Potzarella is a mixed media collage of cannabis and related accessories arranged to portray a slice of pizza. The crust is made of rolling papers baked to perfection, dripping with potzarella cheese made from cannabis buds. Toppings include rolled cones as green peppers, herb grinders as pepperoni, filter tip pineapples, and hemp string red onions.
The Pot - Pizza connection.
In ancient cultures that embraced herbs and psychedelics they were often referred to as plant teachers and revered for medicinal properties or spiritual healing effects, creating the feeling of ‘oneness with all things’ as reported by many. These experiences are often life changing for many who encounter them, bringing new perspectives on life. Today we are more materially focused—we often celebrate (or demonize) the physical effects of ‘drugs’. One of the most noticeable effects on those who consume cannabis is what is known popularly as “ The Munchies”—an insatiable hunger that ensues shortly after intake and lasts anywhere from when the bag of chips is finished, till the fridge is empty. In our junk food culture of modern times the pizza reigns supreme as the food of choice for the stoner inflicted with a bad case of the munchies, so using it as a symbol to communicate the relationship between cannabis and food felt appropriate.
Creative Process
To invoke an aesthetic impact of ‘pizza’ on the viewer I recreated the gestalts of a pizza slice with cannabis and some related accessories. These underlying elements speak directly to the subconscious of the viewer bypassing analytic oversight. The most basic gestalt of pizza slice would be the shape of a triangle, then would come things like the colours yellow, orange, red, brown. Sounds would include sizzling ( steam clouds rising from the slice)—smells of cheddar and mozzarella , tomato sauce and baked dough—textures of mushy and melting cheese in places but hard and toasted crust in others—and the fact that your mouth is watering right now by just reading about it... is proof that it works.
The shapes and colours of the toppings trigger recognition on a deep level as well, nothing yells pizza more than a yellow triangle with some coloured shapes strewn across the surface. The crust is made up of RAW Rolling paper cylinder rolls, the smooth texture of the papers contrasts well against the chaos of the buds—reminiscent of the contrast between hard solid crust and soft slime cheese. Elongated green things (rolled joints) in this context means ‘green pepper’ to your brain , red circles (grinder tops) equates to pepperoni, stringy purple thing (hemp string)—must be an onion. There is an ongoing debate as to the sanity of putting pineapple on pizza but I’ve included them symbolically as rolled up filter tips anyway if that floats your boat.
Workflow/ Post Processing
Colours, smoke , and the liquified cheese effects were added in procreate 4 on the iPad Pro. Below is a condensed time lapse of the workflow in procreate from raw photo to end result.
Potzarella is featured on the Sticky-icky Sticker Sheet 1 available now on our online store.
Follow us on Instagram @PeacePipeBrand
By : Malcolm Nyiam Vendryes
IG: @nyiam_