Micah's collages seem so perfect and well-planned. The kind you could look back at and decide you wouldn't change anything. I love that he mentioned taking graphic design before computers really took over. I think I would have loved it even more had I been studying it 20 years ago. I wonder if more people crave the "hands-on" part of design now, I wonder if more people are turning to collage. Just a thought!
Name (Real or Screename): Micah Brenner
URL (Blog, Website): www.mossyoar.com, flickr.com/photos/mossy_oar/
Location (Where are you from?): San Francisco, CA
Q: Describe your work in 10 words or less.
A: Geological, archaeological, illogical excavation and recombination of studio paper deposits.
Q: What do you like to work with (magazines, photographs,
vintage)? Be specific!
A: Painted and drawn upon papers, lined papers, photocopies, pages out of found books, magazines, packaging, postcards, envelopes, tape, fabric... I'm tempted by listings for garage sales that say things like "misc. paper", but I'm trying to use what I already have accumulated for the most part or stuff that finds its way into the house—mail, museum guides, schedules etc... I find that I'm not as interested in collecting images as I used to be, now it's more about patterns and colors. I'm drawn to "vintage" stuff just as much as I am to junk mail as I like combining elements from disparate origins.
Q: How long have you been creating collages and what made
you start?
A: First collage was when I was about 12 years old... I cut out about 50 different images of basketball players from late 70s/early 80s Sports Illustrated magazines. I can still remember the satisfaction of cutting out Michael Jordan and layering him on top of another photo. That is vivid to me. Of course that didn't continue for too long (being a basketball fan did though), but I have been making collages on and off for the last 10 years or so.
Q: Are you solely an artist, or do you work in another profession?
A: I work as a web developer.
Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: I studied design at the University of California, Davis in the early 90s. Photoshop... What's that? I have taken some art classes in San Francisco since then.
Q: Explain your favourite techniques.
A: Reconfiguring and combining elements from spontaneous cut and glue sessions. I like starting a piece with no preconceived notions, just digging in and pasting down a few elements that catch my eye. Occasionally these compositions will build into a finished piece, but more often they serve as source materials for merging with other similarly begun compositions. I like the challenge of growing pieces in this disjointed fashion where the future of one narrative is bisected/blindsided by the history of another. My collages tend to expose rather than obscure their process, and playing with the temporal possibilities of collage is part of my attraction to creating this way. Along those same lines, I'm interested in how handmade marks and painted areas can be combined with pasted paper.
Q: Describe your favourite piece ever created.
A: No favourites really... In each one there are aspects I really like as well as things to learn from.
Q: What other artists do you admire?
A: Arshile Gorky, Julius Bissier, Cy Twombly, Terry Winters, George Herms, Louis Pons, Joe Brainard... More recent ones include Simone Shubuck, Leslie Shows, Julie Heffernan, Henrik Dresher, Michael McMillen, Brad Brown, Julie Mehretu, Sarah Sze... Finding just as much inspiration though in works that I have only experienced through the computer screen (flickr and this great blog).
Thanks Micah!