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Links from the Show at a Glance:

 

Artist: Kali Parsons

Title of Art: Hold Me & Play With Me

Artist’s Website: kaliparsons.com

Instagram: @kaliparsonsart

Take a look at all of Kali’s available originals

 

If the originals have already sold before you can get to them, she’d be happy to sell you a print by request, just shoot her a message!

 

Artists Helping Artists – the podcast for artists that led me to Kali! (It’s on a break right now, but there are 8 years of archived episodes you can still dig into!)

 

Art Ink Submission Guidelines: rebekahnemethy.com/artinksubs

 

 

Art Ink Podcast Transcript:

 

[Intro:]

 

Welcome back to another episode of Art Ink! I’m so thrilled you’re joining us today.

 

If you listened to the last show, The Synchronicity of Hope, you may already be familiar with Kali Parsons’ work, but the truth is there’s a lot about Kali that I neglected to tell you. I guess that’s what happens when you’re too close to something or someone, because although I’ve never met Kali in person, and until last week I didn’t even know how to properly pronounce her name, I do consider Kali to be a dear friend.

 

I met her on Twitter several years ago and we quickly became retweeting buddies, always sharing each other’s work in our streams. And though we became friends on social media, it was because of a podcast called Artists Helping Artists that led me to Kali’s work in the first place. One of the hosts described this fascinating site called Daily Paintworks, where artists are encouraged to complete small paintings every day. Kali’s been painting for nearly a decade now, and for many of those years she did it without missing a single day! #artistgoals Am I right?!?

 

Her bright, colorful, playful style was what I was drawn to at first, but it was her writing that pulled me in completely. At the time she was the only other artist I could find that maintained a blog that complimented her work. The words she shared let me into her world, let me get to know her in a way that her paintings alone couldn’t do. Don’t get me wrong, her work is stunning, and I have one of her whimsical originals in my bedroom to prove it. But what I’m trying to hint at here is the fact that you could be the most talented artist in the world, but in my humble opinion, you have to share more than that to make a real connection with people. And there’s no better way to do that than by sharing a bit of your story.

 

Kali is authentic and raw in her writing, so I’m beyond grateful that she’s allowing me to share some of it with you today.

 

In addition to being a prolific artist, Kali is also a special education teacher. Through everything she shares about teaching, creating with, and connecting to these kids, it’s obvious that Kali loves what she does very much.

 

For those of you unable to look at the cover art, we’re featuring two of Kali’s paintings today, let me attempt to paint these pictures with words until you have a chance to check them out for yourself:

 

[Art Description:]

 

Both paintings are a whimsical combination of shapes, colors, and paint splatters. They both have a blend of orange and green background colors splashed with a bit of black and white, and they both feature abstractly shaped main subjects that remind me of toys and stuffed animals.

 

In the one titled Play With Me, I see the love child of E.T. and a frog, and maybe that robot from Short Circuit? Ya know, “number 5 is alive.” It resembles a toy, a thick-bodied chunky toy that tapers up towards a triangular head. Its body is white, with yellow and blue circles floating amongst thick rectangular brush strokes. Red squares of paint fill the big round frog-like eyes. On either side of its body, the froggy has big circles that seem to show motion, as if it is, in fact, a robot spinning its arms too fast to see.

 

The other painting, Hold Me, looks like a stuffed bear. Maybe a panda bear? Like our froggy friend, our panda bear friend also has a white base, with pink, black and white circles inside of circles for eyes. These pink bullseye-looking shapes appear on the bear’s paws and legs too, with some red and yellow ones thrown in for good measure. Yellow, blue and red squares sparsely decorate the bear’s body too.

 

In pure Kali style, the area surrounding both toys is filled with shapes and splatters that just scream fun!

 

In my eyes, this is a perfect example of how Kali uses her paintings to shine light into the world, despite the heaviness of what we’ve all been feeling lately.

 

Before we dig into Kali’s prose, I want to give you some context in case you’re listening from the future, we’re coming to you from the summer of 2020 amidst much chaos and uncertainty in a rapidly changing world.

 

Each of the following stories first appeared on Kali’s blog alongside her beautiful art.

 

 

[Story:]

 

July 9th – Play With Me

 

As an Early Childhood Special Education teacher, teaching children social skills, how to work, solve problems, and play together are among my primary and favorite objectives. We teach, and children learn, through play. This coming school year instead of teaching my three, four, and five year old students with disabilities how to play and socialize together I will be put in the position of teaching them how to stay apart…distanced. How harmful will it be to the children in our society to be taught to suffocate that internal urge to be with, beside, and among their peers? How harmful will it be to be taught that when they want to empathize with a friend who is sad or hurt that they must stay away? How harmful will it be to be taught that when they want to play that they must sit away from friends and only play with their own set of toys? In person teaching before we can safely be in close proximity has dangers far beyond contracting the virus.

 

July 13th – Hold Me

 

In my sixteen years of teaching I have never had a first day of school (or any day, really) when every student just walked right in, happy to say “good bye” to their parents, and smoothly joined their peers in learning and play. Very few of my students do this. Many of my students need (and deserve) to be hugged and held through this transition that is such a leap into the great unknown for them. I’ve hugged and held students at drop off for days, weeks, and sometimes months until they adjusted, hugging and holding three, four, and five year old children who do not fully comprehend this transition or just simply want their mom and dad. And while hugging one child others invariably come over to join the hug. I’ve had parents have to enter my classroom while still holding their children and in a tangle of arms, mine, the parent’s, and the child’s, I take over the comforting of these children as their parents make an exit and I give them a friendly look over their child’s shoulder or wave, reassuring them that their child will be OK. This is something I’ve embraced as part of my job.

This school year my students will be being dropped off with a shielded and masked teacher that they may or may not recognize (even though I will be doing a Zoom meetings with them before school starts showing myself putting all of my PPE on). They will have just been through whatever screening protocols the district decides upon and gone through some process of getting to my room. Being upset by this transition is to be expected and understandable. In the current crisis requiring distance, how can I comfort my students and keep them and myself safe. How can I lean in and be part of a tangle of arms? How can I reassure parents that it’s going to be OK?  It’s possible that some of my students may be able to wear a mask, but it will likely be beyond many of their comprehension, tolerance, and ability to do so for an entire school day.

So much to think about and this is just the first five or so minutes of each school day.

 

 

[Conclusion:]

 

I’m sure school is already back in session for many of you. Where I am in NY there are still a couple of weeks left before kids go back to school, and as someone who is only a parent to furry and feathered kids, I haven’t been informed on what new policies will be implemented this year in my area.

 

But I think that Kali brings up some valid concerns. Forced separation could be dangerous path to go down, especially for young children… and I hope every day that it’s only temporary.

 

Big virtual hugs to Kali for sharing her work with us today. You can discover more of Kali’s whimsical art at kaliparsons.com and please do go follow her on Instagram @kaliparsonsart.

 

Both paintings that are featured in the cover art of this episode are still for sale at the time of this recording. They’re 12×16 mixed media paintings on watercolor paper and you can bet your booty there will be a link in the show notes to where you can purchase those as well as all the other linkable things that were mentioned today.

 

And that’s a wrap, my friends, thank you all so much for listening. If you enjoyed this show be sure to subscribe so that you can hear me later. Buh bye now, buh bye!

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