These windows are created for the glory of God - Gloria Dei – and celebrate the magnificence of the Creation, the life of Christ and the life of the Church. The design and colors are suggestive of spiritual themes (veneration, contemplation, and praise) that allow worshipers to experience the windows in distinct ways each time the congregation gathers for worship. This experience is shaped by the liturgical season, the order of worship, scripture lessons, hymn selections, and each congregant’s faith journey. The color yellow for example, which is always shown in stained glass as the color of God, extends near the center in a vertical golden yellow band from the heavens above and reaches downward to literally touch the earth below. This abstract gesture shows how God can touch us in the midst of our lives.

The glass panels near the floor are more opaque and become more transparent as they gain in elevation, allowing the fleeting changes in the sky and clouds to increasingly influence the shapes and colors you see in the windows. Symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, the Paschal candle, and the Lamb of God are significant elements for the Church and in the story we want these panels to tell. It is my hope that this design will resonate with each viewer as a celebratory offering of thanksgiving for all that God has given to us, and to recognize our individual role in the body of Christ to bring peace and healing to the world.

Artist and Pastor Linda Henke states, “There are places, for example, where I see the suggestion of stars, which for me conjure up the stars in the Genesis creation story … connections with God’s promise to Abraham that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens … the psalmist’s exclamation of wonder in gazing at the heavens (who are human beings that you should be mindful of us?) … the star that marked God’s coming to take on human flesh and become one with us… the star that led the sages to the Christ and then to carry news of his coming to all the world … the morning star that gives way to the rising sun … the night sky that we can see so much more clearly here in Indiana, where we live somewhat away from the city lights … the incredible Hubble telescope images that explode the boundaries of our perceptions of the universe.”

Artist: Scott Parsons
Architects: Koch Hazard Architects, Sioux Falls, SD
Fabrication: Derix Glasstudios, Taunusstein, Germany; Olaf Hanweg, painter
General Contractor: Fiegen Construction, Sioux Falls, SD
Installation: City Glass, Sioux Falls, SD and Tim O’Neil, Magdalena, NM

This terrazzo floor installation is nearly 40,000 sq. ft. in size for the University of Alberta’s Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (CCIS). This new, state-of-the-art facility brings together students, professors and researchers from multiple fields of Science: Integrated Earth and Landscape Management, Nanostructures and New Materials, Resource Geosciences, Chemical Biology and Proteomics, Planetary Dynamics, and Physics. The floor is a ten-color epoxy terrazzo design depicting all of the sciences, from a plesiosaur to neurons, fractals, subatomic particles, and stars. The divider strip, which is the line work in my design, runs over 7 miles in length and more than 20,000 liters of epoxy was poured (5,000+ gallons). The plesiosaur by itself is 300 ft. in length. The terrazzo contains aggregates crushed from windshield glass, mining byproducts and various marble.

Like education itself, this floor offers a sense of journey and discovery. My design concept began as a response to the geometry of the planned built environment and the geometry of the research environment, with an emphasis on the open floor plate design and multiple points of view expressed in the architecture, multiple entries and passageways, and the plan view siting along the campus North Quad.

The gesture of connecting interior to exterior spaces is critical to the design: One could look out the North Theatre windows to the nearby North Saskatchewan River and recognize the link to fluid dynamics and see the river’s flow echoed visually in the floor; or connect the formation of ice crystals on the window outside as a diffusion limited aggregation in the form of a fractal in the floor. Or in another section, one can make the connection between the pattern in the floor and the symmetry witnessed in the seasonal migration of a flock of birds outside. When this happens, the world and its simple gestures become a much more meaningful and rich environment to discover in this moment of recognition.

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

Artist: Scott Parsons
Architects: ONPA, Edmonton, OT and Flad, Madison, WI
Terrazzo Strip: Franklin Terrazzo, Chatham, ON
Terrazzo: ANTEX Western, Edmonton, OT
General Contractor: PCL, Edmonton, OT

See the installation process under News.

As part of a larger effort undertaken by the City of Berkeley, California to renovate the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in downtown Berkeley, this project is designed to honor and recognize Native American history commemorating the end of 500 years of resistance and the beginning of 500 years of rebuilding. The Turtle Island Monument is an unprecedented, multi-visionary approach to the making of a public art monument. The Monument consists of four turtles placed on the true north, south, east and west axis, mounted in the lower pool of an existing historical fountain, and eight medallions incorporated into the surrounding plaza surface. Eight contemporary Native American artists each designed a 3-ft. diameter stone medallion to commemorate his or her own people. The four large Loggerhead turtles I sculpted weigh nearly 200 pounds each and are 46 inches in length. Actual installation of the project is forthcoming and will take place when the City of Berkeley renovates the entire Park. Currently the turtles are on display and available for viewing in Berkeley City Hall.

Artists: Scott Parsons; Harley L. Zephier Wambli Hoksila – Dakota – Mdewakanton & Lakota – Mnicoujou; Mateo Romero – Cochiti Pueblo; Linda Yamane – Ohlone; TR Glenn – Crow; Ramon Murillo – Shoshone-Bannock; David Jones – Choctaw/Delaware; Ruth Taylor – Ojibwa
Foundry: Bronze Age Art Casting, Sioux Falls, SD
Medallions: Creative Edge, Fairfield, IA

Prairie Spiral is a 400 sq. ft., twelve-color, 1600-piece ceramic porcelain tile public art floor for the Center for Visual Arts at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. The atrium design is based on the spiraling seed patterns found in prairie flowers and pine cone petals in the South Dakota landscape. These spirals correspond to the fibonacci sequence used by artists, musicians, theologians, mathematicians, architects, and scientists for centuries, and are intended to celebrate the significance of creative scholarly studies and their contribution to a liberal arts campus curriculum.

Artist: Scott Parsons
Architect: Group IIC, Sioux Falls, SD
Fabrication: Creative Edge, Fairfield, IA
Installation: Creative Edge, Fairfield, IA
General Contractor: Sunkota Construction, Sioux Falls, SD

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Awards:
National Honor Award: Floor of the Year | National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association
Golden Trowel Award | International Masonry Institute
Design Awards: Honor Award for Architecture | AIA Wisconsin Chapter

Reviews:
Art in America as the Best in Public Art from 2002
Architectural Record

Algorithmic Tapestry is a 10,864 sq. ft. seven-color 3/8-inch epoxy terrazzo public art floor for the Engineering Centers Building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The design is based on geometric algorithms commonly used by engineers, with depictions of quasicrystals, nanocrystals, and a series of digital and analog references to computing technology and numeric systems from 20,000 years ago to the present.

Artist: Scott Parsons
Architects: Flad, Madison, WI and Kohn Pederson Fox, New York
Terrazzo Strip: Scott Parsons
Terrazzo: RD Roman, Rockford, IL
General Contractor: J. P. Cullen and Sons, Janesville, WI

Installation photos here.

This project consists of five digital murals designed for the National Cable Television Center and Museum Main Exhibit Hall located on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Colorado. The largest mural measures 50 x 12 ft. This project is a collaboration with David Griggs, artist. The Cable Center is the nonprofit educational arm of the cable industry. Three murals wrap around the exterior of three circular theaters and two murals demarcate the entrance and exit of the exhibition area. The three interior murals highlight cable’s relationship to society, higher education, and as an information source. Architects: RNL Design.

This project is a journey of scientific discovery into the extraordinary patterning found all around us. Wingscape consists of two ceramic tile murals (over 16,000 pieces), a 20 ft. tall sandstone column, 275 linear feet of sandblasted limestone slab, and an 11 ft. geologic cairn monolith created for Hurst Hall at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado (collaboration with David Griggs). Each artistic element is based on algorithmic and fractal patterning in nature and represents a variety of ways to describe natural pattern formation, from mathematical models to molecular processes to physical characteristics that represent the various scientific disciplines within the building. The culmination of this installation is revealed in two ceramic tile murals in the entrance atrium. The Gunnison area is host to two species of butterflies which are currently endangered: the Nokomis and Uncompahgre Fritillaries. These butterflies survive in a few remaining glacial tundra environments and have a lifespan of about two weeks. Using hand-made glazed ceramic tile in several different proportionate sizes, the murals portray a pixilated effect of their wings which corresponds to levels of scale and magnification. The process of diffusion triggers the patterning seen in the butterfly wings in the murals.

Inspired by Ancient Puebloan architecture, the Solstice Window at the Center of Southwest Studies is a 450-pound block of pre-cast concrete with an opening in the shape of a spiral aligned to the summer solstice. At sunrise on the summer solstice, sunlight enters the Solstice Window and collimates a shaft of light across the Museum’s Great Hall projecting the form of a spiral onto the opposite wall. Each summer, the Center of Southwest Studies, located on the campus of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, opens before sunrise on the day of the solstice (around 5:45 am). The public is invited to come be a part of this annual celebration. More info at The Center of Southwest Studies. Thanks to Don Asquin, astronomer extraordinaire, for collaborating on this project. Video by Christina Knickerbocker.

Biomatrices are two 226 sq. ft. marble, granite, sandstone, and stainless steel public art floors located in the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment’s Laboratory and Radiation Services facility in Denver, Colorado. The two designs pair trefoil symbols of biotechnology with Arapaho iconography at the major pedestrian intersections within the facility, forming a visual matrix (ideogram) designating the air, water, and human environments upon which all activities of this facility flow.

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An outdoor 500 sq. ft., 1500-piece granite mosaic station sidewalk at the busiest RTD light rail station in downtown Denver, Colorado (16th Street and California). The Ha-no-oo: Star Calendar is an unprecedented ten-thousand year journey across the night skies of Colorado recorded in the constellations of twenty-three indigenous nations of this region. Light rail commuters can look down at the platform and up into the sky and recognize a metaphor for navigation and guidance by the stars. All the star names resulted from first-hand research and direct conversations with over fifty elders. “When language touches the earth,” writes N. Scott Momaday, “there is the holy, there is the sacred.” Twenty-one languages are present. Reviewed in Art Papers, Leonardo, and Public Art Review.