User:Carolyn Ann Parker

Carolyn Parker
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Gerald William Armacost and Betty Ann Armacost on July 27, 1952. After living in various cities within the continental United States, she now resides in her home town. The following anecdotal entry summarizes some high points of her youth.

The Short Story

I considered myself to be an artist after learning to draw from life and faithfully represent still lifes, birds, trees, and portraits from those instructional booklets you still see in crafts stores.

Those little drawings found in magazines ads enticing us with their mail order art school: the girl with the head scarf or the pirate with the head scarf also confirmed to me that had what it took. The ads that challenged you to send your drawing in and maybe you’d win a scholarship to their school. I never entered their contests, but I enjoyed drawing them, and seeing how mine compared.

My mother sent my twin sister and me to local art classes around this time, where I received great encouragement, because I would bring in my colored pencil and pastel drawings faithfully copied from the booklets: still life with pewter pitcher and grapes is one in particular I recall. the teacher used it as an example to the class, but explained quietly that my grapes needed shading and in the advanced class she could teach me how to do that.

This intense interest continued into high school and beyond. After a couple of years working as a clerk typist/radio spot editor at a blue chip advertising agency (Ralph Jones Advertising), I applied and was accepted at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, when it was part of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Three years later, on to Wright State University at the Creative Art Center, graduating magna cum laude with a BFA, immediately followed by applying and receiving acceptance with a Regents Fellowship and ultimately completing studies at the University of California, Irvine with an MFA.

After experiencing successes and setbacks, I’m still working at this perpetual dream of creating art that is from my heart and experience. But, that’s the long story.