Month: August 2021

Christopher Lopa, a.k.a., Scrappyboy, has been creating collages for over 40 years. His collages have been on album covers, printed in art books, and swapped with fellow artists from around the world. Visiting Scrappyboy’s studio is like entering his brain, which is a warm, wild, fun, dark, yet colorful place to be!

What brought you to create the art that you make?

In 1975, I created a 3×4’collage of Linda Blair based on her character in The Exorcist. I also used to create my own calendars and would write daily what I did and what punk shows I went to. I then started adding things to them like ticket stubs, pictures, all these scraps of my life. That was the beginning of my collaging. I couldn’t paint or draw and collage materials were readily available. You’re only as good as the materials you use. Your imagination should not have limitations, I used what I had around me – newspapers, magazines, markers, scissors.

Tell me about your art and your process?

I use an X-Acto knife and books that I pick up at flea markets and thrift shops. They are older, dated photography books, art books, children’s picture books and anything visually interesting. I look through the images in the books for a background and most always find the most outrageous exact opposite of whatever the background may be, or vice versa. If I find a pretty flower, I want to put it in a war theme. If I find a cool graveyard background, I’ll probably put two people dancing over it. I like extremes. I have visions, I see collages before they’re actually put together and things just fall into place. I don’t dawdle over a collage, I create them in like 10 or 15 minutes. Nothing sits for days. I put it down before I have a chance to obsess about it, then it’s done and too late for me to do anything about it.

Where do you work out of?

I have a studio (I call it his “Collage Cave”) in my basement in Neptune City. When my husband and I lived in a loft in the city, he being a photographer, created these giant black foam core backdrop “walls”. We then used them to create our bedroom in our loft. I didn’t want to look at the black walls, so and I naturally started to collage them. I tacked up band pictures, band posters, magazine ads, and all kinds of fun crap. They moved with me over the years and a couple decades and now are the walls of my art room. I add new photos and ephemera and move things around to keep them alive and interesting.

What do you listen to when you create?

Oh, my punk rock, of course! Some days it’s GBH, Anti-Nowhere League, Killing Joke. I also love 70’s disco, I love Donna Summer, I love Frank Sinatra, I love The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees. It depends on my mood.

As a collage artist myself, I have a collection of flea market finds as well. Being a book lover, I find that I can’t cut up books to use in collages, like defacing a beloved book is going to land me in “Library Hell”! How do you feel about that? Well, I used to feel that way too, but remember, I use old books that are one step away from a landfill. So, I’d rather give them some love and new life as art. When I find a new book, I get energized and excited flipping through it and “seeing” all the collages I can make from it. I feel it’s better than having the books sitting on a shelf for years until someone throws them away! (This point of view inspired me to use my books, thank you SB!)

You can find Scrappyboy’s collages on his website: scrappyboy.blogspot.com and
IG: scrappyboys_salon