Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Sullivan.
A linguist by training (B.A. in French and Latin), she is also an award-winning composer and performer. Her one-woman theatre piece about Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill won the Independent Reviewers of New England prize and her Fugitum Est was premiered by The Kremlin Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Her setting of PINOCCHIO for string quartet, narrator, hammer, chisel and musical saw was premiered by The Providence Quartet.
She has given many solo performances, singing, playing the piano, guitar or, on special occasions, the musical saw! At the moment, she is concentrating on Brazilian bossa nova jazz guitar. Kate’s paintings can be found in private collections world-wide.
Her one-woman show at The Paula Estey Gallery in Newburyport, MA featured bird-infused slants on beloved impressionist painters. Two of her avian knock-offs were recently part of an international juried show at The Beacon Gallery in Boston. Most recently, The Newburyport Daily News has begun running It’s a Dog’s Life, a popular series of Kate’s drawings of dog owners and their people.
Kate has written and illustrated two picture books On Linden Square, published by Sleeping Bear Press, available on Amazon and your independent bookstore. What Do You Hear? is due out in the Fall. Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, the board book features ten quirky orchestra musicians and their cocky conductor.
Please tell us about your art.
My journey through art-making began many years ago, when I took a plein air painting course at The Montserrat School of Art. One course led to another, one medium led to another, one art school to another, from Cambridge Center for Adult Ed to The Boston Center to Rhode Island School of Design. Over the years, I have painted with oils, watercolor, acrylic, pastels, charcoal. Portrait work led me to the Second Story Theatre in Warren, RI, where I was the resident artist, painting quick sketches and paintings of artists in rehearsal.
Plein air work taught me to see and feel in the wild and wooly outdoors. A plein air painting is alive with the feeling of the day, the wind, the heat, the beauty of the world around us. I have also enjoyed painting night café scenes, charcoal and pastel portraits, watercolor portraits and landscapes and various animals. I am drawn to animals with human personalities! I am always intrigued by human characters, everyday life and then of course there’s my takeoffs of impressionist paintings with birds substituted for humans. (It all started with the ostriches that lived in my neighborhood. They showed up in a fanciful setting with John Singer Sargent’s musicians in the background.) Recently, I’ve been really enjoying capturing my travels (in Italy and most recently Havana) with quick pen and ink wash sketches. I am also painting digitally on an iPad — travel sketches and lately, quick drawings of dogs and the people who walk them. Those drawings appear weekly in The Newburyport Daily News’ It’s a Dog’s Life.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
Kurt Vonnegut
We are all artists. We will not all find fame and fortune as artists but we will find out more about ourselves. In these days of too much Facebook and too many celebrity shows, we need to realize that we ALL have the power to create.
We make the mistake of thinking that only the famous and the celebrated know how to sing, paint or write. We see their work and feel overwhelmed. The finished product looks daunting. “I couldn’t possibly do that.”
But finished products didn’t start that way. They started with one brave step to try something. What colors please you? What poems are you attracted to? What musical instrument have you always wanted to try?
We learn so much about ourselves every time we make a choice.
Write a few words about your grandchild. (Don’t call it a poem. That will only scare you off.) Take a pencil and draw your dog. (Don’t whine that you can’t draw a straight line.) Get an old guitar and learn a few chords. – you only need three to sing just about every song you could think of! Write a paragraph to describe the kitchen in your childhood home.
I have spent my adult life (aside from raising four children), trying to do things I didn’t know how to do. Playing the organ made me dizzy. Singing in an operatic voice made me feel like a fake. Painting very detailed watercolors was not my cup of tea. My nature poems sound phoney. But in the process of trying all those things, I learned that songwriting fed my soul, looser paintings please me, and that I’m more attracted to Fats Waller than Mozart. (Well, maybe that’s not true.)
I keep trying, amassing a resumé of failures and successes, along with a life full of accomplishments and rich memories. You can do it too. In the process of doing these things, we get to know ourselves better. We become better people. We grow our souls. The hardest thing is to begin.
Do it.
Pursuing art, exploring one’s creative talents, is a lifelong journey. There are ups and downs, successes, failures, fame and notoriety and the quiet pursuit. Artwork is not known to be the fast track to easy street! And art made out of desperation to make a living, runs the risk of being not from the heart.
It’s a delicate balance, a careful dance — to make enough money to be able to make art, but will you have enough energy at the end of the day to create anything? I think our art-making benefits from feeling secure in our ability to survive. Survival first, with art-making right on its heels! And of course, there are a lucky few who put it all together and make lots of money with art from the heart.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work is often featured and available for sale at The Paula Estey Gallery in Newburyport, MA. You can also visit my website at www.sullyarts.com and on Instagram @sullyarts. Originals and high-quality prints are available. (I’m working on how to display it all!). Contact me for more info: sullykate@msn.com
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sullyarts.com
- Instagram: @sullyarts
Image Credit:
Courtesy of the artist
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