My first and perhaps biggest influence as a collagist has been my stepfather, Charter Weeks. A photographer and intermittent collagist, Charter was the one who turned me onto Man Ray, Ray Johnson and Hannah Hoch. His own collages were also a huge influence on me--very much in the surrealist vein. (I'll share some of his works soon.) Sometime last year, he challenged me to create a collage with more visual, dynamic energy. Here was what I came up with, "Bird Brain."