Over the past few years, I’ve grown a deep appreciation for collage art. I’ve always enjoyed art whether it be through writing, film or photography. But I found the idea of taking parts of photos and words and other objects to create one larger piece fascinating. It is a type of art I have explored on a personal level. Not as a “serious” thing, but as a way to distract myself from the world around me. Some might call that self-care. I would.

Marcus Dawson, a collage artist from North Carolina, and I are alike in that way. He was drawn to collage art during the pandemic, putting together affirmational words and images to help him through a really difficult time. Once he started sharing his art, to his surprise, people were really drawn to it. And so for the past year, he has leaned into taking himself more seriously as an artist. He has also become more intentional about what he wants his art to do which, in his words is: “When people see it, I want them to feel it.”

Black Joy spoke in depth with Dawson about his collage art, his influences and his long-term goals as an artist.

Has growing up in North Carolina influenced your art?

Yes, North Carolina definitely shows up [in my art]. My family is from a place called Ash, North Carolina. So, there is a lot of land [and] corn. There are corn fields, especially during this time. And my mom and her brothers and sisters, they harvested tobacco during the summer. So, that’s sort of like in my blood, you know, farming, even though I didn’t necessarily do it. But it’s in my family and so it shows up in the work.

So, I read in an interview where you talked about the role of jazz in your work. Can you tell me more about that?

Yes, I’ve always been interested in jazz, jazz artists and jazz music. I would watch documentaries about different jazz artists. So, when I first started making these collage pieces of jazz musicians, [it was inspired] by these documentaries and movies. Majority of these [films] focused on the trauma of their lives and that was the story. . .and so for me, when I started making these jazz portraits, it was about honoring their music and their life and not just focusing on the trauma but showcasing the beauty of the music. Cause when I think about them, I think about the beautiful music and how it makes me feel.

How does joy show up in your work?

During the [pandemic] shutdown, it was really a time for me to reflect on a lot of things. It wasn’t a joyful time for me ‘cause it was just like your whole world changed and shifted. You’re at work one day and all of a sudden you get an email saying you gotta go home. And then once you get home, stay home. And it’s like, what does this mean? What is life now?

And so, when I started making art, I started seeing the colors that I was pulling were bright and vibrant. The images that I was drawn to, they were smiling. It wasn’t necessarily how I was feeling at the time, but that’s what feeling I wanted to evoke. When people look at the work for a brief moment, for a brief second, they see the bright colors, they see the smiling faces and they can transport to another place and feel [joy], and hopefully it lingers with them afterwards.

Name the artist who has influenced your work the most.

I would say Ivy Hayes. Ivy Hayes is one of my biggest inspirations. He was a North Carolina artist, a painter. And if you see Ivy Hayes’ work, his fingerprint is definitely in my work as far as the bright colors, the vivid imagery [and] the southern landscapes. He was so down to earth and so humble, but he was this master painter. So, that’s one of my biggest influences.

What are your long-term goals or dreams for your artistry?

Oh, so much. I wanna start teaching collage [art]. Collaging is one of those practices that’s accessible to everyone because when I first got started, I always loved art, but I wasn’t like a great painter. I wasn’t a drawer. So, I was like, how do I fit in this art world when I don’t do those things? But collage [art] is literally something that anyone can do. I mean, of course you have to have an eye for it. You have to have technique and all of those things. But I do wanna present it in a way where people, even if they aren’t going to pursue it as a career, can still do it for themselves like I [did] during the pandemic.

I also want to continue to do more exhibitions. I just had my first one. Just last week was the final date. My exhibition was more a broad variety of my work, but there are certain pieces that I want to make into just one show, like one concept. There’s so many other things—continue to do commissions, more album covers ‘cause music is a big part of what I do [and] I want to provide that for artists [by doing] album covers and different stuff like that.

Do you have any other final thoughts on being a collage artist or anything else we discussed today?

Collage art has been just such a beautiful experience [for me] because I didn’t really think that I fit into the art world. Cause I wasn’t a painter, I wasn’t a drawer. But when I started making collage [art], I found my voice. That was one of the biggest things, I felt like I found my voice and being able to make this art and put it out into the world and people really connect with it, it’s just something that has just been amazing to me.

There are discussions of whether collage art is fine art, but it is fine art because we are storytellers. We are bringing all of these elements from different places and transforming them. And that is something that I think is a beautiful thing because I always say, collage art is a lot like life. We aren’t just one paint brush stroke. We are a combination of so many different things and experiences. So that’s just like collage art. We’re pulling all of these elements and putting them together to make one masterpiece.