“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” — Edgar Degas

And what you make others feel, according to Robin Frisella, a pastel artist based in southern New Hampshire who loves nothing better than to make people cry. Well, to have her work connect so profoundly with viewers that they react with intense emotion.

That reaction is based primarily on nostalgia. Something almost magical exists in her work that engages the viewer to the point where they are often moved to tears. It might be a white enameled pan like your grandmother had. Or a pitcher that Aunt Eloise kept in her root cellar.

“I just love simple things. And old things that are reminders of the past a simpler time. It makes me happy. And people connect with it,” said Frisella, who’s pretty much self-taught. No formal training, but lots of classes under the tutelage of artists who knew what they were doing. Along with her insatiable drive to execute her own vision, she’s reinvented the way pastels are presented and it’s moved the medium to front and center.

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