Catherine Chastain’s life revolved around her creative skills and her desire to help others. She loved to cook and entertain her many friends, but her primary focus was her art. An avid painter, Catherine also worked as a graphic artist, owned her own graphic design studio and later served as Creative Director at Allie Beth Allman & Associates and Marketing Director at Dave Perry Miller & Assoc. The Dallas native and Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center patient also knew how art could help people cope with illness. Even during her last days battling colon cancer, Catherine would head to her canvas to paint or make cards that she would give to friends.
“Catherine used art to express her feelings of joy and happiness. During her illness, she also used art as a way to cope with the frustrations, sadness and other emotions that accompanied her cancer journey”, said longtime friend Janna Schick, executor of Catherine’s estate.
Because of Catherine’s care at Baylor, after her death in September 2017, the Foundation was notified of a bequest of a large portion of the proceeds of her estate - $1,000,000 - which will benefit the Arts in Medicine Program at Baylor University Medical Center.
“Catherine never wanted to draw attention to herself so she never talked about her illness”, Janna said. “She went to work every day no matter how sick she was. She had a sense of purpose about her work and felt a great responsibility to her team. Her thought was, ‘I can’t let this illness get me down because my work is important and others need me’.”
But when she went home, Catherine painted. “I believe her painting enabled her to get her deeper emotions out on canvas, allowing her to head back to work with a positive attitude”, Janna said. “As her illness progressed, she gave much of her later art away. Everyone loved her art and I think she did this as a going away gift to people. It was her way of leaving something to friends to remember her by, because it was part of her.”
An art therapist with the Arts in Medicine program at Baylor University Medical Center, agrees. “Art and art therapy have a major psychotherapeutic aspect. The main goal of psychotherapy is to gain insight. Through insight, you have more control. And with more control, you have empowerment. So art can literally let you see what you are feeling.”
The Arts in Medicine Program at Baylor University Medical Center integrates the visual, music and performing arts to promote healing and enhance the lives of our patients, their families, visitors and caregivers. It also builds on community partnerships around the arts, health and medicine. And it is wholly supported by philanthropy.
At the Open Art Studio, in the Virginia R. Cvetko Patient Education & Support Center at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, patients, families and staff come together every day around art. “Having artistic talent has nothing to do with our studio”, says Ashley Jones, art therapist. “Some use art to work through emotions like fear, anger, frustration. Others find joy making things for themselves or others. There’s no agenda here and no pressure. It’s just a safe, happy place to be around people who understand and who encourage one another as they deal with difficult illness.” Susan Sayles, manager of Cvetko Center agrees. “Arts in Medicine deals with healing modalities that have nothing to do with medicine. We are more than a disease process, and this program seeks to help patients reconnect with that part of them that’s whole.”
“I can’t think of a better way for Catherine to be remembered”, Janna said. “She always said she wanted to find a way to help others who were going through the stages of illness as she did, and this will be an ongoing way for her dream to come true.”
To honor Catherine’s life, the Open Art Studio has been formally named the Catherine Chastain Open Art Studio, a fitting tribute to a woman whose passion for art will continue through countless patients, families and caregivers who enter its doors.