The Art of Jim Parlin

Alrighty... Jim Parlin is my sculpture professor. He was also my 3D professor last semester. And these are a few images of his work.

We looked at some samples of Jim's work in class today, and I just thought I would share. I pirated these two images off the website for EUP's Graduate Program in Sculpture, and unfortunately, interesting though they may be, they are not a very accurate sampling of his sculpture.



When he was talking about his own work, he was talking about how saturated colors are one of his inspirations (he casts his work in metal and then painted them with oil and acrylic paints). So, as a result, many of his sculptures are incredibly vibrant and lush looking. But, again unfortunately, neither of these pictures shows this aspect of his work very well.

After today's mini-exhibition of Jim's work, I kind of think of him a Walt Whitman of sculpture... no-holds-barred, honest, in-your-face, sensual, sexual, concerned with the biology and humanity of living, concerned with the death involved in living, personal, gritty, elegant, etc. And again, I wish that I had better images to demonstrate these points. But I hope that you can follow my drift.

Both of the images above are of some of his earlier works, and lately (within the last six months) he finished a series of small figurative sculptures: very interesting and intense, portraying everything from suicide to a simple moment between a mother and daughter. And this brings me to the last point that I want to make: Jim's sculpture is intensely personal, which is why it is so moving. All the sculpture that he makes revolves around the people in his life and his personal concerns. So, I guess as Walt Whitman would say, "To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all."