Todd Paropacic is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Erie, Pennsylvania who works in digital painting, music, and poetry. He focuses his energies on managing, writing lyrics, and singing for the classical pop trio, PianoPunk as well as his abstract portraiture practice. He is also a publshed poet and poet publisher (sometimes, rarely.) Through digital art, Todd explores dissociation, the unreal, and agoraphobia with his wildly exaggerated faces. He has exhibited his work at The 10/20 Collective, City Gallery, as well as fullfilled a sandbox residency at FEED Media Art Center in July and August of 2024. He has also published three collections of his own poetry as well as a collection of poet laureate emeritus of Erie County, Chuck Joy. With his band, PianoPunk, Todd has sang at events like 8 Great Tuesdays, Perry Square Concert Series, and Porchfest. They are currently working on recording their first album. Todd enjoys reading historical non-fiction, walking, listening to a wide variety of music, and creating any chance he gets.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
"What in the why? is the name of my portion of this show, and I suppose that this is a question, and perhaps there is no answer. Perhaps there is, and I'm incredulous as to what the question even means. It's difficult to answer a question that no one understands. What in the Why? refers to my art studio/practice/production/publication endeavors, What Why Aesthetics, a sort of catch all for what I do. What Why is a reference to an absurdist, ceramic sculpture that currently lives in the Erie Art Museum's permanent collection. And the show is an expression of this statement; "What? Why?"
If you're wondering where the inspiration for my portraiture comes from, you are not alone. Part of my process is automatic drawing, a surrealist technique that involves turning off your mind and will while you draw. All of my modelless abstract portraits start with automatic drawings, but as I discern facial features, I will focus more on checking all the usual boxes; nose, an ear, mouth with an extended lip, hair piece, check. I work off of two color pallettes, light and deep, that are gradients of the 3 primary colors, 3 secondary colors, and cyan. The colors are often chosen based on how I'm feeling or what I think would serve the portrait best, although colors don't elicit particularly strong emotions in me, so you could consider my color choices to be "automatic" as well.
Ultimately, I don't know why I make the style of portraits that I do. Part of me thinks that I'm calling back to the wilder times of my early twenties, or perhaps I just really like Picasso and enjoy exploring similar styles to his. The explanation that holds the most water, however, is that as an agoraphobe, someone who is afraid of crowds or unknown people in general, I have a lot of trouble looking at people directly or engaging with people that I have never met. Enter my portraiture practice. In a way, I feel like working on creating these faces really helps me, maybe not get over, but at least cope with these fears and unwanted feelings. Maybe I just have fun making goopy faces. I'll leave that for you to unpack."
Alex LONESAV Staley is also a multidisciplinary artist based out of Erie, Pennsylvania. Sav often works with film, video, music, 3d art, theater and the implementation of technology into his works. Sav has shown work at City Gallery, PACA, 10|20 Collective, and FEED Media Art Center. As a musician he plays in multiple bands and also has a solo piano act that he performs around the city. Sav has been in over 20 stage productions throughout his life, starting at the young age of three with the YMCA Kid's Club theater program, and continuing into adult-hood with theaters like PACA and The Erie Playhouse. Sav will tell you that its easier to name the things he DOESN'T do artistically because his life is wrapped up in a world of creation and showcase.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
"Showing work along-side Todd, I feel lucky to share an art space with another abstract, expressive artist. For the fall show at FEED, I have multiple abstract works that explore color, light and sound. I also am excited to be showing more contemporary works through the media-art lens with pieces such as "BIG BABY : CROWN OF JESUS", a piece depicting my character, 'BIG BABY', wearing a crown of thorns. This symbolization of religion, being displayed by projectors (a light source) is my way of connecting to and exploring the 'Enlighten' art movement that took place in the early 18th century where artists would use light, or gold representing light, to show either/both the grace of God, and/or; how through light, one can 'see more'."