Johnston, Rhode (WPRI) — Eric Palmieri is a professional pizza artist.
Palmieri uses the crust as a canvas, D. He spends his days at Palmieri’s bakery creating stunning art from all kinds of toppings.
“I understand it and I’m getting it right,” he laughed. “I’m not a trained artist.”
He told 12News that when he decided to start making these unique pies five years ago, everyone thought he was crazy.
“They still do so to some extent as I keep pushing it,” Palmieri admitted. “But people appreciate it … it brings so many smiles to people’s faces.”
Palmieri has created many of his own masterpieces, but he also receives regular customer requests.
“Many people tell me it feels bad to cut into it,” he said. “But what I tell them, after all, is that this is food and is intended to be eaten. Like a birthday cake … it’s the same idea.”
Palmieri has created many pizzas with icons from various pop cultures, including Star Wars characters and superheroes. Customers are also looking for pizzas that depict pets, families, and even homes.
“I did all sorts of crazy things, and it’s all good,” Palmieri said. “It’s all positive.”
According to Palmieri, it usually takes 1 to 8 hours to complete a pizza, depending on the complexity of the request.
“A lot of things come out when you’re making it,” he explained.
Despite growing up in the family business, Palmieri said he didn’t want to be a bakery at first.
“I always wanted to be a veterinarian or a zookeeper,” Palmieri said. “These were my two dream jobs as a kid. I’ve always been a huge animal lover.”
He is now combining his love for animals with the knack for edible artwork by collecting money for a purpose close to his heart.
“I found it great to provide wildlife organizations with some of these projects, especially those I did on these big projects,” he said.
This year, Palmieri said he plans to create portraits of four giant animals from pizza. He then sells each of those pizza portraits and donates 10% of his proceeds to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
But there are pitfalls. Palmieri does not sell real pizzas and does not store them either.
Instead, he wraps the crust topped with sauce before placing the toppings. When the portrait is complete, he takes a picture of it.
Then he completely dismantles the pizza.
Palmieri said the photo is the final product and will be sold online as an NFT.
“It will be a digital collection,” he explained. “What you really buy is a unique digital collector that represents the brand or career of that particular artist.”
According to Palmieri, the reason for the wrap is to prevent food waste. Since the toppings are not included in the sauce, they can be used for other bakery products.
“Nothing is wasted,” Palmieri added.
Palmieri plans to sell the first portrait of a penguin in April.
After that, he will produce the largest pizza art piece ever.
“It will be eight pots. I call it a pizza mural,” he said. “I’m very excited about it … but you may have to grab a pillow and a blanket and sleep here, probably because it takes more than 12 hours.”
Palmieri said he was always challenging while the job was difficult.
“No one else is doing what I do with pizza,” he said. “I love pizza and I love my job. But sometimes it can be boring and monotonous to always make pepperoni pizza. This really hurt that creative itch I have, It just gives me something special to look forward to. “
Anyone who wants to check out some of Palmieri’s work or are considering buying an NFT can visit his website or follow him on Facebook. twitter And Instagram.
..
