TORONTO ARTIST MIKE PARSONS VISUAL BIOGRAPHY
HEY APATHY! A History with DrawingI have always been a Toronto Artist. My earliest memories of drawing stems from those fleeting childhood recollections under the care of my first babysitter Mark Hamil ( having grown up with Luke and Leia his name was certainly unforgettable). As well as teaching me how to walk like a ninja, and then detecting me when I made an attempt at the cookie jar using his technique, Mark also gave me my first instruction in the art of illustration. He showed me how to turn simplistic geometric shapes into hockey player and football stars. Goalies were the easiest predominantly composed of rectangular shapes. Shortly thereafter I began applying the techniques to likenesses of my favourite comic book characters. I received a copy of “HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY” the following Christmas and never looked back. By grade 4 I was doing commissioned cover art for my fellow student’s book reports at about a quarter per page and in grade 6 I was selling ink sketches of Tim Burton’s Batman for around 75 cents, the cost of a comic. I used the money for research spending endless hours copying and tracing the famous superheroes and drawing and writing my many of my own. At one point I recall planning 2 years worth of plot synopsis’ each catalogued with completed cover drawings. Sometimes I drew imaginary newspaper strips, even published photocopied periodicals. At other times drew short stories and on occasion even made attempts at animation. I suppose the reason I am sharing this information is to exemplify the fact that I have always been passionate (obsessive?) about pictures and stories.Upon completion of my Toronto middle school training I started to lose interest in the arts. Partially due to adolescent distractions but primarily a result of discouraging art instructors. The high school I attended had a modest art department but one tainted by suburban isolation. Both of my teachers had expressed to me an appreciation for my artistic attributes but both had also discouraged the vocation as probable career path.One of teacher’s factually stated that in all of his years as a professor only one of his students had gone on to success but only as a commercial designer, not as an “artist”. Alas disgruntled as teenagers often are I cursed the world a gave up drawing as another casualty of the modern age. Needless to say the years that followed where boring, empty, directionless, and psychologically depressive. With no interests, nor motivation I found myself absolutely devoid of any desire for a post secondary education. I was expelled from two separate Toronto high schools (one of which was an alternative school implemented to deal with youths of my particular predicament) and eventually found my self a year behind my classmates and enrolled at a local “refugee” high school. I define the institute as such because S---------L-------- High was the last stop on the Scaborough School circuit and welcomed the students who were scarcely accepted elsewhere. Neither attendance, intelligence, addictions nor criminal records would prevent one from acceptance at this less than cordial faculties. A simple glance at the front lawn during second period would reveal a landscape of broad daylight narcotics deals and various abuses (resulting in regular fist fights), a who’s who of infamous local legends all expelled from neighbouring colligates., and more than likely one or two members of the teaching staff drinking “coffee” by the roadside. It was here that I met a group of people who were working as illustrators and either already or planning to enter the Ontario College of Art . All of a sudden the possibility of a career drawing pictures didn’t seem entirely impossible. Here were a group of people, not more skilled than myself, who were entering and making money in the world of art. Shortly there after I started to fill up my sketch books, completed my grade 13, and set forth to develop a portfolio and apply to Toronto's O.C.A.(Now O.C.A.D.) I never looked back and have never felt empty, directionless, depressed or even bored. My entrance portfolio won a scholarship to the school and by my second year at O.C.A.D. I quit working part time and have sustained myself with ink ever since. I have drawn pictures and comics and murals, and cartoons. I’ve worked in the galleries, in magazines , and performed as a Toronto street artist . I have even created and published my own entire alternative comics universe. Sufficed to say this was simply meant to be.
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