Danny Parker
DANNY PARKER
Poet, Sculptor, Photographer
I was born in Lubbock, Texas, and lived on a cotton farm in Ralls until I was six years old,
raised by my grandmother Margaret Birdie Whitmore Staggs; I always called her Mama Bird. My
first pet was a full-blooded, full-bodied Chow Chow named Ranger, who was the light of my little
life. Ranger and I would roam the fields of cotton, and when we would tire we would lie down in the
field with my head on his side and fall asleep together.
Mama Bird and I would retire to the living room every evening after doing dishes. She would
read to me for hours on end. We traveled the world over with Sinbad, Gulliver, Aristotle, Plato,
Socrates, and with the prophets of old. What a wonderful time! My grandmother was my tutor and confidante as we shared the worlds of the seen and
the unseen. As time progressed Mama Bird and I were parted; as it were, the fire and the kindling. But the embers had not grown cold, and
later in my life the embers rekindled and my love for dreaming caught fire again.
I enjoy writing poetry, doing sculpture, and taking photographs. I love doing each, although my favorite is probably the sculpture. As a retired power
plant supervisor, a great joy in my life has been creating works from metal by welding, grinding, and hammer-forging it into anvils, flowers,
animals, etc. I began this artistic pursuit in the year 2000 when I relocated from Panhandle to Graham. Since that time, my work has been exhibited
throughout North Texas and is now in collections worldwide. I studied under my brother-in-law learning the metalwork process I use.
In 2002 I first exhibited my pieces in the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center in Graham, TX. This was the first of two one-man shows at this venue
as well as three other shared exhibits there.
In 2005 the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center hosted my one-man show in Breckenridge, the first of four shows there during the last ten years.
I was included in the Langdon Review of the Arts in Granbury, TX with my poetry and photography as well as my metal art in 2009.
My metal art pursuit was briefly interrupted in December of 2009 by open-heart surgery and recuperation. A widower for two years, I married
again in a public ceremony at Graham’s Old Post Office Museum and Art Center in March of 2010. My bride, Cindy Carr from Arlington, TX, is an
artist I met at the Old Post Office Museum and Art Center, and we were married right there some 9 months later. Her passion for art encourages my
creativity to a greater degree than before we met, and we are very happy sharing our love and our art.
I believe that God is the giver of all good and wondrous gifts and that the “art of arts” is one of the most valuable of these gifts.
Artist’s Statement
DANNY PARKER
Poet, Sculptor, Photographer
I believe that all things can be something else, that all
people are artists of one kind or another, and that art is in the
interpretation and not the mechanics of it. I believe that life is
the art and that the secret is not to force it, but instead to lean
back and embrace it.
We are all vessels and the secret to the universe is to be that
good vessel that may be filled with the wonders available to
each of us. Dream the dream and live the life, for tomorrow is a
new day.
.
“Texas Saltwater Series”
