A slide show based on my book, "Inspired by Color," that describes my art.
Kathy Cadow Parsonnet
About
Kathy Cadow Parsonnet is a visual artist who has combined a lifelong passion for playing with art materials with a professional career in public health and education. Since 2002, much of her work as been devoted to bringing together the field of art and health. In 2005, Kathy established the Creative Arts Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and later started the program for the Infusion Suite at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Presently, she offers group workshops
Through her work as a therapeutic artist, Parsonnet developed a number of art forms designed to engage people of all abilities in the process of visual expression. Her current business (Fraglets® Art) operates out of her studio at the Tip Top Media and Arts Center in White River Junction, Vermont. In her studio, she paints original paintings on magnetic surfaces, which she then cuts into organic shapes that can be arranged, layered, and adjusted at will on any metal surface. Students, patients, professionals, and artists who have participated in her Experiential Workshops using Fraglets Art have described the experience of this "art play" as being "centering," "like visual yoga," "stress-reducing," and "like putting my brain in vacation mode."
Parsonnet is also a consultant. For over ten years, she was an Expert Consultant with the Global Alliance for Arts and Health and National Endowment for the Arts, helping hospitals, hospices, and community organizations integrate the arts into healthcare settings. It is the perfect opportunity to draw upon over 30 years' experience as a public health professional, researcher, and educator, and merge it with her passion for creative expression.
Although painting the colors and assembling the compositions for her Fraglets® Art offers creative pleasure, Kathy unwinds and regenerates by painting in oils, making artist books, and getting messy with papier-maché. She particularly loves the freedom of painting the quick sketches that require complete bypass of left-brain activity. She thinks of these small pieces as a visual poetry, whose simple strokes capture best the essence of what matters.
Why does she do all this? Ask most artists why they do what they do, and you’ll likely hear that they have to. Their healthy spirit depends on it.
Artist Statement
I love to paint, to dip a brush, sponge, or finger into a pot of paint and smoosh it with another color to see what happens.
I do not think ahead. I prefer to first make my mark and then try to "fix" the appearance as I go.
Sometimes I even start by making it as ugly (e.g. muddy or garish) as possible. It gives me a place to start. This process is, to me, a metaphor for the art of piecing together the elements of life. Nothing is static, and even the tangible is ephemeral. Rarely does a plan or recipe produce predictable outcomes. The art of recovery and appreciation, for what you can make do with what you've got, matters more.
Fraglets® Art is an example of how easily the colorful elements of one creator's piece can become a new masterpiece of another's. It is my way of sharing what I make in an interactive and tangible way for others to experience. It is an art form with shared ownership and unlimited possibilities. Like life and its stories, there is always room to revisit, recycle, and revise. It’s what we do every day in our relationships, jobs, and personal quests, only a little prettier.
~ Kathy Cadow Parsonnet
Kathy Cadow Parsonnet is a visual artist who has combined a lifelong passion for playing with art materials with a professional career in public health and education. Since 2002, much of her work as been devoted to bringing together the field of art and health. In 2005, Kathy established the Creative Arts Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and later started the program for the Infusion Suite at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Presently, she offers group workshops
Through her work as a therapeutic artist, Parsonnet developed a number of art forms designed to engage people of all abilities in the process of visual expression. Her current business (Fraglets® Art) operates out of her studio at the Tip Top Media and Arts Center in White River Junction, Vermont. In her studio, she paints original paintings on magnetic surfaces, which she then cuts into organic shapes that can be arranged, layered, and adjusted at will on any metal surface. Students, patients, professionals, and artists who have participated in her Experiential Workshops using Fraglets Art have described the experience of this "art play" as being "centering," "like visual yoga," "stress-reducing," and "like putting my brain in vacation mode."
Parsonnet is also a consultant. For over ten years, she was an Expert Consultant with the Global Alliance for Arts and Health and National Endowment for the Arts, helping hospitals, hospices, and community organizations integrate the arts into healthcare settings. It is the perfect opportunity to draw upon over 30 years' experience as a public health professional, researcher, and educator, and merge it with her passion for creative expression.
Although painting the colors and assembling the compositions for her Fraglets® Art offers creative pleasure, Kathy unwinds and regenerates by painting in oils, making artist books, and getting messy with papier-maché. She particularly loves the freedom of painting the quick sketches that require complete bypass of left-brain activity. She thinks of these small pieces as a visual poetry, whose simple strokes capture best the essence of what matters.
Why does she do all this? Ask most artists why they do what they do, and you’ll likely hear that they have to. Their healthy spirit depends on it.
Artist Statement
I love to paint, to dip a brush, sponge, or finger into a pot of paint and smoosh it with another color to see what happens.
I do not think ahead. I prefer to first make my mark and then try to "fix" the appearance as I go.
Sometimes I even start by making it as ugly (e.g. muddy or garish) as possible. It gives me a place to start. This process is, to me, a metaphor for the art of piecing together the elements of life. Nothing is static, and even the tangible is ephemeral. Rarely does a plan or recipe produce predictable outcomes. The art of recovery and appreciation, for what you can make do with what you've got, matters more.
Fraglets® Art is an example of how easily the colorful elements of one creator's piece can become a new masterpiece of another's. It is my way of sharing what I make in an interactive and tangible way for others to experience. It is an art form with shared ownership and unlimited possibilities. Like life and its stories, there is always room to revisit, recycle, and revise. It’s what we do every day in our relationships, jobs, and personal quests, only a little prettier.
~ Kathy Cadow Parsonnet