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Windsor Terrace artist and lung cancer survivor Frank Noll has used painting to cope with uncertain times. Photo by Frank Noll
Keep calm, paint on
W’Terrace cancer survivor’s paintings provide needed stress relief
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 17-23, 2020 15
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Brooklyn cancer survivor has
channeled his hopeful outlook on life
through painting landscapes of the
borough and beyond.
Windsor Terrace resident Frank
Noll has turned his hobby of putting
brush to canvas into a coping tool
ever since he was diagnosed with
lung cancer in 2014 and he said that it
has helped him remain thankful for
life, even on its toughest days.
“It was one of the tools to help me
get through hard times,” Noll said.
The 68-year-old has been in his
second remission after a lung resection
surgery in 2019, when doctors
removed half of his left lung to battle
the disease, but he said that even after
all the treatment, his art has kept
him positive.
“I can get into a fl ow doing my art,
not thinking about the what-ifs,” he
said.
One of his works, an oil on canvas
of a beach sunrise scene titled “Another
Day,” was one of 12 works chosen
out of more than 50 submissions
by the cancer focused medical magazine
Cancer Updates Research and
Education for their 2020 calendar,
and he said the painting refl ects his
appreciation for life.
“To me, watching the sun come up
when you’re out there in the morning,
it’s a reminder that it’s another
day, another day of life,” he said.
The artwork is based off of a
beach on Long Island, but the artist
has also painted some scenes closer
to home, such as the Brooklyn and
Verrazzano bridges.
With the current outbreak of the
respiratory disease COVID-19, Noll
has had to take extra care of his
health, but he said that his battle
with cancer has prepared him to face
the stresses of a health crisis.
“We all know that we’re going
to die some day, but we think that’s
some far off day in the future,” he
said. “When I was diagnosed it
brought me to a moment to think
about how important life is. I think
I’m much more prepared with dealing
with what’s going on and it hasn’t
hit me as stressfully as some of my
friends.”
Noll advised that keeping a routine
helped him during uncertain
times and he continues to stick to
his schedule even as the coronavirus
confi nes him mostly to the indoors
and his back yard.
“My wife loves it, because I’m doing
all the things she’s asked me to
do, like clean and organize,” he said.
A competitive bike rider and
walker, he still ventures into Prospect
Park — but limits his visits to
Brooklyn’s backyard to no later than
5:30 am to beat the crowds.
“Just to keep as physically active
as you can,” he said. “For me, getting
out and continuing to do that is important.”
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