Naked Lunch: Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone

Artist Gigi Rippolne. Interview by Angela Cappetta

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.

Naked Lunch: Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone

Naked Lunch: Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone

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.

 

Gigi Rippolone's collage Workspace

Gigi Rippolone’s collage Workspace. Interview by NYC fine art photographer Angela Cappetta.

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.

Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone

Modern Collage by Gigi Rippolone.. Interview by Angela Cappetta.

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 5×5″ up to around 30×40″. I also once collaged a guitar. Nothing is sacred. I want to do furniture next.

 

Collage guitar detail by artist Gigi Rippolone. Interview by Angela Cappetta

Collage guitar and profile detail by artist Gigi Rippolone. Interview by NYC fine art Photographer Angela Cappetta. Photo provided by Collector.

Q: What type of collector buys your work?

A: Overall, mixed media abstract/contemporary collectors usually purchase my work.

gigirippolone_Print_of_collage.

Print of collage by Gigi Rippolone. Interview by Angela Cappetta

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.

 

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