Sculptor Teaches Art At Central High School

Acclaimed sculptor Mark Parsons is bringing his talents to the Tulsa Central High School Academy of Fine Arts. Parsons is working this week with AP Biology students. He's teaching them the relationship between science and art.

"They've got a ton of energy. These guys are ready to go. So it's just a matter of leading them in the right direction and they go with it on their own," said Mark Parsons, Sculptor.

"He's an interesting person, like when I read about him I didn't expect him to be as young as he is. He's only 39," said Central High student Kimani Love.

Love likes the sculptor's approach to art.

"There are no mistakes he says. So, if you think it's a mistake, fix it and it might turn out better," said Love.

"He's very inspiring, I've been creative since he's been here," said Lostara McBee.

"I think we had some real success today, because today the exercise was to draw both from the classroom with some of their imagery and from their personal lives and in some of these great projects students were able to marry those two ideas together and I think it makes the science more prescient in their lives, it makes the classroom come alive for them," said Parsons.

"The students are going to work in the classroom and I am going to take some of that artwork cast in wax and create a bronze casting, one large bronze casting, that will be installed in Washington, D.C. outside the Department of Education. Everybody has a capacity as an artist. Being an artist is about communication, it's about critical thinking. These students in the two days I've worked with them have shown amazing capacity to do that, to develop their ideas. So, I encourage anyone who is interested in creating art, whether it's a profession or one to side for themselves or their families to go ahead and do it," said Parsons.

Parsons says he became interested in linking science and art together when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999.

By Chris Howell, Video Journalist. Find more of his stories in our Web Exclusives section.