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Narratives in Black: Petie Parker

Updated: Sep 1



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Greenwood, 2025

Petie Parker

Acrylic on Birch Wood

40 x 40 in



Painter

Representational

Atlanta, GA



Petie Parker (b. 1988 as Kareem Thompson) is a painter whose subjects range from childhood memories to reimagined historical scenes to meditative cloudscapes, and are depicted in various subtle gradients of the color black.


Parker began his creative journey as a web designer and artist manager before discovering his talent as a painter during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since then, he has built a name for himself within the Atlanta art community and beyond.  He has painted murals, sold work to prominent collectors, opened a gallery space, and plans to travel to Japan.  Parker uses a variety of skills in his practice: Photoshop to visualize new work before he paints, promotional videos that he carefully edits, and an uncanny knack for storytelling.  His journey has demonstrated his commitment to being an artist, his resilience in the face of challenges, and his ability to evolve.


"I love black on black.  I love matte black on glossy black.  I just like how it looks.  I’m fascinated with finding different values and tones.  I just figured out how to create rain."

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Petie's Story


In 2020, locked in due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kareem Thompson decided to try his hand at painting.  He was managing Peter’s Street Station, a hub for creatives in downtown Atlanta, and was organizing an artist exhibition.  His boss and mentor, Miya Bailey saw his painting and told him, “You should put your piece in the show too.”  In recent years, Thompson had become known as Petie Parker, a moniker he’d adopted while promoting Atlanta-based visual artists, donning a Spider-Man mask.  The piece was a portrait of an actress from The Hunger Games.


In promoting artists, Petie had seen the power of social media to reach new audiences.  He decided to promote his piece by creating a post and tagging the depicted actress.  The actress saw the post and forwarded it to her director.  He wanted the piece.  The problem was that due to the pandemic, shipping was complicated.  Petie decided to take delivery into his own hands, literally.  He drove over 2,000 miles to hand deliver the piece to his new collector.  Petie had closed his first sale and launched his career as an artist.


Petie Parker grew up in South Fulton County, Georgia in a household that instilled resilience and encouraged his creativity.  For birthdays and special occasions, his mother would often ask him to make gifts.  But Petie didn’t consider himself an artist growing up.  He gravitated more to sports, specifically football, which he ended up playing professionally for a time.  Even though he didn’t see himself as an artist, those around him did.  His teammates called him “artist.”  After he painted and realized that he had a gift for it, Petie asked his father if he was surprised.  “No,” he replied.  He reminded Petie that he had won a drawing contest for Fulton County schools when he was in the third grade.  He could always draw.  Petie had majored in computer science in college, but he was most drawn to photo and video editing tools, especially Photoshop.  For years, he worked as a web designer, designing and building websites for companies, but his mind would often wander to creative projects of his own.  So much so, that he found it hard to keep a job.  When Petie met Miya Bailey and plugged into the Atlanta creative community, a whole new path opened to him.


Miya Bailey, an artist and owner of City of Ink (a tattoo shop) and Peters Street Station, took Petie under his wing and put him in charge of managing Peters Street and a number of local artists who were affiliated with the station.  The experience was both liberating and challenging.  Petie worked mainly on commission from sales of the artists he managed.  Income was irregular, and an extended sales drought left Petie homeless.  But Petie didn’t despair.  Instead, he pulled on an inner resilience and drive to use that humbling experience to strengthen his resolve and guide his next move.  He had enough talent, skills, and life experience to start his own art practice.  The sale during COVID re-enforced that and gave him the confidence to go all-in.


Petie secured a residency with ARTFORCE, which gave him a place to live and space to create.  That led to commissions to paint murals throughout Atlanta.  He started to build a name for himself and place more works with prominent business executives and celebrities in Atlanta.  Then, his work caught the eye of Onaje Henderson of Zucot Gallery, and he was included in group shows at the gallery.  After a trip to New York City with his partner Keita Rose, the two were inspired to open a showroom that would promote his artwork and her furniture line.  They called it The Narrative Showroom, a nod to the storytelling element that is embedded in their work.  The opening of the Narrative Showroom coincided with the birth of Petie and Keita’s first child, Denim.  Petie and family are currently making plans to travel to Japan to further the reach of and creative inspiration for his practice.



Aesthetic


One of the defining characteristics of Parker’s work is his use of the color black.  It’s the background color of most of his pieces.  He often uses subtle variations of the color to paint scenes, whether it be using lighter or darker shades to create depth, or the use of matte or glossy finishes to create effects like clouds or rain.  The works have a feel that is both classic and contemporary.  His themes cover a broad range: childhood memories, historical figures, cartoons, biblical references, floating figures.  The works covey resilience, imagination, humor, play, and love.


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2X - Little Bear, 2024

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Ghetto Bird, 2025

Acrylic on canvas

60 x 72 in



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Lisa Monet, 2024

Crayon & Acrylic on Canvas

60 x 82 in



Process


Parker’s creative inspiration can come from unlikely places.  For example, one day he found himself transfixed by clouds.  This obsession lasted for a few weeks, inspired by the beauty, movement, and symbolism of clouds.  From those observations, clouds have become one of his signature features, serving as the base layer for many of his works.  Parker utilizes his Photoshop skills to visualize and plan out his works before he executes them, most of often with acrylic paint or wax crayons on canvas or wooden boards.  He documents the creative process by creating his own videos, which he posts to his Instagram page.


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