Highly influenced by the photo-based portraiture of Andy Warhol, Ed Paschke created portraits modeled from images sourced from popular media and American subcultures. By the aid of an opaque projector—he was one of the first artists to paint using this technology—Paschke combined separate features culled from newspapers, tabloids, television, and pornographic magazines into single compositions. His early work was known for parodying celebrities and portraying marginal members of society; he later transitioned from recognizable subjects to anonymous, masked characters who appeared to be distorted by a malfunctioning television. In his final works, Paschke depicted well-known figures, like Elvis Presley, George Washington, Osama bin Laden, Mona Lisa, enlarging the scale to comment on the interaction of humanity and technology. Known as “Mr. Chicago,” Paschke was associated with the Chicago Imagistand spent the majority of life in the city.
