About the artist:

Michael Paraskevas, a well known illustrator among magazine art directors, has had his work featured in such prestigious publications as Sports Illustrated, Time, Town & Country and Esquire and has earned numerous awards from industry professionals. Michael has exhibited at Giraffics Gallery in East Hampton (6 one-man shows) and recently showed at the prestigious Southampton Gallery owned by Peter Marcelle. Along with his mother Betty, he has published many children’s books over the past 12 years. Their work includes the much loved Tangerine Bear, which was produced as a Christmas Special for ABC in 2000. Other popular works by the pair include Junior Kroll, A Very Kroll Christmas, Shamlanders, The Ferocious Beast, Cecil Bunions, and Chocolate at the Four Seasons. The mother-and-son team’s most well-known project, called Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, was developed for Nick Jr. and is still running on Noggin. It won the prized Gemini Award for best animated show of 2001 in Canada. Currently Michael and Betty are writing, producing and starting an online puppet show called The Cheap Show. The team also writes and draws a comic strip, The Green Monkeys, for Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons. It can be seen at www.thegreenmonkeys.com. The two also run The Paraskevas Gallery during the summer and fall months in Westhampton Beach, which sells all of Michael’s illustrations and autographed books. It is open in the evenings and by appointment. Paraskevas was educated at School of Visual Arts in New York where he also received his Master’s Degree in Visual Journalism.