My name is Pamela Parker. I received my Associate of Art degree in Spring 2016 from Tarrant County College. In Fall 2022 I received my Bachelor of Fine Art degree from The University of Texas at Arlington. I have been attending college for a total of twelve years and I am so excited to graduate. It has taken me longer than a typical college student because I have been working full time and attending college part time for my entire college career. I was a veterinary technician for eleven years and I currently work in commercial real estate for the past seven years. I became a graphic designer because I enjoy creating unique and interesting designs.

As a child I was inspired to create art because of the Sunday morning comics. I would take the comics, a pencil, a piece of copy paper, and replicate Snoopy and Garfield’s worlds. As I got older, my inspiration grew with the influences of Walt Disney and the surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. Their work inspired me to dig deep to create new worlds, ideas, characters, and situations. I also found inspiration from the writer Edgar Allan Poe because through his work, he demonstrated a very vivid and unique imagination. Vintage fashion, lifestyles, and music inspire me. I feel sometimes I was born in the wrong era. I enjoy taking elements from the 1940s-1960s and merging them with current styles. It was a simpler time without all the technology we have now. People had to use their imagination and weren’t glued to a screen all day.

The focus of my design work is branding and advertising which are important to me because I enjoy coming up with new ideas and creating new ways to look at the ordinary. For my art-making process, I always go back to where it all started. I get a piece of computer paper and a pencil. I am a very visual learner and seeing my ideas on paper helps me brainstorm. The important aspect I want you to take away from my work, is to keep that childlike wonder. Use your imagination. As adults, we get so lost in our responsibilities and schedules, that we forget to go back to where it all started. We forget how to truly live.lla ut.