Naked Lunch: Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone
3-D artist Gigi Rippolone is collaging her way through life. Her studio is replete with various projects in alternating states of completion.
Q: What is your preferred medium?
A: For me, I enjoy magazines, vintage of course, like National Geographic. So, I find a lot of these at thrift stores. Also on Ebay, I find 1950's issues of LIFE. I also enjoy my subscription to Juxtapoz. It's great. But mostly I only want to tear everything up [laughs]. Furthermore, I buy old books from the library in my neighborhood, off the dollar rack, that they are selling. As for wet materials, I enjoy acrylic paint, spray paint and a whole lotta glue. I prefer Golden acrylic gel medium. Occasionally, I'll use Modge Podge. 
Q: What are you trying to say with your work?
A: It mostly depends on the piece, However, I like to create an encapsulation of a world within a collage. For example: when I begin a piece, I cut up magazines from my library. As I do this, a story begins to form in my head. So, I'll have a pile of magazines, and I'll edit as I rip. It is quite cathartic. As I go, it becomes an intimate process. I may see a figure who catches my eye. Then, I kind of become them. I think it's from my acting background. I trained in character development. The character I am creating forms in my head and I follow it through collage.
Q: What is your substrate? In other words, what do you use to affix your collages upon?
A: Usually, I use canvas. Specifically, stretched and primed. I source these from Dick Blick or Jerry's. Approximately, my size ranges from about 5x5" up to around 30x40". I also once collaged a guitar. Nothing is sacred. I want to do furniture next. 
Q: What type of collector buys your work?
A: Overall, mixed media abstract/contemporary collectors usually purchase my work.
Q: Is your work happy or sad?
A: Because they're usually based on the stories playing in my head, there are often elements of both. For example and to enumerate: the first thing that's coming to mind, is, a musician I heard talking about her song writing process online, made me reflect more deeply into my own psyche. Whereupon, I shaped a collage around a guitar I had found. The guitar told the story of her songwriting. Yet, the collaging I applied represented the journey that got her to where she is now. Or to where her life had taken her. It is my take on a biography.
To buy Gigi's work, visit her page on Saatchi Art.
