and sold. The art curators on the island were skeptical at first that his themes would sell, so he was first relegated to the back of the shop. As the paintings proved the better sellers of the art in the gallery, they eventually took on a featured position, including replacing the previous styles of paintings in the gallery window. His works blend popular culture items like Hollywood monsters, anthropomorphized house pets, and other alien elements into Tiki environments based upon Hawaiian landscapes. Parker states that he is making alternative representations of Tikis, and not producing the real thing, in order to avoid misrepresenting traditional Hawaiian indigenous culture. His works are also exhibited and sold at galleries in Los Angeles, including collections sold in 2010, 2012, and 2014. In 2016, his collection was shown at the city's La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Parker's original paintings are sold at Hawaiian galleries, and are printed upon a range of souvenir merchandise sold on Hawaiian tourism locations and convenience stores. The items are developed through the company Tiki Shark Art Inc., which Parker co-founded with Abbas Hassan in 2010. In 2015, the company signed a licensing deal with McPhail Sports, a water sports and apparel company in New Zealand, to distribute Parker-themed merchandise to Australasia and Polynesia. In 2016, Parker released a new series of works focusing on aquatic or jungle animals, and applied as tribal tattoos upon dish towels. These towels were created as a part of a kitchen accessories line sold under the brand of chef Sam Choy. Hana Hou! Magazine wrote of Parker's work: "His Polynesian pop cartoonland paintings draw from kitsch, elevating it to art." References 1961 births Living people LGBT comics creators Gay artists American comics creators Gay male pornographic comics Artists from Omaha, Nebraska 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 20th-century American artists American cartoonists University of California, Los Angeles alumni Pseudonymous artists 21st-century LGBT people 20th-century American male artists