News
Unveiling 'Interdependence' (durangotelegraph.com)
Metal Sculptor Preston Parrott enters the public art arena (durangodowntown.com)
Public Sculpture Featured as "Must See" in Durango Magazine Summer 2009
Preston Parrott and Mary Jo Rakowski as Spotlight to Stardom Emcees (durangodowntown.com)
Press Release: Preston Parrott selected for Public Art Sculpture (durangodowntown.com)
Featured Artist in Durango Magazine Summer 2008
Press Release: Preston Parrott selected for Leadership LaPlata (durangodowntown.com)
Preston Parrott selected into Board of Directors for the Durango Arts Center - July 2007
Feature Article about Preston in Durango Herald - July 2007
Press Release regarding the Cherry Creek arts Festival in Durango Herald - June 2007
Preston Parrott Accepted into 2007 Cherry Creek Arts Festival - Jan. 2007
Feature Article about Preston in Durango Telegraph - Aug. 2006
Featured Artist in Durango Magazine 2008
Life as a journey…
Sculptor Preston Parrott
By Indiana Reed
Artists often speak of their works in progress as journeys, and until a given piece is done, sculptor Preston Parrott follows suit. But further, as an individual, Parrott too is on his own personal journey through life.
Though not much beyond 30 years of age, Parrott is an eclectic and spiritual soul who had explored a number of careers – including engineering, information technology and emergency medical services – before discovering metal sculpture.
“I was in Austin in the corporate world,” he says of his position as a project manager for Dell computers, “and I just needed some balance. I ran across a flyer for a metal sculpture workshop, and thought, wow, this sounds great.”
Having just purchased a home, he partitioned off an area for a studio, bought a torch, built himself a welding bench and created his own tools – and essentially hasn’t looked back. By 2004 he’d resigned from Dell and headed to Durango, moving “up to the mountains to be a hippie, or whatever,” he explains.
Not yet certain his sculpture could pay the bills, he decided on functionality. Though he’d never built a copper countertop, he put together a sample box of work and began visiting architects and builders.
“You just have to put yourself out there,” he says, noting that he “figured out” how to meet homeowner/builder requests, and today his “functional artwork” adorns some of the finest custom homes in the region.
“Then the itchy part – I wanted to do ‘art.’ Function is fine, but it’s still just function. I realized that personally I’m not a manufacturer. I’m not somebody who can make 50 tables all the same,” he says.
And, thus, Preston Parrott’s life experiment continued. Not knowing the prestige of the show, he applied for and was accepted to the Cheery Creek Arts Festival in 2007. Taking his substantial, contemporary works to Denver was another eye-opener for the budding sculptor.
“My pieces are so large, people don’t really know what to do with them,” says Parrott, referencing as an example “Integration,” a nearly 5-foot cube of patinated steel, copper, sterling silver and sugilite. “It’s amazing what people will say – what is it, a hamster cage? A tea towel rack?”
The language Parrott uses to explain his work comes from the study of metaphysics. He admits he doesn’t know where the inspirations germinate, but as they blossom, they become an “experience of energy” – a three dimensional way of expressing an energetic concept.
“It’s not like I looked at Engineer and created a profile of the mountain,” he says. “I’m not trying to make social or political commentary, or try and make it look like something. It’s more spiritual.”
A student of both Qi Gong and Aikido, and trained in energy work modalities such as reiki, Parrott’s pieces evolve in the process. He may sketch out a shape initially, but each sculpture is an exploratory journey, and he learns more about his piece and himself as he proceeds.
Instead of a hamster cage, “Integration” is an expression of a moment of clear intent, when one enjoys the alignment of what the Chinese reference as the three treasures: mind, body and spirit.
“At that moment of intent, the structure is instantly created to manifest the thought. Once that happens, it’s all there,” he says. “It’s my language, and I realize that what a piece means to me doesn’t have to be the same for someone else.”
While Parrott enjoys working in large scale, using massive pieces of steel and copper, and is anxious to see them in the “right” settings, he acknowledges that placing the pieces is often difficult. He does do commissioned work to size, appreciating, as he says, other people’s energy and needs. And as his career evolves, he’s exploring scaling his art down in size.
“Now the challenge is, how can I communicate these things in a smaller medium? How can it have the same effect without using gumdrops and toothpicks,” he says. “We’ll see what happens. You just have to put everything out and stuff comes back to you from all different angles.”
Preston Parrott selected into Board of Directors for the Durango Arts Center
16 July 2007
Preston was nominated and selected to be a member of the Durango Arts Center Board of Directors on 16 July, 2007. This will be a 3 year term and officially he will start at the Aug. Board meeting. Visit www.durangoarts.org
Preston accepted into Leadership La Plata 2007 Class
Press Release – July 5, 2007
For further information, contact LLP Steering Chair Dave Schranck, (970) 946.5979
Leadership La Plata selects 2007-2008 Class
DURANGO—Leadership La Plata (LLP), the diverse, all-volunteer organization designed to educate and train community leaders from throughout the county, has announced selection of the 2007-2008 Class.
Candidates invited to join what the LLP Selection Committee – Dave Schranck, John Anderson, Sheryl Ayers, Laurie Blanz and Kellie Hotter – lauds as an exemplary and dynamic group of individuals are Jeanne Brako (Curator-Center for Southwest Studies), Margaret “Micki” Browning (Division Commander-Durango Police Dept.), John Cohen (Director-Durango Area Tourism Office), J.T. Coyne (Program Coordinator-Heart Safe La Plata), Matthew Dodson (Human Services Manager-La Plata County), Martin Hotter (President-Hotter Construction), Loryn Kasten (PR Director-Durango Mountain Resort), and Steve List (Captain-Durango Fire & Rescue Authority).
Also, Jack Llewellyn (Director-Durango Chamber of Commerce/LEAD), Lisa Mastny (Sr. Editor-Worldwatch Institute), Mary Monroe (Director-Trails 2000), Preston Parrott (Fine Artist/Owner-Blue Gemini Productions), Anne Rapp (Owner/Operator-Rapp Corral), Sheri Rochford (Retired-Consultant), John Trousdale (President-Trousdale Productions), and Carrie Woodson (Chief Appraiser-LPC Assessors Office).
Celebrating its 20th year, LLP provides leadership skills training and broad-based education in all facets of the community. Nearly 300 LLP graduates are currently engaged in community leadership roles, from business and local government to non-profit agencies.
A program of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, LLP is sustained by all-volunteer committees. Steering Committee members for 2007-2008 include, Dave Schranck, chair; Sheryl Ayers, Pat Barrett, Diane Becket, Phil Campbell, Melisa Caskey, Wanda Ellingson, Mary Havran, Joel Jones, Lynn Morrow Kitch, Kip Koso, Mike Matheson, Bruce Moss, Ron Pevny, Indiana Reed and Rita Simon.
For further information, visit the LLP website, www.leadershiplaplata.org, or contact the Chamber at 970.247.0312.
Feature Article about Preston in Durango Herald
3 July 2007
Click here to link to the original article.
Sculptor makes most of time, space, metal
Durango's Preston Parrott draws on past work in corporate world
By Leanne Goebel | Special to the Herald
Preston Parrott has never considered himself an artist. In fact, he resisted the term.
"Painting doesn't make sense to me unless there are numbers on the canvas," he said with a smile from his Durango studio on Redman Lane, a converted garage filled with scraps of metal, tools and containers of chemicals.
What does make sense to him is line, color, texture and form.
Parrott was born in Virginia and grew up in Oklahoma and Mississippi. With an affinity for math and science, he spent a significant portion of his life in Austin, Texas, working in the computer industry.
Because his corporate work was so concentrated in the left brain, Parrott looked for right brain activities to help him achieve balance. He began taking art classes: clay sculpture was interesting, but when he took his first metal class working with wire and sheet metal, he knew that this was his medium. He set up his studio with a bench and a torch.
Next to the metal working studio where he took classes, a silversmith was working. Parrott took silversmithing classes and thought that it, too, was really cool. So he bought the tiny tools to do delicate work.
When he moved to Durango in 2004, Preston taught himself to work with large sheets of metal and to weld steel. He started his own small business, Blue Gemini Productions and created sinks, countertops, tables and range hoods.
But Parrott realized that making functional things was not as much fun or as stimulating as he thought it would be.
For the 2006 Home & Ranch Show, Parrott created an artistic piece from welded steel and copper called "Transition Point." The work, which is more than 5 feet high, was designed to hang from a ceiling. The piece is a snapshot of energy as it reaches transition. On one side the patina is blue, the color of truth; on the other side, the patina is green, the color of growth. When green yields to blue, the transition is complete.
The truth was revealed to Parrott when "Transition Point" received gratifying attention at the show.
The creative process for Parrott is intuitive. He is not emulating artists he admires. He begins with an idea, perhaps born from metaphysics, physics, Gi Gong (Chinese body work) or sacred geometry, and says let's see what happens.
"It's not like I wanted to make something that represents integration," Parrott said of one of his recent works, "Integration," which will debut at Denver's Cherry Creek Arts Festival.
"It started with cubes and a pipe. Then another piece of the picture comes into view. It's like putting together a puzzle. When I'm done, I look at it and say 'what is it?'"
The more than 5-feet-high cube sculpture features a delicate silver center with a focal piece of purple sugilite.
Parrott's application to the Cherry Creek Festival was as instinctive as his art. He started looking for art fairs in Colorado and found one with an emerging artist program, so he applied. It was only after his acceptance that he realized how competitive the show is.
"Who knows what happens next," Parrott said. "But I'm making the art for me, and I have to believe that what I am expressing in my work is going to provide for me. Making money for my art means I can make more art."
artsjournalist@centurytel.netLeanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts
Press Release regarding the Cherry Creek arts Festival in Durango Herald
26 June 2007
Click here to link to original article.
Local sculptor chosen for Front Range show
Herald Staff Report
Durango sculptor Preston Parrot has been chosen as one of eight emerging artists for the highly competitive Cherry Creek Arts Festival taking place July 6-8 in Denver. More than 2,300 artists applied to the blind-juried show this year. From that number, 220 were accepted. The show will take place outside in the Cherry Creek North shopping district. An audience of 350,000 attends annually, according to the organizers. Parrott works in metal, coloring his work with chemical patinas.
Open Studio 30 June, 2007
Entered 20 June, 2007
Pre Cherry Creek Arts Festival Open Studio to be held 30 June, 2007 from 2PM - 8PM. All are invited to see the new works of Preston at his studio at 187 Redman Lane, Durango, CO 81303. He will be unveiling his new sculptures "Integration" and "Piercing the Veil". Beverages and nibbles will be served.
Click here for a Map to the Studio.
Preston Parrott Accepted into 2007 Cherry Creek Arts Festival
Jan. 2007
Preston was accepted to the 2007 Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, Colorado through the Emerging Artists Program. He was 1 of 8 selected out of a total of 150 Emerging Artists applicants. The Cherry Creek Arts Festival was ranked the #1 Art Fair in the U.S. by the ArtFair Sourcebook for 2006. The Cherry Creek Arts Festival website is www.cherrycreekarts.org.
Feature Article about Preston in Durango Telegraph
Aug. 2006
Click here to link to original article.
Durango Sculptor Preston Parrott Bridges Art and Science
Art and science are twins born of creativity. Albert Einstein recognized this kinship and was a frequent commentator on the relationship. His statement, "Imagination is more important than knowledge," clearly suggests that, whether through art or science, illuminating the mysteries in the world begins with imagination.
Einstein suggests that wonder - as in wondering - is an integral component to creativity. It is this attitude of curiosity that is shared by both the scientist and the artist.
What about individuals who are drawn to both art and science? Often, after someone admits a fondness for calculus, a statement follows about an inability to "draw a straight line." Truly, it seems that the ambidextrous ones, those comfortable moving between their right and left brain, are not so common.
Preston Parrott is an emerging artist who hangs out regularly in both of his cerebral hemispheres. He is guided by playfulness, intuition and experimentation in his business, Blue Gemini Productions, where he designs and crafts functional metal furnishings and metal sculpture.
Like many entrepreneurs, Parrott invested his life savings in his business. In his second year of business in Durango, he has worked and played hard to convert his passion with metal into a consistent livelihood. "It's been a big learning curve to figure out what aspects of this business make me money," he said as he looked over a copper range hood for a new client. It wasn't until recently that he allowed the "reluctant artist" in him to come forward to try his hand at making nonfunctional objects.
Growing up in a small Mississippi town, he was unaware of his aptitude in the visual arts. While Parrott played the clarinet in high school, he "never understood painting except if the canvas had numbers on it," and he found "drawing a chore." Parrott excelled in math and science, hoping to become an engineer. In reflection, he traces his creative influences to his father who is an "accomplished doodler" and photography buff and his mother, a caterer, who was "creative with food."
While in college, during the same semester that he was chosen as ROTC Battalion Member of the Month, he had a life-altering epiphany while studying physics. Knowing things needed to change, Parrott decided that traveling would help him see his life in a new perspective. He had just won $600 on a horse race, so off to Europe he flew.
Another leap in understanding fell upon him while sitting in a piazza in Italy. "I am the controller of my destiny," came through to him loud and clear.
Back in the States, he landed in Austin, Texas, where a series of events led him to a temporary job in the IT industry. Six years later, in a permanent position with the company, his "need for balance within his life" directed him to a metal fabricating class. Attracted to the qualities of copper and fascinated by the use of chemicals to produce color on the copper's surface, he has never looked back.
Like many, Parrott felt a draw to Durango on his first visit. Unhinging himself from the financial benefits of his corporate job was not an easy task, however. It took him a couple of years to respond to the call and today, with new awareness, he has moved from a life directed by others and their expectations to one guided by creativity and discovery.
Examples of his most recent sculptural panels, his "exercises in self-discovery," show the artist's desire to explore formal elements such as movement and tension between the forms, and surface texture and color within them. With titles like "Convergence," "Transition Point" and "Spontaneity," the sculptures also indicate Parrott's interest in metaphysics.
Viewing the pieces, one can see that Parrott is a meticulous craftsman. He welds large steel frames within which he places geometric copper forms, planes and curving rods, all consummately constructed. He makes the forms from copper sheeting, joining the sides of the forms together using folding, braising and riveting processes. The forms are colored with vibrant and subtle patinas, mild acids that etch and oxidize the metal's surface to create color and pattern. Elegant and sophisticated forms in space, Parrott's sculptures reveal his skilled yet playful process.
In the large vertical panel "Convergence," Parrott's shapes represent the process of manifestation, which "brings to light how we as humans and the cosmos manifest, by merging the yin and yang, or the dense and ethereal, we create." Within the 6-by-4-foot welded-metal frame, a flowing bundle of copper rod is gently compressed between two warmly colored squares. A sense of union is palpable.
I asked Parrott where he wanted to go next with his work. "Further," he responded, "I want to make more sculptures and beautiful things for people - playing with dimension, angles, form, texture, color, to see how it affects me and others and to see what else I have lurking in my soul." •This article was written by arts journalist Jules Masterjohn and published in the August 24, 2006 issue of the Durango Telegraph, Durango, Colorado.
