Mickey Paraskevas Paints a Classic Dan's NYC Cover

To celebrate the New York City Holiday season, this Dan’s Papers NYC Edition cover features the art of longtime Dan’s Papers cover artist Mickey Paraskevas. Mickey is a longtime favorite Dan’s Papers cover artist — and with good reason.

Who is Mickey Paraskevas?

Michael “Mickey” Paraskevas family settled in the Hamptons in 1979, and he still calls it home. He was largely self-taught before he graduated from The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in 1984. Here, we would meet artists like Marshall Arisman, Jack Potter, Gilbert Stone, Robert Weaver, Herb Tauss, and Sam Martine, all of whom would become personal mentors. He then received his Masters in Fine Arts, also from SVA from SVA in 1986. He’s worked for most major magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Time, Town & Country, New York Magazine, and Rolling Stone.

Paraskevas has also illustrated and written 24 children’s books with his mother, Betty — a longtime collaborator. The two went on to create and write the animated television series Maggie and the Ferocious Beast for Nickelodeon. Two of their other books were also made into animated series: Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse for PBS and Kids from Room 402 for Fox Family. Betty died in 2010, and Mickey continues working on various companies’ animated projects.

His large-scale beach paintings have sold worldwide through his gallery in the Hamptons, where he has lived and called home for the last 30 years.

He works in acrylic, oil, watercolor, or whatever mood suits him. He also works digitally to keep up with the current illustration market, which often requires quickness and the ability to change things at the last minute.

Paraskevas now lives and works in Southampton with his wife, Maria, and the two work together on creative projects and are currently writing and designing a new animated series for primetime. He keeps a wide variety of sketchbooks from all the events he attends.

In 2019, a 40-year retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Southampton Arts Center.

The Midtown image that graces our cover by this talented and prolific artist has been a longstanding favorite with the Dan’s staff.

Visit Mickey Paraskevas’s websites, michaelparaskevas.com, and jrkrol8.wixsite.com/paraskevasstudios, where you can see more and learn about his work.