Chris Parks, aka Palehorse, at Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s CLTV studio in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 24, 2026. Credit: Daniel Cura/Palm Tree Content / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay/CLTV
It’s hard to mistake the art of Chris Parks.
Known for his intricate linework and reverence for Asian and Latin iconography, the 47-year-old has always followed his bliss in creating illustrative sacred art that pulls the curtain back on his curiosity about ancient civilizations, cultures and scriptures like the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita.
“I tune into archetypes and gods and goddesses as examples of what’s possible for humans,” Parks, better known as Palehorse, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during a recent CLTV taping.
His 20-year career has certainly been a study in how to make it in the Tampa Bay art scene.
A graduate of Ringling College of Art & Design, Parks grew up skateboarding in Venice, Florida and playing in hardcore bands that would often travel to St. Pete to play venues like the old Joe Mocha’s and Refuge space.
Born with hip dysplasia, Parks also spent large parts of his childhood in wheelchairs or casts, and knew he couldn’t do the blue-collar work that kept food on his family’s table. In ninth grade he caught a presentation about commercial art, complete with a Photoshop demo. He’s been working on art ever since.
“I was thinking practically, like I need to have a job, something that I wouldn’t hate,” Parks explained.
It worked out, and Palehorse has kept a studio in St. Petersburg for the last 20 years. Parks is also a co-founder of the Shine Mural Festival (stylized “SHINE”). He’s been contracted by some of the world’s biggest companies (Nike, Vans, DC Comics), bands (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age), and publications (National Geographic, Wired). He often spent his earnings on personal projects like the full-on 2015 lucha-themed wrestling match and art show at Rialto Theatre.
“I wanted to really explore ideas that I had and present them in metaphorical ways through characters,” he said.
Many of the characters from Parks’ body of work will be on display for “Shapeshifter,” his first solo show in 10 years, opening this month at Morean Arts Center.
The road to the show actually started during and after the pandemic when Parks left his agent, and clients, knowing he couldn’t do that volume of commercial work for the next decade. He had started practicing Kriya Yoga, where someone meditates to master the energy in their body. He launched a podcast and sought more ways to connect with people through art.
“Shapeshifter” includes lenticulars, including one that will shift between the fierce Japanese Buddha Fudō Myōō and the peaceful Cosmic Buddha (those Buddhas appear on the two-sided cover of this issue). Parks’ lucha libre era will be represented along with the rock poster work, hand-sewn fabric in doorways, and gold-brushed aluminum, too. The illustrations that came out of Parks’ 2011 psychedelics phase will also be on the walls while Parks live paints a large scale mural on a gallery’s wall (he starts that work on Oct. 1 and will finish it while visitors are in the gallery).
Parks said the solo was the idea of his wife, fellow Shine co-founder Michelle Tannu, a curator who is working with Parks on a “Shapeshifter” companion show, “Practice Dying: A Skull & Bones Exhibit,” which opens on the same night and features more than 30 artists.
That show’s title is lifted from an old Parks piece he made while reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Many of Parks’ favorite national and homegrown artists—like Nicole Salgar and tattoo artist Jeff Srsic—will have work on display, which is not surprising for anyone who knows Parks.
“I always like to make it about us and about the people,” he told CL. “I didn’t get here on my own. I was inspired by so many people throughout this journey.”
And while “Shapeshifter” is very much a retrospective, the show is also an open door to whatever comes next for Parks who sees the show as the beginning of his career.
“We’re putting a point in the journey. I’m going through the doorway of commercial art, and leaving behind that kid that just wanted to get a job doing something that he wouldn’t hate,” he said. “I feel like this show has really been a way for me to really let go of that side of myself and really dive into becoming an artist in a real way.”
There will be apparel, attainable prints, and technology, but this next phase will also find Parks illustrating more than ever, working on paintings, and murals, too.
“My career now is shifting,” he told CL. “I have my style. I have my medium, and I’m now, really after doing the show, I’m able to trust that inspiration to come on demand, planting the seed, knowing it’ll come when I need it. It will show up. So this is the beginning of working in that way.”
The Oct. 1, 2026 cover and second page of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay showing Chris Parks, aka Palehorse, illustrations of the fierce Japanese Buddha Fudō Myōō (L) and the peaceful Cosmic Buddha. Credit: Illustrations by Chris Parks aka Palehorse
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This article appears in Oct. 01 – 07, 2026.
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