Patrick Parker

     "To me, art is the gateway between reality and dreams. When I look at a piece of art, I am transported from my current state of being to the place or thing the artist has depicted. Sometimes, the way the paint strokes are applied, how it's composed, or which colors dominate the image, I feel warm, sad, excited, cold, angry, or happy. Great art will draw me into the world that the artist envisioned, envoke an emotion, and hold my attention long enough to form questions in my head about what is real and what is fantasy."

     Patrick was born and raised in Southern California in the beach community of Torrance. There he attended kindergarten through high school. His college years were spent at Loyola Marymount University in West Los Angeles, where he majored in Fine Art and Graphic Design, while also playing for the Men's Division I Soccer team.

     It was in these years that Patrick started to grow a passion for art. He has always had excellent hand-eye coordination with pen and paper, but had never really expanded his visual thinking. With the study of past artists and guidance from his teachers, Patrick became more creative in his process.

     Painting and drawing took a back seat out of college as Patrick tried his hand in the design world to try to make a living. After working one year as an Art Director at a boutique advertising agency in Santa Monica, Patrick and a couple of his close friends packed up and headed to the Caribbean for a year. In St. Thomas he spent most of his days relaxing in the sun, surfing, fishing, hiking, snorkeling, and, oh yeah, working a little bit on the beach at The Ritz-Carlton or pulling up the sails on a 65-foot catamaran.

     Upon returning home via sailing up the East Coast to New Jersey from St. Thomas, Patrick decided to move in with a college buddy in the small South Orange County beach community of San Clemente. Here is where his passion for art began to regain speed at a pace that has yet to let up. He is passionate about experimenting in many different mediums, leading way to many breakthroughs that pleased his eye and senses. Drawing upon the beauty he found while living in the Caribbean, his compositions usually revolve around the bright and bold cerulean ocean.

     Patrick has been involved in many art shows in places such as Las Vegas, Hawaii, New York, San Diego, and Newport Beach. He has been fortunate enough to have his work reproduced on skateboards by GLOBE International, and in publications such as LongBoard Magazine and MorSurf. He will also be featured in a book being released in late 2009 called Surf Story Project. Recently he has begun to broaden his medium by tackling large murals such as a 600+ sqft mural for the juice restaurant Lanikai Juice in Hawaii, a 2200 sqft mural for the luxury car showroom of EuroCar in Cosa Mesa, as well as in the guest bedroom of a client's home in Orange County.

     When not in the ocean playing in the waves on the North Shore of Oahu, you will find Patrick in the studio painting ideas that come to mind or bringing to canvas an idea that someone has commissioned.

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