JAMES PARKER EXHIBIT TO OPEN

Stitchery, a technique James Parker learned many years ago when he couldn't paint because of tendinitis, now is the essence of his art work.

Twenty-four of Parker's creations will be presented in a one-man show opening Sunday at Gallery 100 in Cape Girardeau.

The reception for the show will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday.

Parker, the retired founding director of the Southeast Missouri State University Museum and Gallery, also creates collages, and paints in acrylic. Some of the work to be displayed combines elements from these different mediums.

Parker taught himself stitchery. "I made a lot of mistakes," he says, "but I developed a style."

He employs a technique called a satin stitch almost exclusively. "It gives you more of a dimension," he said.

Embroidery or other fancy stitches are out. His indulgences are expensive moth-proof and fade-proof Persian wool, along with Japanese rice paper and gold and silver leaf.

And he insists on the best frames.

Parker's use of color is extravagant. "Into Red," his stitchery of a rose, vibrates with its namesake hue.

Like a latter-day Monet, Parker chooses his subjects from his own yard. Flowers and plants predominate.

There are peonies, white Shasta daisies, Japanese irises and hollyhocks, along with some birds and Indian pottery from his beloved Southwest.

Parker, who works at his dining room table or while watching TV in his family room, begins by doodling a small sketch. Then he draws directly onto the canvas.

That practice has taught him a basic rule of thumb: "If in doubt, stop," he said. "You never can correct yourself."

The works in the show sell for $125-$475, sums Parker says are not equal to the amounts a working artist could command for comparable work.

The stitchery piece titled "Peonies," for example, required three weeks of steady effort.

"If I were to charge by the hour, people could not afford it," he said.

Though he had many shows during his 14-year tenure as director of the university museum, this is Parker's first solo exhibit outside the academic setting.

He also has been busy entering art contests. A paper collage titled "Deck the Halls" was runner-up in a competition for the cover of the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog.