Sculpture by Michael Parameros Phone 443-507-6249 My Gallery |
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| Michael
Parameros was born in 1933 in Elizabeth, New Jersey where he
attended the public school system. During his junior high
school years he showed a flair for art and drawing, and a
keen interest in sculpture, particularly stone and wood carving which he learned from his art teacher, Mr. Joseph Bolinsky, a now retired professor of sculpture and design, from Buffalo State University, New York. Mr. Parameros’ interest in sculpture induced him to bring a block of field stone slate, which he found in his Dad’s victory (vegetable) garden, to school. He carved a head of Moses out of this stone which he later entered in the National Junior Scholastic Fine Arts Competition. He competed against junior and senior high school art students and won first prize for his entry. This competition was sponsored by the Carnegie Institute of Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was judged by 20th century contemporary masters, Alexander Archipenko and Max Weber. He subsequently won several art awards for sculpture, drawing, and painting during his junior and senior high school terms. Upon graduating from high school in 1951, he was slated to attend Cooper Union Art College in New York City. However, due to the Korean War, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Navy, because he could not get a deferment from the military to attend art school. During his military service in the Navy, he pursued his art by designing and decorating drill halls for various seasonal social affairs. This involved the layout of large painted murals for stage backdrops, and companion decorations. He also painted murals in the library at the Little Creek, Virginia Naval Base. After honorable discharge from the Navy in 1954, Mr. Parameros attended Newark College of Fine Art, New Jersey for a short period. This program did not appeal to him and he reentered the military by enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. During this tour of duty, he spent three years overseas in England and Europe. He received an honorable discharge from the Air Force and returned to civilian status. He later migrated to the state of Maryland. He always retained his objective of attaining a formal education and in 1969 he graduated from the University of Baltimore with a law degree which greatly enhanced his civilian career in federal service. He retired in 1989 and moved to Hampstead, Maryland where he maintains his home and studio. Mr. Parameros has been very active in the fine arts during his federal service and subsequently he entered and won over 24 awards for his sculpture on the national and regional level. He is a published artist appearing in Men of Achievement, Artists U.S.A., and Artists of Renown. He has also been featured in many newspaper articles and on cable TV. His awards include first prizes for sculpture at the Atlantic City, New Jersey National Fine Arts Shows, Rehoboth Art League, Delaware, Museum Award for Sculpture at the 65th Cumberland Valley Fine Art Exhibit, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, Maryland. He has had over 12 one man shows, and has exhibited his work at Johns Hopkins University, and in fine art galleries in New York City, New England, and the Midatlantic states. He is a member of the faculty of the Rehoboth Art League, Delaware and he has conducted sculpture lectures and seminars at Shippensburg State College, Pennsylvania, Mt. St. Mary’s College, Maryland, Carroll Community College, Maryland, and judged national and regional art shows. Mr. Parameros’ sculptures are in public art collections, including The National Gallery of Fine Art, Athens, Greece, Shippensburg State College, Pennsylvania, city of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and public schools, Elizabeth, New Jersey. His art works are also in private collections in the U.S., Europe, and South America. During his art career of over 50 years to the present, Mr. Parameros’ sculpture has been critiqued as being representational and symbolic. He considers his work to be definitive in form and subject matter. Because of his art training, he states that even as a youngster he had the ability to look internally into a block of stone or a log of wood and visualize the sculptural forms therein. He states that the intermediate stage of sculpture, when the forms are given life and meaning, is the most gratifying to him. Many of his sculptures are executed without a model or maquette, but in creating and executing commissions for clients he does prepare drawings and models accordingly. Among his commissions are figurative and various animal sculptures. His fondness for surrealism is also prevalent in many of his sculptures. Although Mr. Parameros prefers to work in stone and wood, he also enjoys creating bronze pieces; additionally, he has designed several art pieces in 14 kt. Gold with blue sapphires. He obtains the stone and wood he carves from various suppliers and commercial carves is of the hard wood variety, including oak, walnut, ash, teak, and is of veneer grade quality. In reflecting on his long and fruitful art career, he is appreciative of his art training during the 20th century, and he maintains that he will continue to be creative in fine art-sculpture for as long as he is able. |