Place in Art History

John Russell Taylor, art critic for the London Times and contributor to The New York Times, says: “With Parkes we may be reminded, now of some Victorian, now of Botticelli, now of Tiepolo, now (though much more infrequently) of Goya. But all of these, though Parkes has undoubtedly observed them, have been absorbed into an entirely modern sensibility. If we were looking for a twentieth-century stalking horse, we might well look to Surrealists like Dali and Magritte.”

“There is one important distinction. In Surrealism, there is always a sense of stress and [the] blues beneath the smooth surface. Maybe there was a touch of that in Parkes at the beginning of his latest phase: the clowns and dwarfs could seem threatening, not all the animals had their claws safely sheathed. But Parkes always seemed to be hankering after calm and tranquility, and in his latest works he has achieved it.”

Personal History

Parkes could draw even before he could read and write. He was an only child, raised in small town Missouri. He attended art school where he met the woman, artist and musician to whom he remains married more than three decades later, Maria Sedoff. Parkes has been a serious and lifelong student of spirituality and esoterica. In the seventies, Michael and Maria set off on a spiritual journey where they found excellent teachers and a lifelong passion for India. Returning to Spain soon after their daughter’s birth, Michael and Maria worked together, beginning with humbly making and selling leather belts to tourists to achieving the international recognition that Parkes enjoys today. Parkes remains as much like your favorite neighbor as the sage weaver of myth and dreams whom we know through his art. Ultimately forming a publishing company -- Swan King Editions, LLC -- to independently represent his art work, Michael and Maria now live and work in Spain. Swan King Editions is now Parkes’ exclusive publisher and manager of his creative works. In 2008, Michael and Maria welcomed their first grandchild into the world, a joyous occasion that led to Parkes’ new painting, The Gift.

-- By Brooke Oliver, 2008