Mike Parillo Gallerie
Since he began building parks at Big Bear, CA, in the early ‘90s, Mike Parillo has grown into one of the most influential artists in snowboard history. From Los Angeles to Prague, the cover of “The Garden” to Asymbol Gallery, Parillo remains recklessly optimistic.
The road to creative enlightenment for artist and Asymbol Gallery co-founder Mike Parillo started quite literally along the shoulder of State Route 18, a winding highway through Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains, in snowboarding’s early days. “I ended up somewhat homeless and living in a tent across from the ski resort [Snow Summit],” Parillo says. “Snow camping! But the resort was crappy; Big Bear was the big deal. I’d hitchhike—sometimes walk all night to get there in the morning—and dig the pipe out at Big Bear for free tickets.”
Transitioning from the digging-for-tickets program to fully designing and building what many recall as the first good snowboard park at Big Bear in the early 1990s, Parillo’s design juices were just starting to flow. With his monk-like devotion and focus Parillo soon rose from early pipe and park-building maven to snowboarding’s most well-known artist…