For seven years I lived in a striking landscape. Mountains shoot from the valley floor. Rivers run as clear as air. I was too afraid to stand in it alone. I was convinced that the grizzly wildlife would strike me from behind, streaking my canvas with blood and immortalizing me in all the wrong ways.
I got past that last week. I was back in Teton Valley ID for a visit. I had just launched the biggest project of my career on a crowd-funding platform and I was excited to see it succeed. I had been consumed by it. I dreamt about it for almost 20 years. I put in the hours. I focused all of my energy on it. I spent money we didn’t have. I put potential FingerSmear jobs on the back burner. I wanted to rock the clubhouse with this philanthropic gig of a lifetime.
I am not one to tout the pains in this world. They are there. A blind man can see them well. My life and my art are about the beauty that lives, and the world that I believe is possible. Through it, I will connect a generation of girls. I will inspire them to be stronger and more fully engaged in their future. I will tell them to forge the future THEY see – not the one that others see for them.
I have dedicated my life to art and this collaboration is possible because I’m taken by the power of it. My drive to communicate through paint is vital to everything I have to offer this world. For me, everything I do in art – teach, collaborate, FingerSmear, or paint in the solitude of my studio – must all coexist together. They all go hand in hand. They are more powerful together than they are alone – just like mighty fingers…
I drove out to the end of the road, to that same valley floor where I’ve seen the wild life roam many times before. I set up my easel and I painted. I ignored the phone and worried not about the bears. My mood turned from anxiety and exhaustion to peace. The shifting of colors absorbed me. The quiet covered my fearful mind, and I was gone.
I am working to raise funds for my project that I know will shift life for the girls that participate in it. My paintings will help me move Mighty Fingers Facing Change from one place to the next. My art is what makes this project possible. It’s what gives me the ability to think that I can take this canvas around the world, and the strength to make it happen.
I can stand alone in the wilderness. I am not afraid anymore. But the fact is, most of the time I prefer a bit of company.
challenge to paint,” she explains. “You observe something and it quickly changes. But the design must remain the same on your canvas whether the sun does or not.” On other pieces, we meet the Faces of the Earth, a series of portraits Sullivan paints from live models and people she has encountered in her travels. “Some faces just scream, ‘Paint me,’” she says. “When that happens, I just ask people if they would be willing to sit for a painting.” Sullivan, born and raised in Hunterdon County, has even found inspiration in her own backyard. “I am working on a series of oil portrait sketches from the Lambertville area,” she adds. “There are a lot of characters around here, and I feel more home here than anywhere I have
been for a long, long time.” Her series will be used as a portfolio presentation at next month’s Art of The Portrait Conference, produced by the Portrait Society of America, in Philadelphia. As a predominantly self-taught artist, Sullivan is always pushing beyond her creative comfort zones. “We are never done learning,” she says, “All hard-working painters know that.” Sullivan recently challenged herself to create the Simple Pleasures series: one painting a day for 30 days to reflect on our collective tendency to overlook the simple things in a world of increasing instant gratification and a growing dependence on technology. The project led to a solo show and an invitation to paint at the Bitter End Yacht Club in the Caribbean for two weeks. “I am very project-oriented,” Sullivan adds. “It starts with an idea, which is carried out for a certain period of time, and then it’s done. And a new one begins” Take Sullivan’s collaborative project entitled FingerSmears. Conceived over 15 years ago in San Francisco, these lively representative works of art on life-size canvases are created under Sullivan’s direction as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people dab their fingers in paint and add to the work. Initially developed as part of a hands-on arts festival she produced in the 1990s, it grew as Sullivan learned more about the growing trend toward trimming arts education in public schools: “Self-expression is a basic human need. We can either teach our kids a productive way to express themselves or see it played out in less-attractive ways.” After securing financial backing through grants and sponsorships and using her own money, from humble beginnings the first FingerSmears grew into many. To date, almost 70,000 participants have been willing to stick their fingers in paint for the greater good, including celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, members of the Rolling Stones,
Carol Burnett, Willem Dafoe and Harrison Ford. “Yes, I get to fingerpaint for a living,” Sullivan says, a smile revealing the obvious joy she has in her work. “That’s pretty cool.” These days, Sullivan is working on the development of a global FingerSmears project, a dedicated practice of classical oil painting and her newest endeavor: teaching at the Robert Beck Academy in Lambertville. “I’ve learned so much over the past several years, and I can see a massive shift in my own work,” she explains. “I’m excited to share it with it anyone else that is so inclined.
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