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<\/p>\nThe Latin expression tabula rasa pretty much describes Chris Parks\u2019 life so far: A series of blank pages that he filled in as he went along.<\/p>\n
He filled them with art.<\/p>\n
Parks, who uses the professional name Palehorse, is celebrating 20 years in St. Petersburg with an exhibition \u2013 his first solo show in a decade \u2013 at the Morean Arts Center. It opens Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
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Palehorse, \u201cCosmic Buddha\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the artist, the exhibit is idiosyncratic. It\u2019s a reflection of his personal journey, first as a freestyle graphic artist designing flyers for skateboard events, hardcore bands and Mexican wrestlers, to his gradual transition to adapting imagery from eastern philosophy and religion in bold, adventurous creations combining graphic design and paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my work,\u201d Parks, 47, explains, \u201cthere are archetypes from India, from Japan, from Egypt, western archetypes, animal spirits, stories from all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The choice of the show\u2019s title, Shapeshifter, was immediate and final. \u201cIn artist terms, it would be the creative muse that we all have and listen to. In spiritual terms, the guru, or the inner guide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life, it is said, is about the journey and not so much the destination. Born and raised in Venice, Florida, Chris Parks suffered from hip dysplasia as a child and underwent a series of painful surgeries.<\/p>\n
He spent a lot of time in a wheelchair, and on crutches, and missed some school. \u201cThat,\u201d he recalls, \u201cwas something that got me thinking, \u2018What am I going to do as a career?\u2019 Because I can\u2019t do manual labor. What could I do that would be interesting and wouldn\u2019t be just an office job? I wouldn\u2019t be able to function with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took an interest in digital art and graphic design (\u201cWindows 95 had just come out\u201d) and worked hard at it, discovering he had natural artistic talent.<\/p>\n
Once he was fully healed, Parks took up both surfing and skateboarding \u2013 he insists he didn\u2019t like to be told \u2018no\u2019 \u2013 and became immersed in the area\u2019s punk and metal scenes.<\/p>\n
Designing posters for his own band led to work on behalf of other musicians, and he was hired by a local independent label to design record sleeves.<\/p>\n
The first member of his family to attend college, he graduated from Ringling College of Art & Design with a degree in Graphic and Interactive Communications.<\/p>\n
Drawn by the fertile band scene, and the fact that his future wife, Michelle Tannu, lived in the city, he relocated to St. Pete in 2002. He opened his first design shop, Blackout Creations, in collaboration with a tattoo parlor (the name was changed to Pale Horse Graphic Design and Gallery in 2008). And he hired a New York agent, who got him commissions for corporate clients. His reputation grew. He designed for global brands including National Geographic, Nike, FX, Under Armour, Pepsi and Hasbro, and for big-time bands including Foo Fighters, Rush and Queens of the Stone Age.<\/p>\n
Still, something was missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first went to Thailand in 2004,\u201d Parks explains. \u201cThat was where it really began for me. Before that, I considered myself an atheist. It was really going to Thailand, and seeing the temples there, and seeing the artwork and the sculptures \u2026 I really had a chip on my shoulder about religion. I grew up going to church and all of that, and as I got into college I rejected it. A lot of things that were wrong with the world were associated with religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was particularly taken with figures from Buddhist teachings, and was drawn to the Hindu god Hanuman, a monkey-like deity. \u201cFor an atheist metalhead skateboarder, I thought that was cool.\u201d He began to read, and investigated the stories depicted in the art.<\/p>\n
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Palehorse, Tes One, \u201cState Lines.\u201d File photo.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Palehorse (the name originated with the Biblical story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) and fellow St. Pete artist Tes One, with assist from the Vitale Bros., painted a massive mural on the back of the State Theatre.<\/p>\n
State Lines was the first large-scale mural on a commercial city wall, and led to the creation of the SHINE Mural Festival in 2015. \u201cThe idea was art for the sake of art,\u201d remembers Tes One, whose real name is Leon Bedore. \u201cWe were very serious about that. It was not tourist murals and pelicans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedore and Parks remain tight. \u201cI\u2019ve had a front-row seat of watching him evolve, and grow as an artist and an illustrator,\u201d Bedore says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been incredible. He takes the art of his perspective spiritualty, all the things that make him this one-of-one figure in St. Pete, and brings that to his work. It\u2019s really unlike anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he grew as an artist, Parks also matured as a person. He read the works of Ram Dass, and discovered The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita As Remembered by Paramahansa Yogananda. That one was a life-changer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a religion that\u2019s singularly Hindu, Christian or Buddhist,\u201d he declares. \u201cI see all of those archetypes and those gods and goddesses, and stories in mythology, all as ideal worship. Not idol worship, ideal worship: I think of myself as a kid who loves stories. I get fascinated by characters in stories from religions and cultures all over the world. Folk heroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd within those are life lessons, in order to become the best version of yourself in this lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
He dabbled in the natural psychedelic psilocybin \u201cin a way to better myself. Not as a party drug, this was very intentional practice with it. It really helped me to break all my rules. Make me feel silly that I had all of these rules for who I am, what kind of music I like, what kind of things I like.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Palehorse, FloridaRAMA installation. File photo.<\/p>\n
And he began to practice meditation. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely part of who I am now. It\u2019s led to seeking within the art. I first got interested in meditation as a way to invite creativity, visions, ideas. To tune outside of myself in order to allow something bigger to come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started feeling really silly about thinking I knew the answers. How little I actually knew. And to open myself to way more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd after about five years, I decided it was something I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 2020, the year of the pandemic, that Parks stopped accepting commercial client work, and concentrated on creating art purely for expression\u2019s sake. He\u2019d done a solo mural for SHINE the year before, and he liked the unfettered experience, so he used the great Covid-caused slowdown to re-focus his artistic goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat year was so transformative for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI really kind of let go of who I was before that.\u201d After a lengthy period of study, he took up the practice of Preya Yoga.<\/p>\n
Today, he hosts a weekly meditation group on Wednesdays, and a Sunday Ananda Yoga session.<\/p>\n
Parks is keenly aware that the art he manifests \u2013 he sells paintings and prints \u2013 can be taken on different levels. He\u2019s not trying to sway anyone over to his particular way of thinking. Or being.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2018 I created the whole entrance for a heavy metal festival, all with Hindu gods,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cI had a hundred-and-eight foot Vishnu. And nobody even thought twice about it. Everybody just thought it was cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very intentional with that. I do want to make things that are approachable at all levels. And then there are rabbit holes and portals \u2013 if you want to go deeper into it, it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapeshifter: New and Select Works From Palehorse opens with a 5-8 p.m. reception Saturday, Oct. 10 at the Morean Arts Center, 719 Central Ave. Opening in conjunction is Practice Dying: A Skull & Bones Exhibit, featuring works by 30 artists including Palehorse, Tes One, Nicole Salgar, Miss Crit, BASK, Chad Mize, Johnny Vitale, Alex Heir, Andrea Pawlisz and others.<\/p>\n