In just a short period of time, Micah
Parker has become recognized as a leading ketubah artist with fresh, stunning
designs that are unlike any others on the market. His modern interpretation of
this traditional art form is being welcomed by today's generation of brides and
grooms around the world. One of his ketubah designs, Renaissance, is featured
in the Associated American Jewish Museum's traveling exhibition of ketubot, and
his work was chosen by a national search firm to be featured on the front cover
of a 5760 Hebrew calendar. His artwork has also been featured in several publications
and on television during TLC’s A Wedding Story.
Micah is originally from Middletown, Ohio. There, he began his endeavors as
an artist at the age of three. He moved with his family to Austin, Texas in the
early 1980s, where his high school created a new art program to accommodate his
desire to learn and the skill he exhibited with acrylics, colored pencils and
pastels. As he completed his art education, he was eager to begin his career
as an artist. However, at his parents' request, he entered the family manufacturing
business. He worked there for 13 years, working his way up from installer to
vice president.
After a long hiatus from the art world, he grew anxious to draw and paint
again. He had also developed skills in the use of a new medium while working
in his parents' business -- computer graphics. In his spare time, he began creating
artwork on the computer. Although Micah was not satisfied with creating art on
a part-time basis, he had no plans, at that point, to turn his endeavors into
a business, particularly given the difficulties in leaving his family's firm.
At the urging of friends, Micah began to create ketubot and other Judaic art.
After several years of producing custom ketubot for couples in Austin and life-cycle
certificates for his synagogue, he left his parents' business and began marketing
his ketubot and Judaica nationally.
Micah now lives and creates his artwork in Sarasota, Florida with the inspiration
of his wife, Mindy, and under the constant scrutiny and curiosity of their cats,
Matisse, Monet, Seuss and Pollock.
About the Art –
As Jews have been spread throughout the Diaspora over the course of history,
they have tended to adopt some of the regional traditions, languages and customs
as their own. Micah incorporates this "borrowing" concept into his
work by combining historical, ornamental art and architectural design with Jewish
symbolism to create colorful and distinctively Jewish art. His designs tend to
reflect his love for the rich patterns so often seen in the architecture and
art of various cultures.
Although he is an accomplished fine artist in several traditional mediums,
Micah creates all of his ketubot and Judaica on the computer. This is not as
easy it may sound. Digital art, like any other medium, has its benefits and its
drawbacks. There have been many instances when he has been overheard saying, "This
would be a lot easier to just draw it by hand." The images Micah creates
are produced in much the same way he would create them using traditional fine
art media -- but with far less clean up! All of the artistic knowledge about
light, color, composition and more that are required to paint a masterpiece in
oil are required to produce one in digital art.
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