Frank Parisi

Frank Parisi received his BFA from the University of Buffalo in 1985, and his MFA in 1992 from Brooklyn College with a focus in photography. His first job was in a vocational school teaching photography to emotionally disturbed and learning disabled adolescents. He then spent a year as an Art Therapist in a day treatment center out east, before finishing his career teaching art to elementary school kids. He recently retired after 37 years as an art educator, but never stopped creating his own work. Over the years he dabbled in print-making, painting, ceramics, glass design and photography. In 1990 Frank moved into the outskirts of Park Slope. $600 got him an entire floor on Carroll St. between 3rd and 4th aves in a ram-shackled 3 story building with blue shag carpeting in the living room, and faux brick walls in the kitchen. Termites were eating almost every stick of wood they could get their mouths on. This mess would eventually become his home in 1998 when he bought it from his absentee landlord for an unspeakable low price. Carroll St between 3-4th aves was one of the safest neighborhoods in the area. Every one living within a 2 block radius was either related to some one, or was the 3rd generation to have grown up in their homes. Frank was the first out-sider to buy in this insular Italian neighborhood. On warm summer days, groups of silver haired ladies would sit out in front of their houses in lawn chairs and house dresses, talking the dirt about every one who walked by. The men gathered out in front of the Glory Social Club smoking cigars, and talking about the game. On the 4th of July, fireworks displays in the center of 3rd ave created a crater in the middle of the block as a result of the intense heat. When they were done, the sanitation trucks would clean up the debris, the black top trucks would come to fill the holes, While the cops sat watching. At the time, the area around the Gowanus canal was not developed. It was the perfect place for your dog to “unload”, the perfect place to throw out a mattress, and the perfect place to dump a body. It also has become the prefect place to live.