PATTI SULLIVAN | AN ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Delving Into Ancestry

PATTI SULLIVAN | AN ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I am a self-taught lifelong artist, somewhat late to the game of getting my work into the public arena of publications and exhibiting. They tell us time marches on, but for the lucky ones engrossed in their creative processes, time can be ignored. We get to live in a world that may have been opened to us long ago by a kind teacher—one who told us it was okay to keep on painting Angelfish every day.

Taking inspiration from nature, my art has evolved over the years into being completely abstract, which brings me the most joy—though I don’t mind hearing, I like the one of the lady in the moon or lovely calla lilies, even though there are no ladies or lilies pictured. I had just finished a series of mixed media pieces all in gray, black, and white when I read of the Santa Fe Literary Review’s theme, “Lovely, Dark, and Deep: Journeys Real and Imagined.” I was happy to have this one chosen as it seems to have the most movement. I’ve titled it “Delving Into Ancestry” after discovering a connection to Indigenous people. Curiosity ignited the flame of learning more, as the world keeps opening still after all these years.

Patti Sullivan is a native Californian artist and poet. Her art appears in Black Fox Literary Journal, Evening Street Review, Café Solo, Lummox, The Healing Muse, Sow’s Ear, ArtLife, and elsewhere. She has participated in group and solo exhibits. Her poetry books are For The Day, Not Fade Away, and At The Booth Memorial Home For Unwed Mothers 1966.