April 21st, 2018

Last week, my family and I visited the Santa Barbara area to visit the light-filled studio of R. Nelson Parrish. Parrish has a long history of exhibition with Park City and has had several exhibitions and partnerships with the Kimball Art Center. And we have shows his work for a little over a year now to great success! I wish that we had enjoyed more time at his studio, but SoCal traffic jams being what they are, and toddler naps being necessary, it all meant that our visit was short and sweet.

I was most excited to see a new series of sculptures that are Parrish’s signature BioResin and wood. This time, the sourced wood was flown from his home-town in Alaska. The sculptures are layered with heavily grained wood and deep, translucent centers of BioResin in a variety of colors. The two that we have been lucky enough to show are in blues and greens, inspired by a Pacific Northwest island chain and our local Gaurdsman’s Pass. The sculptures have been sliced into threes, and each piece can be displayed in a variety if configurations.

 

We are fortunate to be able to exhibit two of these new Cairn works, with more works on the horizon. If you are interested in your own bespoke sculpture by Parrish, please contact the gallery. The artist enjoys the commission process, and sees it as an enticing collaboration of minds and ideas.

From the artist,,,

“Cairns” — referential to stacks of rocks that are trail markers or monuments. 

I grew up with cairns and am intimate to their importance.  They are this beautiful synthesis of man-made and nature, which aligns with the conceptual thesis of my work.  There is a raw elegance to them and very mountain oriented.  Also, in a zen/meditative manner, they are both part of the journey and the destination.  Which is an underlying theme to my work/part of the process as well. 

There is also an Inupiat offshoot of cairns called an “inuksuk” which is more human formed stacks of stones — but the word directly translates to “that which acts in the capacity of a human.”