Artist Troy Parker was born in 1967 with Cerebral Palsy. After graduating from John Tyler High School, Tyler, Texas, through the special education program, Troy completed a series of computer graphics courses at Tyler Junior College. During the process, he completed an art project entitled "Two by Two" for a class project. In response to the encouragement of his instructor and classmates, Troy submitted the project for competition and "Two by Two" was selected for publication in Tyler Junior College's Spring-96 publication of TJC "Touchstone". That same spring, upon obtaining the necessary grade point average, Troy was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, the National Junior College Honor Society.
In 1990, Troy began his own business, Troy's HANDIPEOPLE, in which he began designing and producing advertising buttons, "fun" buttons, note cards and related products. In 1997, following completion of additional computer graphic courses at Tyler Junior College, Troy continued to create new pieces of digital art. In July of 1998, Troy first displayed his artwork to the public at the 98 Abilities Expo in Chicago, Illinois. As a result of encouragement received by observers and the sale of several pieces, Troy became determined to apply his gift and to continue to create additional artistic pieces. Using Troy Parker's artwork, a line of greeting cards has also been developed.
Outside of his work, Troy also spends each Monday afternoon as a volunteer at Grace Community Church, Tyler, Texas. Additionally, Troy serves on the Board of Directors for the Camp Tyler Foundation which oversees Camp Tyler. He has worked as a volunteer with Camp Tyler's Head Start Program.
