Scott Parsons

"An authentic art survives stylistic evolutions over time to become a benchmark of art history. In this regard, I believe historians will judge Scott Parsons' work as being authentic, original, and (most importantly) a contribution to the historical trajectory of stained glass in architecture." Kenneth von Roenn  Scott Parsons: Sacramental Imagination Applying his graphic arts talent to the world of stained glass, Scott Parsons designed 26 stained glass windows created in three series for Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Foxfield, Colorado. Fabricated by Derix Glasstudio, Taunusstein, Gemany, these windows redefined the roles of both the artisans making the work as well as the new technologies and materials used in their creation. Through imagery not from stained glass tradition but rather a contemporary sensitivity and visual language common to our time, Parsons expresses what he calls sacramental imagination - a dimension beyond our perceived reality.  "I am inspired by the idea of place, of defining a space with a sensitivity that can transform, celebrate, and engage the redemptive qualities of metaphor for the profoundly personal and communal in people's lives." An international award-winning artist, Parsons earned his MFA in Studio Art, magna cum laude, from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1990. In addition to teaching printmaking and drawing as a professor of art at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he has completed numerous public art commissions across the United States and Canada. His work, which has been reviewed in Architectural Record, Sculpture, Art in America, Stained Glass Quarterly, Public Art Review, and Faith & Form, includes Percent for Art and private commissions for churches, museums, research facilities, university buildings and transportation centers. Parsons has received five Faith & Form Awards for Liturgical Art and three CoD+A (Collaboration of Design and Art) Top 100 Projects Awards.In 2002, his terrazzo floor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, titled Algorithmic Tapestry, was recognized by Art in America as one of the most significant works of public art in the United States. In 2014, Parsons received two Honor Awards in Religious Arts: Visual Arts from the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art, and Architecture (IFRAA) for his Our Lady of Loreto windows. The artist has also received multiple National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association Honor Awards for his designs in those mediums.  After serving on the Faith & Form jury this summer in Charlotte, North Carolina, Parsons currently is at work on new windows for La Casa, in Paradise Valley, Arizona, which will be installed next month. His list of upcoming commissions includes 15 Stations of the Cross mosaic panels for Saint Michaels in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; glass designs for a church in Kentucky; mosaics for a church in Missouri; and terrazzo for the airports in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.