Dustin Parker's Monster Mania

This Monster Mania drawing is part of a series within the series that I call “Monster Buddies.” Several Monster Mania drawings feature two monsters. Sometimes a monster needs a buddy.

This Monster Mania drawing is my version of a human fly creature. The drawing is heavily inspired by the Brundlefly from David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” and Baxter Stockman from the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated series.  Drawing human-animal hybrids is really fun because you can experiment with the human to animal ratio, and get a wide range of results. Do you go heavy on the housefly like Sh*teater from “Minor Threats” or do you go heavy on the human like the Human Fly (Richard Deacon) from Marvel Comics. In this case, I wanted to land somewhere in the middle.  Big googly eyes are a trademark of the Monster Mania series, and I wanted my human fly creature to have compound eyes made up of multiple human eyeballs. I think a big ball of human eyeballs is a cool visual and a fun way to add a human element to the creature design. 

I live in Wichita, Kansas, and this Monster Mania drawing is my attempt at showing my Wichita pride. The Monster’s head is shaped like Kansas and its t-shirt proudly displays the Wichita Flag.  Around 2015, Wichita developed a cult-like obsession with the Wichita flag. This sudden burst of Wichita pride compelled Wichitans to put the flag on everything everywhere all at once. They painted dozens of murals. They got tattoos. They printed the Wichita flag on every coffee mug, t-shirt and tote bag they could find. They put the flag on bumper stickers and license plates and keychains. The Wichita flag became omnipresent.  The Wichita flag is watching me type this right now.   The Wichita flag was officially adopted on Flag Day, June 14, 1937, by Mayor T. Walker Weaver. The flag was designed by Wichita artist Cecil McAlister. ​According to McAlister, he drew inspiration from several sources including traditional symbols from Plains Tribes. McAlister’s design was selected ...

My Bride of Frankenstein is a mix of Cyndi Lauper, Pizzazz from “Jem,” Storm from the X-Men, and Trash from "The Return of the Living Dead.” I wanted her to be a plasma ball of ‘80s glam and attitude. She is super cool and extremely formidable. She could be a singer in a punk band, a professional wrestler or an intergalactic bounty hunter. 

In October 2016, Brad Ruder invited me to be the guest artist for a Print Session at Tilt Union. The Print Sessions were a series of screen printing classes where the students hand-screen-printed artwork created by the guest artist. For my print session, I created illustrations of the Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster.  My version of the Bride was heavily influenced by Tim Burton. My Bride is a mix of the Martian Girl, Sally Shock and Emily the Corpse Bride. The colors were inspired by Beetlejuice. I gave my Bride the traditional beehive hairstyle with the white lightning bolt streaks, but I also added a Tim Burton spiral to break up the black space. The hair takes up a third of the image, and I wanted to make that space a little more fun and interesting. I ended up repeating the spiral shapes throughout the drawing. I also made the hair really frazzled like an electrocuted cartoon character. I also added some lightning in the background. The treatment is similar to ...

Between June 2017 and September 2018, I created a series of 12 paintings called the “Crazy Face” series. I would draw or paint mouths, eyes, noses and ears on random scraps of paper and use those images to create mixed media collages of silly faces. The “Crazy Face” paintings were really fun to create.  This Monster Mania drawing is loosely inspired by the “Crazy Face” series.  In September 2018, I hosted my final solo exhibition at CityArts, titled “Mishmash,” which showcased a mix of abstract collage paintings, “Crazy Face” paintings and drawings from the Monster Mania series. I felt “Mishmash” was the perfect way to transition into the next phase of my creative journey.  In October 2018, I “retired” from painting and exhibiting to focus on the Monster Mania series. I had to quit painting cold turkey. I didn’t want to get distracted with side quests that would shift focus away from Monster Mania.  Dustin Parker | Mixed Media On Wood | Crazy Face #1 Dustin Parker | ...

When I’m drawing on my iPad, I can zoom in 3200%, and get lost in the quantum realm. When I’m working on a Monster Mania drawing, I can easily become obsessed with all of the tiny little details and forget to “see” the whole drawing.  With a painting, you can step back 10 or 20 feet and study the painting from a distance. From a distance you can see the painting fully. You ask yourself a dozen questions. Are all of those little details working together in harmony? Does the painting guide the eye the way you intended? Does the painting evoke the desired emotional response? After you finish asking all of the questions, you respond with more painting. You repeat this process over and over again until the painting reaches a conclusion.  When I’m coloring a new Monster Mania drawing, I will often display the drawing on my computer screen and I will stare at the drawing from the comfort of my bed. I’ve found this is the best way for me to achieve that distance, and see the drawing o...

This is my version of the evil teddy bear. It seems like murderous toys are always pretending to be ordinary happy-go-lucky toys. They hide among the Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Kids and Pound Puppies. I liked the idea of a monster that is pretending to be a toy. The monster is wearing the pelt of a teddy bear as a disguise. The teddy bear is bursting at the seams, revealing bits and pieces of the monster inside. I imagine this creature in hiding in a dark closet waiting for the perfect time to devour the children and pets.   

When I was a child I was obsessed with Dinosaurs.  I filled dozens of spiral notebooks with ballpoint pen drawings of my favorite dinosaurs. One of my favorite books was “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs” written by Dr. David Norman and illustrated by John Sibbick. I would copy Sibbick’s illustrations over and over and over again. That book never left my sight. I had a Fisher-Price PXL2000 video camera and I would make dinosaur documentaries with my plastic dinosaur toys. I used my mom’s red nail polish to paint battle wounds on my Dinosaur toys. Sometimes the Dinosaurs would fight my Gobots and Ninja Turtles. I was inspired by Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien’s stop motion animated dinosaur sequence from “The Animal World” documentary. I wanted to make my own dinosaur movies.  I also had 3 giant inflatable dinosaurs and I would battle with them using my incredible wrestling moves. I also had dozens of wooden dinosaur skeleton model puzzles. I ate Chef Boyardee's Di...