Gordon Parnell was born and raised on Hornby Island, but spent the better part of the last 40 years a semi-retired expat living in Baja California, Mexico–including the founding of a US public corporation, my founder’s shares worth four million at the opening bell. Not all tacos and margaritas.

Having survived all that. . . .Gordon now lives on Texada Island, located just 28Km across the sea from his childhood playground immortalised in a song by John McLachlan, titled Shingle Spit Song. Gordon at the corner of Parnell and Shingle Spit roads.

Untouched by formal arts training, Gordon developed a clear style and personal methodology for making highly expressive abstract sculptures.

His first 100+ sculptures (2012+) were made from beach debris (shells, bone, and wood). Twenty of these sea shell sculptures are on display in the Estero Beach Museum (Museo Del Estero) in Ensenada, BC, Mexico.

The ideas expressed in the sea shell sculptures were eventually expressed in paper (LA Times) in the form of people-sized paper sculptures; the first one being almost three meters long and weighing 30+ kilos. Over several years nineteen of these people-sized sculptures were created.

It was a revelation when in 2020, Gordon switched to making (smaller) table-top sculptures. A tenth the size of a people-sized sculpture; he could now create ten times more sculptures in the same amount of time, and did.

As of June 2025, there are about 20+ sculptures at Gordon’s studio on Texada island.

And it would feel incomplete not to mention the origins of the two most distinctive design elements of Gordon’s sculptures; portraying motion and one-off multi-layered paint jobs.

Both design elements were gleamed from conversations with one of BC’s most beloved artists, Bernhard Thor. Motion and color (pigment!) theory were among the daily (45 minute) lectures Bernhard delivered while travelling to/from the worksite at Gunn lake in the summer of 2007.

Artist Statement:
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “You can learn a lot about sculpture just by making them.”

Saludos, Gordon