Silver City, NM – Western New Mexico University will host quilter Anne Parker for an Edwina & Charles Milner Women in the Arts exhibit in McCray Gallery of Contemporary Arts this holiday season.

The exhibit will open with a reception at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 5. Parker’s quilts will hang at McCray Gallery through Thursday, February 6, 2020, when Parker will give a closing lecture in Parotti Hall at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.

During the opening events, Parker will discuss her work and her artistic career. “My quilts start with a seed of an idea, I work on the palette first, adding and subtracting colors until I'm happy. I don’t sketch. I just start cutting and playing until the quilt presents itself to me,” she said.

Parker hand-dyes all her fabrics and said her work is driven by color. “I love to see how colors play off each other, what combinations sing,” she said.

Her quilts are also inspired by her life and travels. “My mother moved us to Mexico when I was 8! I lived in Vietnam for four years. There, I volunteered at a craft shop, designing quilts, jewelry and garments. The greens of the rice fields, the reds and pinks of the sun rising out of the sea, and the colors of the silks worn by local women all found their way into my work,” said Parker, who’s also visited India, Bhutan and Laos.

Parker’s quilts have been featured in 500 Art Quilts and shown at the 2010 Houston Quilt Show. In 2013, she was awarded a show at the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, Missouri. This year, she was invited to exhibit at Quilt National.

McCray Gallery is open Wednesdays from 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. as well as Thursdays and Fridays from 12:15 p.m. to 6 :15 p.m. The gallery will be closed during the university’s holiday break — from December 21 through January 5, 2020.

The quilt pictured was created by Anne Parker and will be exhibited in the artist’s upcoming show in the McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art at Western New Mexico University.