James Parlin is a sculptor and a professor of art.  He lives and works in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.

Parlin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954.  His father was a lawyer and his mother a homemaker.  He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  He has two sisters, Ruth, a legal librarian, now retired, and Kathryn, an energy conservation consultant. 

Parlin studied Religious Thought as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  He received his MFA in Sculpture from Penn in 1981. 

He has been a professor for decades, starting as an adjunct faculty member at Drexel University in Philadelphia before receiving a tenure-line position in the Art Department at Pennsylvania Western University – Edinboro, where he teaches sculpture, drawing, and three-dimensional design.  He served as the department chairperson for twelve years.

He shows his work in a variety of regional and national venues and is represented by the Schmidt Dean Gallery in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. 

Parlin is married to Dr. Elisabeth Joyce, a professor of English at Pennsylvania Western University – Edinboro.  Their family includes their son, Cyrus, their daughter, Ursula, and their daughter-in-law, Caroline Crew.