by G. Jack Urso
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| “Nightmares in the Year of the Monkey,” a photo collage by G. Jack Urso. |
The photo above
is a wall collage I began in 1989. The inspiration came to me working overnight
at the former Q-104 FM Classic Rock radio station in Albany, NY, which had a 1988 issue of a Time magazine lying about with a photo essay on the events
of 1968 titled, “Nightmares in the Year of the Monkey.” Generally, it is a
visual account of pop cultural images I experienced growing up in the
1960s and 1970s, plus a few other scattered images outside that era. It is both a biography and a peek inside my mind.
Releasing a flood of memories from growing up
in the 1960s and 1970s, I was inspired to create a collage. I frequently created
collages in college. Lacking any artistic talent, it was my only way to create visual
imagery.
This began an over three-decade effort as I dug through magazines and books and albums from the 1960s and 1970s
for images that triggered memories and passions that long lay buried deep inside. Art,
science, music, news, politics, Lee Harvey Oswald, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam
War, protests, Sci-Fi, TV, and film, it is a broad swath of the 1960s and
1970s, and much more. Like our memories, some images
are clear, some are fragmented, some are faded, and some have meanings lost to the
past.
I moved the collage
four times between addresses and now what is its likely final destination. Built
on a base of four pieces of poster board around a poster from the
1989 Batman movie, at this point, it
is probably too fragile to survive being moved or mounted on something more
permanent.
Many thanks to
my good friend Eric Jones for taking this picture for me and being so intent
on making it perfect. Thanks, brother!
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