Bearing Witness: Artist Biography

Margaret Adams Parker is a sculptor and printmaker with an extensive exhibition record. Her commissions include the award-winning “Mary as Prophet” for Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, VA; “Reconciliation” for Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC; “Harriet Tubman” for St Paul’s Church, Rock Creek Parish, Washington, D.C.; and “The Communion of Saints” for St. Agnes Catholic Church, Shepherdstown, WV. Her sculpture of “MARY” with the infant Jesus is in churches across the country, including St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, VA (Parker’s home parish); Iglesia Santa Maria in Falls Church, VA; and the Cathedral College, Washington National Cathedral. Parker’s painted “Stations of the Cross” were purchased in 2022 for the University Chapel at Duke University.

Parker’s “American Diptych – The Burning Bush & The Robe of Mercy,” currently on view at Virginia Theological Seminary, depicts Mary and Christ as African Americans in settings that recall the Great Northern Migration. Parker is currently at work on a painting of a Navajo Christ, commissioned by the Episcopal Church of Navajoland. With works such as these, which depict holy figures as persons from diverse periods, cultures, and peoples, Parker hopes to enlarge the canon of religious imagery. In this endeavor she holds in mind Revelation 7:9: “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”

A Senior Lecturer at Virginia Theological Seminary, Parker is co-author, with Katherine Sonderegger, of “Praying the Stations of the Cross, Finding Hope in a Weary Land” (Eerdmans, 2019) and, with Ellen F. Davis, of “Who are you, my daughter? Reading Ruth through Image and Text” (Westminster John Knox, 2003). Her work is in the collection of the Library of Congress and has been published by “Christian Century,” “Tikkun,” Augsburg Fortress Press, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Parker, who holds a bachelor of arts degree from Wellesley College and a master in fine art from American University, was awarded a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship in Painting. She served as Artist in Residence at the Luce Center for Art and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., and as a Fellow with the Calvin College Summer Seminars and the Association for Religion & Intellectual Life.

For more information, visit www.margaretadamsparker.com