COLLIN PARSON
Collin Parson currently serves as the Exhibition Manager and Chief Curator for the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Arvada, Colorado.
An arts administrator, artist, curator and designer he received a B.F.A. in Theater Design and Technology with emphasis in Lighting and Scene Design from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is his M.A. in Visual Culture and Arts Administration from Regis University in Denver.
His creative work involves the control of light and color to create vivid geometric light and space works. He has had the privilege of jurying many art festivals including Cherry Creek in 2008 and has received many awards for his curatorial projects.
A member of Denver’s historic Pirate: Contemporary Art he was awarded 100 Colorado Creative’s by Westword in 2013. Parson is the son of Colorado sculptor Charles Parson, whose experience with the Colorado arts community helped Collin long before his professional career began. Growing up in a family of artists (father-sculptor/arts educator, mother-modern dancer, sister-actress/educator and brother-musician/educator), Collin is proud to be continuing the educational and creative traditions.
STATEMENT
From my experiences as an exhibition designer, I've come to understand how people experience art. Viewers generally spend at most a few seconds viewing more traditional mediums of artworks. Are they actually experiencing it or just looking?
This question and my fascination of light and the perceptual properties it holds guides my work. Combining light, color and space allows the viewer to slow down; giving them the opportunity to not only look, but to become part of the piece.
This experience isn't only left to the eye but to the space that both the work and the viewer occupy. The advances of the twenty-first century have made new technology such as RGB Light Emitting Diodes (LED's), Arduinos and Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) routers, more readily available.
Their rapid increase in availability has also led to a wider understanding of their mechanics and the precise control of them allow for total creative vision. My goal is to push the viewer beyond everyday limits of perception, assisting them in discovering an informed awareness beyond sight and sound.
Incorporating nature (light) with the geometric gesture, I hope to achieve a spiritual, meditative experience in which one can inscribe their own specific experiences. I achieve this by using light with the inclusion of colored gel, color-changing controllers and sound. Controlling these combined elements help capture the vivid demonstrations of the principles of geometrics, light, space, color, and dimension.
It’s time to give light the primary role, rather than the secondary, supportive role. My work expresses the fascination and curiosities about one of the purest artistic and scientific mediums. The intention of a phenomenal art is simply the gift of seeing a little more today than you did yesterday”-Robert Irwin.
