Hello! My name is Gianna Pergamo and this is my first blog post in conjunction with the Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Grant! I am so excited to receive this grant! Also I have been excited about blogging and now I have too many blog ideas, so I will do my best to sort through them.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Gianna, I’m from Brooklyn, NY, and grew up there and in Pinellas County, FL. Currently I live in downtown St Petersburg with my boyfriend Dan, our wonderful pups Sophie (pug mix, 10 years old) and Scout (rat terrier, 7? years old), and currently our foster dog Pepito (chihuahua, from Puerto Rico, 8 years old, please adopt him!).
I am an illustrator and designer, working mostly in mixed media (most often collage and acrylic on canvas). My work is running my company Pergamo Paper Goods, where I make vintage inspired, mixed media art for animal lovers. I turn my animal collages into items such as stickers, prints, magnets, ornaments, and cards.
I sell these mostly wholesale to stores – I sell in over 200 boutiques, museum shops, and book stores around the country. I also sell online retail and occasionally at local markets. This year Dan and I also started a second business called Toad Hill Farm where we make awesome antique-y looking magnets, ornaments, and jewelry with my laser cutter. Also!! My studio is located in Studios @ 5663 in Pinellas Park, where you can visit me during 4th Saturday Art Walk or by appointment.
Now that that’s out of the way… 🙂 It’s the beginning of January, which means I just went through a whirlwind – November and December was a ridiculously busy time for business, followed by a Christmas trip (which was relaxing and lovely) where we drove up to MA and back with the three dogs, then my birthday with various festivities including lots of alligators, and now it’s… real life? Trying to get back into working and now that it’s not crazy holiday time anymore, I have all these goals and ideas and actually time to do it!
One cool thing about the new year so far – I made (what I think is!) a really awesome piece for Please Stand By: A TV Show Exhibit, a show at MIZE Gallery this Friday January 10 in St Petersburg. I’m not going to say which show I picked because NO SPOILERS I want people to be able to guess if they want 🙂
Obviously it is a doctor show though! Here are some of the pieces in progress and then the final piece!!
I am really quite proud of it. It’s 12×18″ on wood (all of the pieces are done on the same material). All of the background medical images are from the classic text Gray’s Anatomy. Superficially, this piece has a similar look to my other work, but I went about it quite differently. Usually when I collage, I make photocopies of different animals, and I make photocopies of different people and clothes, etc, and I have all those pieces together to mix and matches and see what strikes me as interesting. I prep extensively, but ultimately leave it up to chance to see what is fun and striking. With this piece for the MIZE show, I had a very clear idea of what I was going to make, so I had to find the images around that. It’s not my favorite way to work honestly but it worked out well anyway, and was very enjoyable to make as well. I hope someone guesses the TV show!!
Hopefully I will see you at MIZE Gallery this Friday! Feel free to comment with any show guesses here and I will have a new blog post soon!
PS Feel free to follow me on instagram @pergamopapergoods and/or facebook at www.facebook.com/pergamopapergoods <3
