Stephen's profile
Stephen Parker is interested in exploring translucency and illumination through his paintings. He strives to understand his environment, emphasizing an awareness of the balance between light and transparency, focusing on how these elements interact with his work. Stephen's natural curiosity allows him to investigate new surfaces and materials, such as painting on glass and paper-mâché. These surfaces allow light to pass through the figures in his paintings, rendering them translucent and giving the work a phantom-like appearance. His paintings are not an illusion of life, they are a reaction to life and their surrounding environment. Parker has an adoration for painting life-sized figures and portraits in a pseudo-realistic manner. He chooses the people in his work from the neighborhood he lives in and gets to know them through the process of painting. This provides Stephen with a better way to communicate the human experience to his audience, through feeling a personal connection with the people in the work.
Born and raised in Glen Burnie, MD Parker completed his BFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in the spring of 2024. he has received several scholarships including The Morris Louis '32 Scholarship (2023), The Elaine L. Schaefer Scholarship (2023), The Dean's List Scholarship (2021-2023). Parker has exhibited his work at AACC's Juried Student Exhibit (2020), as well as MICA's Graduating Class Artwork Exhibition (2024).
