About
Beauty and Metaphor in Liturgical and Public Art
I am of the school of urgency, of vivid mark-making, and exposed soul-searching, and art that invites you along in that journey.
I am inspired by the idea of place, 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.
Whether I am designing in Photoshop or painting a watercolor, the idea of light as source comes through. It’s the light coming from behind the pixels, the paper, or with stained glass. The light is transformed, transmuted, and collimated into colors so beautiful that you become witness to an incarnation of the material before your eyes.
I teach painting and drawing at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where I live with my family. I serve on the board of the Association of Consultants for Liturgical Space.
Biography
Scott Parsons won his first international award at age five. Samsonite had opened the first Lego factory in North America less than an hour from his family’s home in Colorado, and his parents mailed photographs of his buildings to the Samsonite International Lego Building Contest. Out of thousands of entries, he placed tenth. At age seven, he placed third.
Parsons still builds for architecture, now as an artist in stained glass, mosaic, and terrazzo, for churches, hospitals, airports, schools, and civic buildings across the United States and Canada. His commissions include Our Lady of the Angels in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the Star Wheel at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and Welcoming Gardens at Orlando International Airport. He holds a BA from Augustana and an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Testimonials
“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 · renowned architectural glass artist
“Parsons has unfolded visibly the drama of the freedom of a loving Creator.”
Cardinal James Francis Stafford · The Vatican
“Your artwork transmits clarity to me, a light of happiness, a light of childhood when the sun illuminated everything.”
Alejandro Carosella · Painter, Buenos Aires
Awards & Reviews
6 CODAworx · 6 Faith & Form · 2 National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association · 2 Terrazzo, Tile & Marble Association of Canada
Art in America · Architectural Record · Stained Glass Quarterly
KEYNOTES
American Glass Guild, Mesa, Arizona 2025
AIA South Dakota, Sioux Falls 2026