To me, collage—putting different things together to make a new whole—is at the very center of creative practice today. While it has an over 100 year tradition in the visual arts, it is also central to film, video, and much of contemporary music (“sampling”). I’ve worked in collage for many years now, initially by actually cutting up images from magazines; today by scanning images into a computer. I find the possibilities to be nearly endless, and all manner of themes, issues, and message can be presented. To me, my best collages have a mysterious cryptic quality. The good ones seem like they have a message or metaphor. But that message is elusive, ambiguous, and inexplicable.
