truly love. It seems so simple in retrospect, but for years I felt terrified at the thought of not having a steady paycheck. It took some time, but now working a 9-5er is the last thing I’d ever consider.

MJL: Hit me with your favorite sources of collage material.

JAY RIGGIO: I like it all. Books and magazines in the sale bins and yard sale finds. If it’s cheap or free, I’ll take it home.

MJL: I also had the privilege to meet Rosie, your magical little lady pup. She found her way into a lot of your works, tell us about your little princess.

JAY RIGGIO: Rosie’s the best. She’s 12 now. Butters is 8. And last year we rescued a little one that we named Lonnie. For a while I was holding cut outs in front of Rosie and Butters, mostly to make my girlfriend and I laugh. It was silly and fun. Once Buzzfeed wrote an article about it, I knew it was time to stop doing it.

MJL: Can you tell us what pulled you out of New York City?

JAY RIGGIO: I grew up in New York and I will always call it my home. But I found that my relationship to the city changed with age. My girlfriend and I love to stay at home and we were paying all this money in rent to spend all our time in a shitty, cramped railroad apartment. We wanted more space, less noise and a change of scenery. My girlfriend found a job out in LA and now we live in the suburbs of Burbank. I love it here. I have plenty of space to make the work I want, a yard for our dogs and we can stay inside for days without hearing our neighbors blast drum and bass at 4am. It’s the best.

MJL: When you left NY, I saw you transition into a new form of collage. You went larger scale, incorporated wood and resin, can you tell us why this happened? Maybe give us an idea of your protocol?

JAY RIGGIO: I’ve always wanted to work bigger. And I became interested in resin a few years back. My friend and amazing artist, Evan Schwartz, who does amazing mixed media resin pieces, took me under his wing and showed me some basics while I was in NY. In my small apartment in Ridgewood, I didn’t have space to pour resin or cut wood. I was mimicking the thickness of wood by layering and glueing hundreds of pieces of paper, cutting each piece one at a time. After 350 pieces of paper, the piece would be about an inch thick. Then I’d go to Evan’s building basement and pour resin over it. The process was fun but it wasn’t practical. I started to get carpal tunnel in my hand from repeatedly cutting and I didn’t want to bother my friend every time I wanted to pour resin. I abandoned the process until we moved out here. I’ve spent the past 2 plus years working exclusively with resin and wood. It’s been a super humbling experience. It’s all been trial and error with tons of errors along the way. At the moment I’ve been working at a much larger scale. Everything I make now is a woodcut with paper and paint and ink that’s encased in layers of resin. Some are more Assemblage style than others. Some are more like sculptures. But each piece utilizes the casting of shadows that are created by the previous layers of resin.

MJL: Hit me with your top ten band/albums you listen to when making collage.

JAY RIGGIO:

Magnolia Electric Co. “Josephine”

Silver Jews “American Water”

Simon Joyner “Beautiful Losers”

Spiritualized “Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space”

Songs: Ohia “Magnolia Electric Co”

Magnolia Electric Co “Sojourner”

Black Heart Procession “3”

Coma Cinema “Posthumous Release”

The Baptist Generals “No Silver/No Gold”

The Brian Jonestown Massacre “Take It From The Man”

MJL: When you first started collage, what other collage artists did you run into that remain your favorites today?

JAY RIGGIO: For years I didn’t know that anyone was making any collage art on a serious level aside from Winston Smith. There’s some great artists I’ve met that are doing unique work. Not to grope your nuts too hard, Morgan, but I’ve always loved your take on collage. I adore Elise Margolis and the elegant shapes and subtleties in her work. The Human Wreckage makes some of the most mind bending analog work I’ve ever seen. Daniel Lint makes some rad work. Sebastian Wahl’s work with resin is forever inspiring. Sara Best is doing the most impressive work with paper I’ve ever seen. She takes 3 dimension to the next level.

MJL: What was your biggest collage disappointment?

JAY RIGGO: I think disappointment is a part of creating. My vision and the finished product never fully align. So in a way, I’m constantly disappointed. But that’s part of the beauty of creating, I think. It’s sort of a blind journey of highs and lows, all the way until you decide to walk away from whatever it is you’re making.

MJL: What was your most proud moment, as a collage artists.. your biggest collage accomplishment.

JAY RIGGIO: I’ve been fortunate to have some cool projects. Having my art on the cover of Brooklyn Magazine felt pretty good. I grew up living and breathing skateboarding, so as an artist I’ve also always wanted to make skateboard graphics. I’ve been doing graphics for Lovesick Skateboards these last couple years and that’s been a dream come true. Showing work in galleries alongside some of the people I’ve looked up to always feels special. I’ve worked super hard for my upcoming solo show, that opens at Black Diamond Gallery in Brooklyn on October 11. The show hasn’t happened yet, but I’m excited to have a solo exhibition and excited to show the newest work I’ve been obsessing over for the past 6 months.

MJL: Out of all your work, which is your favorite collage piece.

JAY RIGGIO: Here’s the thing with me... While I’m working on a piece, I’m completely obsessed with it. If it’s a larger resin piece, I won’t be able to sleep for a month while I’m plotting out how I want it to be and how to overcome technical difficulties. I can’t wait to check on it in the morning to discover how the resin cured. Hypothetically, if you tried to damage the piece I’m currently working on or harm it in any way, I think I might try to kill you. But as soon as I a make the decision that the piece is finished, I lose all interest in it forever. I still care that it finds a new owner and that it came from me, but all of my immediate emotional attachment to it is gone. I don’t understand it, but it’s always been that way for me. With that said, my favorite piece is the one I’m working on now. But when it’s done, it won’t be.

MJL: Jay, whats your favorite quote… ever.

JAY RIGGIO: “I do not have time for things that have no soul.” - Charles Bukowski

 Monday - SEPTEMBER 9th // Interview with Jesse Treece

MJL: What led you to your first collage piece, and where were you in life at that time, why collage? Your work shows epic depth, allowing people to visually enter your work. What do the worlds and characters mean to you if they have any meaning at all.

Jesse Treece: When I made my first piece in 2009, I think I was feeling frustrated creatively and casting around for an outlet. I grew up drawing and started playing music and trying to write songs in high school but I never felt able to complete anything or really dive in though I knew I had talent. I honestly don't know why I chose collage specifically, it's more like it found me I guess and it seemed to fit like a glove once I finished my first piece. It wasn't a great collage but I knew that I had it in me to try and do better and I felt motivated like I hadn't felt before.

I've always been drawn to art (visual art, music, movies, etc.) that convey moodiness and atmosphere, it's just part of my makeup I think. Also around that time I was really discovering surrealism for the first time (specifically painters like Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Edgar Ende, Giorgi de Chirico) and I loved the sparse moody landscapes that felt right out of a dream and told a story, though it was one that was open to individual interpretation.

When I'm really feeling it it's like I'm not thinking at all. My hands find the right pieces on there own and when it's done it's an amazing feeling of "wow, I just made that!". It's hardly ever like that during the whole process though, it's usually a lot of flipping through pages and trial and error and waiting for that spark that's hard to describe but I know it when I feel it.

MJL: What is your favorite source of material and is there a clip that you fell in love with in the past?

Jesse Treece: I love the snake clipping from "Death on the Line" (below). It came from an advertisement in Architectural Record and it had a delicacy that I found really striking and tried to preserve while cutting it out. It's one of my favorites for sure.

MJL: Was there a movie that freaked you out as a kid and, did it influence your work in any way?

Jesse Treece: Dreamscape with Dennis Quaid, when the President is having nightmares about nuclear war and he gets surrounded by a group of dead and burned children. Yikes! I'm sure it did influence my work and looking back at some of the "dreamscapes" in that film I can see it pretty clearly.

MJL: What are your top ten bands to listen to when making collage?

Jesse Treece: Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), King Crimson, The Stranglers, New Model Army, Guided by Voices, Talk Talk, Wipers, The Moody Blues, Wyes Blood, Cocteau Twins

MJL: Which 5 collage artists have influenced you most?

Jesse Treece: This is always hard! There are a ton of new favorite artists right now and I don't want to leave anybody out but I'll list some of the ones that really struck me when I was starting out: Jeffrey Meyer aka Goofbutton (I almost want to give up when I look at his work!), Bryan Olson (the same with Bryan!), Beth Hoeckel, Ventral is Golden (a constant source of psychedelic inspiration), Richard Vergez (minimalist post-punk aesthetic).

MJL: Which one of your collage works do you enjoy most?

Jesse Treece: "The Circular Ruins" is one of my favorites (Below). It plays with a lot of my recurring themes and imagery: scale, perspective, architecture, atmosphere.

MJL: What has been your greatest accomplishment as a collage artist?

Jesse Treece: having some work published in the Age of Collage book a few years ago is still something I really get a kick out of. Also getting to work on album art by bands that I've been a fan of for years is pretty cool and surreal. I also made collage work for the following bands/albums. The Hazey Janes - Language of Faint Theory & Jet Black - L'Ère Du Vide.

Morgan’s Favorite Jesse Treece