Meet artist Chase Parker at Grand Bohemian Gallery

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The next great artist may well be Tampa-based Chase Parker, whose works have been personally selected by entrepreneur Richard C. Kessler of The Kessler Collection for exhibition at Grand Bohemian Galleries, including the gallery at Casa Monica Resort & Spa in St. Augustine.

Kessler recently issued an open call to emerging artists nationwide, a search for The Next Original. More than 1,800 artists responded, submitting 5,000 pieces for consideration.

Parker is one of nine finalists selected to display his work. Throughout the year, the finalists will have their art featured in Times Square, as well as at the galleries.

Parker employs a variety of materials — both traditional and highly unconventional — to create his unique mixed-media works. Viewing Parker’s art, one encounters illustrations exploding from books, sculpted torsos comprised of butterflies and interactive illusions that can only truly be appreciated in person. There’s often a union of the two-dimensional with the three-dimensional.

His works are attention-grabbers.

When he first hung “Wonderland,” which is currently on display at a different Grand Bohemian Gallery, every single person entering the space made a beeline for it. The piece, which can be seen at grandbohemiangallery.com/artist/chase-parker, depicts the protagonist of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” running out of the book and toward a castle. Real pages swirl from the book to create a surface for the art, which grows in realism and color as it gets closer to the center.

“I love just capturing people’s attention,” said Parker. “Especially with the book pieces. People are drawn to them.”

Spectators are also strongly attracted to Parker’s transitional paintings, which depict one image when viewed from the left and quite a different one when viewed from the right.

Parker enjoys watching people who are seeing his transitional images for the first time.

“They always do a double-take,” he said. “They walk backwards and then forwards and then backwards again.”

At the Casa Monica gallery, art lovers will have an opportunity to check out several of Parker’s unique creations and even speak with Parker himself during an event this week.

The Grand Bohemian Gallery at 49 King St., St. Augustine, is planning a “Meet the Artist” event during the First Friday Art Walk, 5-9 p.m. March 3.