cassie tomlin/arizona daily wildcat Studio art senior Ryan M. Parker poses with two CEO portraits in his exhibition "Smiles and Cupcakes," which is on display in the Kachina Lounge at the Student Union Memorial Center until Jan. 1. A reception for the show will be held tonight from 5 to 7 p.m.

'Smiles and Cupcakes' at this student's gallery

T o the naked eye, Ryan Michael Parker is just another student artist. But once you see his artwork, you'll realize he'll hold his own in the professional art world once he graduates from the UA next May.

Parker, a visual communications senior with a focus on illustration, really wants folks to come to his latest exhibit. He wants it so badly that he's turned himself into a walking billboard, wearing a mechanic's suit for weeks with a sticker nametag which reads, " HELLO, I'M: FROM THE COLLECTION AGENCY. NOW GET OFF MY COUCH."

Once you ask what his getup means, he'll shamelessly promote his exhibit, "Smiles and Cupcakes," which officially opens today in the Kachina Lounge/Gallery located on the third floor of the Student Union Memorial Center.

"I wanted something catchy and confusing to get people to come and see what it's about," Parker said.

Mission accomplished.

Even though his artwork speaks for itself and does not need to scream out for more attention than it certainly merits, just about each piece in the show is consistently labeled with a "HELLO MY NAME IS ..." nametag also.

The title of the show is based on Parker's interactions with many of the people with whom he engages in empty conversations.

"A cupcake is sweet, but it's empty," he said. "They're so sweet, but once I'm done eating them, I'm not satisfied."

For Parker, the "cupcakes" represent these dissatisfying conversations while the "smiles," can, well, represent a lot of things, such as the various masks people wear in various situations.

"Everyone puts on a façade before he or she goes out," Parker said. "I've been trying to reconstruct my own façade and understand why I put on a mask. In your professional and personal lives, you have to wear a different mask for each."

In the process of doing that, Parker decided to portray a bunch of uptight suits based on his own personal interpretations of how we generally stereotype them.

Many of Parker's "muses" include various CEOs he discovered while flipping through a friend's copy of Business Week, such as Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com.

In reality, Parker found these "real people" so boring that he didn't even take the time to find out their names. He just started sketching.

"I know some of their names," Parker said after explaining Rupert Murdoch is the subject in "Broadcast Media." "I know what they own rather than who they are."

InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller is depicted in "World Wide Web," former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso in "ex N.T.S.E.," Intel CEO Craig Barrett in "Intel," and Aetna CEO John W. Rowe in "Aetna."

Sounds boring, but wait 'til you see the uniquely humorous and slightly disturbing way in which he painted them all.

"I was just basically reacting to each image as I saw it without really researching it," Parker said.

Most of Parker's pieces were inspired by strangers, some real, some from his imagination, including a portrait of Vladimir Putin, simply titled, "Russia."

In fact, with the exception of his freakish self-portrait, a small portrait of Mike Buffington, a friend and fellow art student, is Parker's only art piece depicting someone he actually knows.

"I called it 'Design' because he's a designer," Parker said of Buffington.

"It's Christmas for Christ's Sake," is a painting of some guy Parker heard shout, "It's Christmas for Christ's sake!" in the student union during Christmas two years ago. Parker never caught the guy's name, but he clearly captured the essence of his character as he did in each piece, including his sketches.

While studying in Italy last summer, he concocted a series of sketches collectively titled "Major Events in Traditional Catholicism: The Orvieto Wall Sequence."

Inspired by random shapes Parker noticed on the walls of the city of Orvieto's buildings, they, like many of his other sketchings, are very Tim Burton-ish.

Parker's versatility also shines through in his sculptures, "A tall man," an abstractly molded tie made of steel, and "Thanks For Being You," an action figure-sized piece made of wire and covered in tissue paper with a mirror for a head.

It's what Parker described as "a trophy dedicated for people who don't do anything spectacular except be themselves." (Be sure to take a look at yourself in the mirror.)

Parker mostly works with charcoal, with the occasional hint of gouache paint or conte crayon. But he also does paintings on canvas with oil, acrylic and other media. However, you'll never catch him with a colored pencil after one of his art professors indirectly let him know it was a mortal sin to use such an inferior tool.

"Ryan thinks he's an artist, but on several of those pieces, he used colored pencil, so I'm not so sure," said Jennifer Evers, also a visual communications senior, who said, in all honesty, that she was impressed while examining his artwork last Monday.

Clearly a renaissance man, Parker takes after his artist father, Michael, from whom Parker gets his middle name and, undoubtedly, his talent.

"He taught me not to be serious about myself," Parker said.

"Smiles and Cupcakes" Opening: "The Art of Ryan M. Parker" went on display Monday, but the official reception is today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The show will run until New Year's Day.

Even if you don't care for art, there will be free food.