Creepy Crawly Creatures: The Disturbing Art of Dexter Parks

Parks posing in front of desk (Photo Credit: Dexter Parks)

If you walk through the art wing halls of MBHS, you might see a printed-out drawing of a grotesque monster, grinning hideously in a fleshy, oozing cave. If you see this work of art, as terrifying as it is, it’s very important not to panic, but to instead be the utmost appreciative, because you have been given the honor of witnessing a masterpiece made by the soon-to-be famous, fanatically talented Dexter Parks.

Parks is a senior at MBHS with a passion for the world of art, a passion he first realized he had around 3 years old. When he was in different art classes throughout elementary school, he noticed strings of compliments flowing his way, from friends, teachers, and parents that he internalized. 

“I got all that into my head,” said Parks, “and I started watching a lot of art videos on YouTube, like, time lapses. I just kind of learned by observing, and I just never stopped. And so that’s been going for, what, 14 years?” 

Parks is best known in MBHS art classrooms for his painting, drawings, and sketches of creepy creatures, which first came to be through Parks’ early love of dinosaurs. 

“I was really into dinosaurs as a kid, and I started mixing species together when I was really little. I’d have little rubber dinosaur toys and I’d take them to my mom, and I’d cut their heads and limbs off, and I’d ask her to sew them back together in different organizations so they’d make little mismatches.”

Over time, his dinosaur-centric art evolved into slightly more grotesque art works. Sophomore year, Parks shared he went through a “mental rough patch,” where his two most infamous works were born: “Bikeman,” a drawing depicting a half-man half-bike and “Meat Train,” a drawing depicting a train made of, you guessed it, meat.

“It’s like free dopamine to make something that everyone else at least reacted to. People either like it or they hate it, but meat critters, you know, there’s a guaranteed reaction.”

Though the average person who sees Parks’ art in all its grime can see a clear, distinct style, Parks says he often struggles to find just that, a personal art style. “Whenever I try to cartoon things, it always looks too anatomically inaccurate, and I have to go back to realism. But also, pure realism is too realistic, and it’s just boring. There’s a principle of design in the ‘Monster Hunter’ art,” said Parks, referring to the infamous style of the 2004 video game “Monster Hunter.” “They call it imaginative realism. Where they just try to design their everything with this element of it that could exist, but it really wouldn’t. It’s biologically feasible, but it’s still kind of ridiculous.”

In addition to the artistic inspiration of video games, Parks also gets his inspiration from animated television shows, specially referencing “Arcane,” known for its groundbreaking, NPR technique, combining 3D models with 2D textures, and his current watch, “Invincible,” known for its modern American comic book art and anime-influenced dynamism. “As a kid I was inspired by a lot of superhero stuff; as a kid it was Marvel – that was a big one. I was never much of a DC fan,” said Parks. 

Next to cartoons, Parks also gets inspired by his rather odd dreams, which he says are often too incomprehensible to turn into art, but when they aren’t, they are a fantastic source. In Park’s most recent art project, he depicted a scene from a dream of his, where a faceless monster lived in his bathroom.

In terms of professional artists, Parks looks up to a multitude of individuals. “Terrell Whitlatch, she’s really cool,” said Parks. “I have every single one of her books. She’s a creature artist for, I think, freelance, but she’s done a lot of work for “Star Wars” and, like, “Star Trek” and, like, “Beowulf” and all sorts of crazy stuff. She has, like, this really in-depth knowledge of animal anatomy.” 

This year at MBHS, all seniors had to do the infamous job shadow project, spending a whole work day with an individual of their choice. Parks reached out to Tana of Bond Fanti, an artist he knew of online.

“His work is cool; it’s like free-flowing. He talked a lot about not really having any expectations and just thinking about yourself or an experience that you’ve had and letting that influence your design unconsciously, which I’m not great at, to be honest, but I think I can try to be better at it.”

As the end of the year approaches, most seniors, Parks included, are thinking of college. Parks himself plans on going to art school or attending the UC Santa Cruz art program, getting a degree, and getting headpicked by the industry. “The generally unattainable but kind of best-case scenario though,” said Parks, “is like this summer I’ll reach out to a couple indie game developers on Reddit or something, and see if they need an artist. If it’s like a really small team, I’ll probably be the only artist, if I’m good enough, hopefully the designs will make it into the game, and then if the designers are good enough, then hopefully it’ll become popular, that’s what happened to Supergiant Games.”

“That’s the dream, I’m just immediately the art director, that’s skipping a lot of steps, and it’s quite nice.”