Abstract Distraction
by Mike Parillo
About the Artist
Mike Parillo was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Mike started pursuing a life of endless possibilities at age seventeen. An extremely avid snowboarder, Parillo lived in a tent on the snow in the mountains of local Big Bear, California where he dedicated his life to the sport that would soon become one the most popular winter time activities in the world.
Parillo developed a passion for painting and visual art in 1994. This caused a shift away from the snowboard scene and in 1998 Mike migrated away from life in the snow and “getting paid to play on the mountains with plastic toys”. Following, Mike moved back to his native LA from his snowboard fantasyland of Jackson, Wyoming to live with a group of friends and artists with similar motivations and plans: to dedicate their everyday to creating and self-education. Parillo has no formal art training and is self-educated in painting technique. The path he has taken is one of trial by fire.
Mike spent 1998 – 2008 accomplishing his goals while living between LA and Europe (Prague, Czech Republic). His creative journey was deeply infused with a myriad of new cultural, personal, and artistic experience as he went back and forth between continents.
After his last 2-year stint in Prague, Parillo came full circle and relocated to Jackson, Wyoming. He has found equilibrium there and combines the two worlds of his two major passions: an active outdoor existence and a full time creative pursuit of his artistic dreams. Mike now productively lives, plays, and paints with balance in the great state of Wyoming.
An icon in the snowboard universe, the legendary Mike Parillo is respected as one of the leading artistic visionaries of the action sports industry. Mike has contributed substantial inspiration and essential work to major companies like Volcom and Lib Technologies for two decades. His personal artistic endeavor conveys a soul-searching journey through reality and beyond. Parillo accesses extraordinary depth; his work maps the common as well as less traveled intricacies of our existence. Using symbols and visions from personal and universal human experience, he captures an essence of introspective awareness and sets a stage for true-life adventure. Total Fantasy / Absolute Reality.
