Founder Owner

Kathy O’Connell
(Katdazzle)

Hi, I’m Kathy O’Connell — though most people know me as Katdazzle.

Artist, puppeteer, storyteller… and an adult who still sees the world like a curious kid peeking behind the curtain.

If we were meeting in person, I’d probably have a puppet in one hand, a carving knife in the other, and sawdust in my hair.

⭐ Where it all began

I like to joke that I started drawing on my mother’s womb walls. Honestly? It’s not far from the truth. From the start, art was my anchor — especially when life threw me into the deep end.

I spent time in an orphanage after my parents divorced, and art became the quiet corner I could control. It helped the chaos make sense. It helped me make sense. It also had a handy side effect: people liked me more when I drew them. I found out that people let artists get away with a little more eccentricity.

⭐ Becoming a puppeteer at 60 (yes, really)

My first puppet wasn’t born out of a grand plan.

It was born because I wanted to be in a burlesque show…but felt too old.

So, naturally, I made a life-size burlesque puppet to do the act for me.

That’s the moment everything in my creative universe snapped into place.

Since then, puppetry has become the perfect storm of everything I love and everything I’ve studied: art, science, psychology, writing, history, humor, nature, storytelling — all threaded together with string.

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⭐ Creating puppets is my favorite kind of magic

A puppet begins as a silent block of wood. But somewhere between carving and sanding, it wakes up. It grows a personality. A soul. A stubborn streak.

I’ve been known to talk to them.

(They don’t talk back… yet. Don’t worry, we’re all fine.)

⭐What my shows are really about

My stories are sweet, wild, funny, historical, heartbreaking, hopeful — whatever the moment needs. I want people to learn something without ever feeling like they’re in school.

Comedy is my favorite Trojan horse.

If you’re laughing, you’re learning — and you don’t even notice. I call it sneaky teaching.

⭐Nature & history: my two lifelong love affairs

Nature was my refuge as a child. I’d disappear into the woods, sit beneath a tree, and wait for fairies who never showed up but somehow always left me feeling seen.

History, on the other hand, is my rabbit hole.

I love imagining the untold stories between the cracks — the ones we’ll never find in textbooks but can feel in old houses and forgotten fields.

Both threads find their way into my work:

People leave my shows knowing a little more than they arrived — and laughing more than they expected.

⭐️ The tiny ripples that keep me going

I create because I have to — it’s the itch I must scratch — but every now and then, someone tells me something that makes me realize these stories matter more than I knew.

Someone saw my Bee show and said,

“I don’t kill dandelions anymore. I save them for the bees.”

Someone watched Cabin Fever and told me,

“I’ll think of the Worry Bears when I’m anxious — and boo them quiet.”

Those are tiny things.

But tiny things change the world.