The Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College hosted artist Ray Allen Parker on Wednesday night to talk about his journey and relationship with art.

Parker’s exhibition, “Altarpieces & Icons” is currently on display at the Windgate Museum. The museum website says, “renaissance masters made saints appear like human beings. Ray Allen Parker tries to make his friends and neighbors appear like saints.

While not a religious person, Parker cited a number of religious paintings, like “Christ Crucified” by Diego Velázquez, that deeply moved him. 

Parker said he aimed to evoke that same feeling in others with this series using other paintings as stylistic inspiration for his large paintings in this exhibition. Two of the paintings in this exhibition measure 8-feet tall and 12-feet wide.

Parker, born in 1951, and a San Diego native, grew up in Egypt, Arkansas. He took his first art class while attending the University of Arkansas for a B.A. and M.A. in English but did not pursue art until the age of 60.

Parker talked about his time working at JCPenney in retail communications and advertising for three-decades. During this period, Parker did not pursue the arts, which he would eventually pick up later in life. 

Parker said he was able to learn how to look at color and composition while creating ads and working his final position at JCPenney’s as a director of photography.

In 2011, Parker came back to art, completing his first self-portraits during that year. After feeling proud of a final project for a class, Parker said, “I felt like my path was set from then on and I was going to be an artist.”

Parker said he found inspiration in his family when he first seriously started painting. “Nuclear Family” became Parker’s first large painting, featuring a portrait of his family when he was younger.

Another painting, “Due South,” is of his parents at their home in Egypt, Arkansas.

Now, Parker focuses on portraits of people he knows or, as Parker said, people, he thought he knew. 

One example of this, “Local Server #2,” is of a woman who worked at a cafe that Parker said he thought he had an understanding of from her appearance. But, when having her visit for a photo shoot, he learned what she was truly like. 

“What I’m doing is creating a visual biography of them,” said Parker about how he tries to capture not only people’s physical appearance but to also tell their story in his paintings.

Parker said that he even feels like he knows the person better through painting them.

When asked about his advice for young artists who feel a need to take a safer career path instead of art, Parker said, “it’s never too late to become the person you want to be.” 

Parker continued and said that it may feel like those talents are lying dormant but he feels that they are “aging like fine wine.”

Parker’s exhibition arrived at the Windgate Museum on Jan. 22 and will be featured there until March 12.

Parker’s work can be found at his website rayparkerart.com or on his Instagram page @rayaparker.