Kelly Sullivan is an artist, entrepreneur and change maker. Fired up to make art the focus of her life from an early age, she has, and is, forging a fascinating career.
If you think you haven’t seen her work, if you’re a fan of the TV series “Madam Secretary” you almost certainly have.
Early on she created an art piece involving The Rolling Stones (an approach she has also employed with people such as Bruce Springsteen, Harrison Ford, William Dafoe and more.)
She inspires and motivates teams within corporations, she also leads art-oriented workshops to empower teenage girls all over the world, as well as creating and selling her own work.
Her latest project involves bringing new life to a turn of the century theater, building a new and exciting corporate and artistic space.
Listen in and feel inspired!
Kelly Sullivan is an artist, entrepreneur and change maker. Fired up to make art the focus of her life from an early age, she has, and is, forging a fascinating career.
If you think you haven’t seen her work, if you’re a fan of the TV series “Madam Secretary” you almost certainly have.
Early on she created an art piece involving The Rolling Stones (an approach she has also employed with people such as Bruce Springsteen, Harrison Ford, William Dafoe and more.)
She inspires and motivates teams within corporations, she also leads art-oriented workshops to empower teenage girls all over the world, as well as creating and selling her own work.
Her latest project involves bringing new life to a turn of the century theater, building a new and exciting corporate and artistic space.
Listen in and feel inspired!
Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to the powerful feminine leader podcast. Ever other week Im speaking with remarkable women leaders and entrepreneurs who are pushing the boundaries and rewriting the narrative around what it means to be successful, powerful and feminine.
Unknown Speaker 0:10
My name is Sue Begent. I'm a business turned confidence and presence coach for ambitious professional women who want to say goodbye to self doubt and overwhelm and experienced the assurance and success they deserve.
Unknown Speaker 0:23
Join my mailing list Sue@suebegentcoaching.com to receive podcast reminders and free resources to step into all that you are capable of. Thank you for tuning in and get ready to feel inspired and motivated.
Unknown Speaker 0:41
My guest this week is an artist, entrepreneur and change maker. Fired up to make art the focus of her life from an early age she has and is forging a fascinating career.
Unknown Speaker 0:54
If you think you haven't seen her work well, if you're a fan of the TV series, Madam Secretary, you will most certainly have.
Unknown Speaker 1:03
Early on in her life she created an art piece involving the Rolling Stones and approach she's also employed with people such as Bruce Springsteen, Harrison Ford, William Dafoe, and more. She inspires and motivates teams within corporations. She also leads art oriented workshops to empower teenage girls all over the world, as well as creating and selling her own work.
Unknown Speaker 1:27
Her latest project involves bringing new life to a turn of the century theater, building a new and exciting corporate and artistic space.
Unknown Speaker 1:36
It's my pleasure to introduce Kelly Sullivan, Kelly, welcome.
Unknown Speaker 1:42
Thank you I'm so happy to be here. We both live in a beautiful place. In New Jersey on the Delaware River.
Unknown Speaker 1:48
We're lucky - yes we totally are. So I'd like to start by asking you a little bit about you because you have such an interesting story. Tell us about you. You're an artist and tell us what the things that stand out to you on that journey.
Unknown Speaker 2:10
Okay, I am a I am a painter. My grandmother introduced me to art and all things creative at a very early age, in the Pocono Mountains. I would spend a couple weeks up there every summer and that's where I discovered paint and knew from a very early, early time that I wanted, creating to really be the focus of my life.
Unknown Speaker 2:32
I grew up with parents that told me I could do whatever I wanted to do in life and and I believed them. So when it came to the point where I had to make a decision about college and continuing education, that's when I discovered that my parents werent really serious about me choosing whatever I wanted to choose.
Unknown Speaker 2:53
My father was kind of looking for more of maybe a teacher or a nursing degree and things like that, but it was in that time that I really, I mean, I was always kind of let's see if obstinate is the right word. I was I was always very forward and noisy. And I think my mother would probably use the word rambunctious. So when it came time to really stand my ground and say, Ah, I'm being I'm going to be an artist because you told me I could and that's what I'm going to do.
Unknown Speaker 3:23
You did, and they did let you go and study. Well, I didn't.No No. I needed to choose a real major or move on and so I just decided to move on. .
Unknown Speaker 3:38
it wasn't so much a matter of letting, I just chose a chose to pick my own path and follow it.
Unknown Speaker 3:45
Tell me about what that felt like. Because I think for many of us, that would have been a really difficult thing to do. I'm interested in what it felt like to do that. To just go against what they um
Unknown Speaker 4:06
I spend a lot of my youth going against what they said Anyway,
Unknown Speaker 4:10
so you'd had practice
Unknown Speaker 4:11
I had practice Yeah, I mean, I think I pretty much challenged anything that I grew up in a very strict Catholic household Catholic school, church every Sunday dressed a particular way. And I was not shy about my opinions. It was it was scary, and certainly it was there were many, many failures and many, many times I fell on my face and but you know, I I picked myself back up, I guess. So, being a
Unknown Speaker 4:42
Tell me what you learned from all of that?
Unknown Speaker 4:45
That everybody makes mistakes and everybody fails. If you're attempting to do anything that's difficult. It helps to understand that you'll, you know, you'll probably mess up a couple times along the road and there is part of the road to success. Absolutely. Yeah. And and if you're working with, with great people and you, you put out a certain energy, you tend to surround yourself with those kinds of people. Any professional out there understands that, you know, we're all human and sometimes we make mistakes, you know, it's best if you're if you're reliable, and you don't and that comes with experience and an effort.
Unknown Speaker 5:29
But, I mean, nobody sets out to make mistakes do we tend to worry? I think that it will diminish us but actually it gives us more learning more wisdom, more tools. So tell us what happened next. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 5:44
I produced a small event in New Jersey in Spring Lake, a show of varied artists. And that was the first show I produced and then I moved out to the West Coast to San Francisco and I produced a larger event at the for at Fort Mason in San Francisco. And that had
Unknown Speaker 6:00
you painting this time? You were exempted stuff, but yes,
Unknown Speaker 6:03
I had. Well, you know, I had been using mostly mostly dry media because my mother didn't let the paint in the house. So growing up, I used a lot of colored pencils really. And I picked up paint when I moved to San Francisco and loved it. I produced this hands on arts festival that allowed inner city school kids to come in and play and work in studios. So I ran the painting section but I had a sculptor and a paper maker and a mixed media artist and a mask maker and a drum maker and it was it was pretty wildly cool. Haagen Dazs sponsored it. They gave us a lot of ice cream and not not a whole lot of money. But it got us a little bit further and made it all possible but we all had very small budgets and so I had to run this painting section on a couple $100 So I I bought one big canvas and cheap acrylic paint and that's where I created my first finger smear which are these collaborative paintings that I've I've continued to do with events all over the country. So the concept of this finger smear was really born out of a tight budget and and the need to think creatively about how to get it done.
Unknown Speaker 7:11
And now we're gonna talk more about fingers. But for somebody who's listening who's never seen or experienced, I think, just tell us a little bit about that.
Unknown Speaker 7:19
Sure, right by design an image based on the event. Most of them are done at corporate leadership conferences or rare events and I design it and sketch it out and we bring it on location and then all the guests stick their fingers and paint and add marks to it and sign it and I orchestrate it from beginning to end and I always have the pallet so it doesn't get to, you know, wild and out of hand but it's a it's an example of everybody contributing a small piece to the larger picture. And and then I sort of pull them together in the end and they're unveiled and they wind up in corporate offices or it's really a fun way to work and COVID is clearly interrupted that and i i Do I miss that work. It's fun. It's a fun, collaborative way to work with people who don't really often have the opportunity to stick their fingers and paint and it's enjoyable and it's fun and it's fun for them and it's fun for me to bring it to them after producing montage and creating this first finger smear. I had a meeting with somebody in downtown San Francisco to talk about doing one at an event that they were throwing it was a charity event and they were a friend and the PR director from Macy's was sitting next to me and she slipped me her card and said call me honey I can do something with you. So I did call her and that was it. That's when I learned that like that people would actually pay me to show up and create a customized painting at their event and I was rather delighted by this concept. So I I put together marketing materials and I went and did that job at Macy's which was great. It was a flower show and I you know I was paid what I thought was huge money and it was delightful. And the event producer on site. There is still one of my you know, a great friend and a great client and we still do all kinds of fun work together 25 years later, but I had a meeting in a public place and she overheard my enthusiasm and my mic concept and and then I followed through and I did a I did a job that everybody was happy with and I put together a lot of marketing materials and I would come back to the East Coast occasionally and just blank at New York with anybody that would give me an appointment I tried to book appointments days in advance, you know, in advance when I got here and I'm Sue I have never been afraid to talk to people and that's half of it. A lot of the really great work that I've been able to do, just came about because I was I talk about it, I talk to people I meet, they asked what I do, and I tell them I'm not shy about the work that I do. And I'm not shy about the power of art. And you know, 25 years ago when I started doing these, it was a little bit more of a hard sell because you know corporate executives think like okay, my real is my boss. Once you get to do what I say okay, I'm having all of us finger paint this afternoon. But there's so much science behind the power of art. Now these days. I mean, what they've discovered and what they've documented in the last 10 years is I don't have to sell it to anybody now. Corporate America gets it. It's incredibly valuable to get their teams to work more collaboratively together to inspire different ways of thinking it works and it's memorable and it's meaningful. Yes, I would like to say on the flip side of that, being your professional artist, I also have to incorporate math and science and you know all of those other elements into my creative process or I will not make a dime as an artist.
Unknown Speaker 11:01
Tell me more about that.
Unknown Speaker 11:03
It's a balance just as corporate executives are going to benefit from a regular infusion of creativity. I as an artist, I can't run a business without books and records and budgets and proposals. You know, I write a lot of proposals Absolutely. It's a business where we talked a little bit about how my career choice was exactly what my parents had in mind. So I did kind of come into my young adulthood with this intense need to prove myself I didn't feel like I could sort of just rest into being creative and just having that be all there was to it. I mean, it's a it's a fanciful notion, and I love the idea and the older I get the more I want it. I want to never think about money again. I would love love love that. We haven't made that a reality. So So I still think about it, but thankfully I don't have that same intense feeling that I have to prove myself I have to because I'm I feel like I've reached a certain level of success the right word, I guess success where it's not just not so intense, and that really feels a whole lot better. Having to feeling like you have to prove yourself is not not a good feeling. And it's not it's not comfortable to live in. It's probably not as good for the person on the other end of it either. You know, at some point I think you've learned to just not take yourself so seriously, not take life so seriously. No, we're all we're all just trying to do the same thing. We're all just trying to make sure we have a little fun in our day and do something that's meaningful and, and brings us some joy.
Unknown Speaker 12:44
One of the things that I remember is that we were able to see one of your pieces of art on the wall on TV series, madam secretary to tell a little bit about that. That was
Unknown Speaker 12:55
pretty fun. So my My studio is on the third floor of the people's antique store, which is a design center in town that's for stories of very cool interesting things and apparently a lot of set designers come to Lambertville to shop because they can find one of a kind pieces and the set designer came into my studio she said she was making a show about a good politician and I said oh fiction haha you know, we had a laugh and and, and then it was it was probably at least a month later I got an email from somebody saying that she's interested in these pieces, and some of which many of which had already been sold. I didn't have any more so I prepared with the help of my brother in law of really cool document that showed every piece I had available, how it was framed. And if I could print it the sizes that would be available and and what the costs were. So I basically built I built her a catalog over the course of two days and I sent it to her and they purchased nine paintings. I got an email the next day saying boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, we need them all by Thursday. So that was a little bit of a pipe turnaround because it was some of them our life size prints and it but it was wildly exciting and no I surely chuckled all the way to the bank. And every time I saw it on TV, I was thrilled. Simple. That was a very fun thing. I think there's opportunity all over everywhere, especially if you live if you live in the United States in the tri state area. There's, you're surrounded by it. So keeping your eyes open for it, talking about what it is you're trying to. You want to build or what you dream about or what do you consider put making your ideas you know go from rolling around your noggin to verbalizing them, talking about it. That's how things grow. No, somebody said are your ideas come from? I don't know. I just let my imagination go. And I've been doing that forever. I'll walk on the trail with Tom and I'll just have to stop and like look at a tree for a while. He's like, come on, come on. What are you doing? Come on. I'm like come look at that tree. It's amazing. Look at that bend. Look at that sleeves. I think if you slow down, things just come. I've traveled I don't want to say all over the world but a whole lot and if something comes to me that I find really inspiring. I do my best to go make it happen. And sometimes I do and sometimes i i Pour everything I have into it and it still doesn't work. So yeah. Then you kind of move on you know. You know, one of the things that I always I wanted to do early on when I started these fingers smears was to take one around the world. When we moved back here to Lambertville it was it was one of the things I really put high on my list. I was going to I was going to make it happen. So the focus was adolescent girls, which they're the largest underserved community in the world. It's a two part project. So they would create a piece of art that was all about themselves and it was based on a visualization exercise we talked about their community on a broad scale and then on a more personal scale and what they liked and what they wanted to see change and how they can be part of that change. And and we used all words and symbols on one side of the bag so you get them to think visually and and then put that visual on paper and it changes the way your brain starts to function and and then they would flip it over and they would do a self portrait on the other side which had no rules. It could be completely abstract, no rules to the other side at all. And that we've been able to produce that I think we've produced it over 20 into over 20 locations around the world so far. And that has been just a wildly interesting and inspiring experience to work with these girls from very diverse backgrounds who sometimes have never been told that their their voice matters and that they actually are entitled to an opinion and and what they do and what they say especially collectively can have a huge impact on their community. So that that's been an incredibly fulfilling an interesting part of my career. And
Unknown Speaker 17:25
you choose that, you know, teen girls and also where have you been at? How did you choose where you went?
Unknown Speaker 17:35
I probably chose it because I as an adolescent girl had to, you know, sort of bump the system. And I wanted I wanted to pick my own path. And it would also give me the ability to see parts of the world I've always wanted to see I mean I that's also part of what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel around the world. I wanted to paint I wanted to be inspired by things I had never seen before and, you know, hear sounds and see sights that were completely different than anything I had experienced before. So it was it was it was as much for me as it was for them.
Unknown Speaker 18:15
When you hit that sweet spot of you're growing and you're fulfilled and your cup is filled up by it and the people that you're working with, that's exactly what's happening with them that I that I think is the perfect combination.
Unknown Speaker 18:29
Yeah, it just doesn't get any better than that. Right. I mean, if you're inspired and you're working with people who are inspired and you're creating something that that will last beyond your moments of work. That's Wow. I mean, I don't know what more you could ask for really. That's the life of an artist who's inspired by what they do. I mean, I I work every I'm always working. I don't life is work and work is life, in my in my in my world in my little bubble it all together. You asked me about mighty fingers. So let me let me you asked about where I've taken it. Well, the first place we took it was Guatemala and that was wonderful. We've also taken it to India, Uganda, Spain, Canada, Haiti, I'm sure and multiple places within the United States we did. We did a series of five of them with the New Jersey Education Association, which was wonderful. But we would I would still like to get the project to the Australian continent and to the South American continent and then I would like to wrap up the finger smear that all the girls have participated in and we have video from all over we have great images of some of their artwork and some of their their thoughts and I think it'd be a really interesting exhibition to have the fingers smear and have a way to interact with it digitally that you know, you might click on a piece and it'll show you a little bit about the village where the girls painted it and what their thoughts are and how things have changed and so that that's where that project is right now. Once COVID goes away, we'll we'll we'll find a way to get to those last two location.
Unknown Speaker 20:24
I love it so exciting. So there's one question that I always ask what do you think of when you think of powerful, feminine and leader
Unknown Speaker 20:39
you know, the powerful feminine leaders in my experience, probably would not be people that were famous. They would be like my grandmother who taught me how to paint or my aunts that taught me how to cook or my aunts that taught me that taught me the importance of nature and noticing an egg corn noticing the veins in a leaf. It's the women who taught me how to see and feel and love those in my life are the powerful female leaders. I also see these girls that that we've worked with in the mighty fingers project from all over the world. Those are the powerful feminine leaders. They have so much ability to shift the trajectory of their village and their community. And you know, when that when they come together with with ideas and action, they they change their world you know a powerful feminine leader is is a woman or a girl that stands up for what's right and isn't afraid to ask for what she desires and deserves and has the ability to take responsibility for all that comes with that.
Unknown Speaker 22:14
Now I'm gonna ask you about a story that I know you told publicly recently. Just a little about the Rolling Stones. And the reason it came out recently is because of the latest project. So tell us about tell us a story and then tell us about your latest project.
Unknown Speaker 22:31
I was working at a restaurant in San Francisco called Miss pearls jam house and they did a lot of it was attached to the Phoenix Hotel. Lots of musicians stayed there. younger musicians the Rolling Stones didn't stay there but But Miss Pearl Jam house got the catering job for the Rolling Stones. Halloween party which was held at the warfield theater and they asked me if I wanted to attend bar for the event and I had just started doing finger smears in the city and I said no I want to paint I want to paint and my bosses were like okay, paint you know i That sounds fun finger paint so I basically got permission the day before to do it. I went to the warfield theater I sketched the whole thing out and the party started at midnight after the show. So it was it was still my job to sort of entice them up to the canvas. It was a it was a private party. So I mean any anybody that was in there either Chuck Lavelle painted on it. There are there are there are a variety of other people that were on there and that I who I probably didn't know. But I asked Keith Richards if he would paint on it. And he jumped right up and he was a blast and made all kinds of marks and wiped paint off my face and Ronnie Wood son was there Tyrone wood and he was he came up to the canvas pretty early on and thought it was the coolest thing there. So he went and rallied the whole wood clan and they they painted on it and that was fun. And then Mick Jagger came in and I kind of jumped out in front of him and said hey would do this. What is it? He was at that? No, not right now. And he's like, Oh, God, Mick Jagger. down but on his way back out. He had to walk by me again. So I sort of jumped back out in front of him and said, How about now? Did you said sure. So I was I was thrilled you made. You put his finger red paint. We put flames up the side of his head and then he put his finger back in the pain and put his tongue in there like no actually he didn't. He didn't paint the tiny little line he took a Sharpie and put a line down the tongue but but he was he seemed to enjoy it. It's kind of funny. It was early on in my career. So I hadn't discovered the power of baby wipes yet. So I had a bucket. I had a bucket of like dirty water out on a nail. So when they got done fingerpainting they had a swish their fingers around in this bucket. Yeah, oh, well, you know, live and learn. But so I have that painting and it was in a tube for 20 Some years and I always thought I would do something. Something really interesting with it that would support the arts and and then the strand. You know the strand happened so that's that this would
Unknown Speaker 25:16
fellas for those for those who have no idea about the strength.
Unknown Speaker 25:18
Okay, that was about Grand Theatre is was built in 1915 and it's on coriole Street in Lambertville, New Jersey. It's the oldest street in Lambertville and it ran his movie house until 1969 when it had a fire which gutted the entire inside. So it has been a storage warehouse for finkles hardware store for over 50 years. And I walked by that building when I was in high school I used to come here and I always thought like Wow, I like what's going on in there. Why is it kind of all boarded up and you know, always thought I could do something amazing inside that space. And I wonder how people got to the point where they could buy something like that and anyway, I was down there to get nails and the woman that owns the building Rachel and she owns people. We were in there looking for this particular nail and as soon as we walked in, I said oh my god, I love this building. I have always loved this building. I should do something so amazing with it. And she said oh yeah, you want to buy it. I said, Yeah, we want to buy it. You're how I was actually going to buy it. But again, I wrote a really good proposal. That got us to the next step. And it's been that way. I mean, we had a contract on the building for two years. It took a year to get it through the city. Mine was the first application when COVID hit so that certainly delayed a lot of things and then and then it had to be in the building had to be emptied out. You know and then there's a there's a one little one little legal snafu about property line. is still in process but but it's been the whole just just the process of securing it, building it writing a business plan, getting people involved it's a and about your vision for it. Your vision for it is it is going to be a mixed use space. The building's about 34 feet 38 feet wide by 120 feet long. So the front two thirds of it will have a lobby that will have a lot of walls for visual art displays. And then you walk into the assembly space which will be beautiful and then there'll be a couple of studios beyond that which will also serve as dressing rooms and then beyond that is the live work studio where my my studio will be the idea and the plan to sustain it is to bring corporate teams to Lambertville to produce meetings in this space where we can use art amplify their the mission and intent of their meeting. The idea for the mixed use is that midweek we could produce corporate events in that space. So there's room for the General Assembly and then there's breakout areas in the lobby and in the studios and possibly even in the in my painting studio in the back. We we could use it for these highly customized meetings where we use art to amplify the message of the client. And then on weekends it will be used for incubation theater small music performances art pieces. It's a beautiful area to bring a small meeting and be able to have your executives shop in town eat in town use the canal path and certainly with COVID the trend in the meeting industry is smaller meetings that are broadcast out to larger remote teams. So this this, it'll be completely modern as far as the technology goes and you'll be able to broadcast out and so I see it being in a variety of ways. I think it will be a wonderful venue. It'll be a lot of fun for all of us and there's certainly enough talent in the area to do some really interesting things and it's close enough to New York and Philadelphia where we can really host some top notch talent in a very unique, beautiful venue.
Unknown Speaker 29:20
Yes, absolutely. And by the way, if anybody's listening to this and wondering, all of Kelly's details, contact details on our website and will be attached to the end of the podcast. I think hearing that we are so lucky to have you Kelly because it takes somebody with vision and also grit and determination to make it happen. Because it's one thing to think what a lovely idea that would be. But it's very much another thing, too, even without really knowing where the money is going to come from the saying I'm just going to make it happen. And to me that's one of the things that stands out about you.
Unknown Speaker 30:00
Thank you. I'm I'm excited. It's certainly at the point where it's really inspiring and it's almost completely gutted. And the architect that we're working with is wonderful and has done multiple performance spaces before and but you're right I still don't know where all the money's coming from, you know we we've gotten to this point and now we're looking at everything creatively again and figuring out the best way to get it from here to there. And some of that might move slowly and some of them might quickly if we this finger painting the fingers here that we did with the Rolling Stones is very dear to me. And it's and I wouldn't part with it easily but I'm willing to part with it for this particular project. So far getting it to this point has been a whole lot of oil pain has gone into that. Yeah, as well as you know, corporate fingers smears and even during COVID I've been able to do a couple of corporate projects in the studio which have been neat. You know, we're I create a piece of art based on their message and then they send in words and vision statements and all kinds of things based on the meetings that are happening in real time and then I incorporate them into into this larger mixed media piece. So that's been a really interesting and fun, new way to work that COVID kind of forced. So
Unknown Speaker 31:23
being a leader is setting the vision and then having other people see the vision isn't such an important part of leadership and your ability to have other people catch the wave catch see it as you talk about it and your with your infectious passion for it. I think it's a big part of what makes it happen.
Unknown Speaker 31:48
You have to be able to verbalize your ideas and then follow up.
Unknown Speaker 31:55
Oh yeah. A whole lot of talk and no action is just
Unknown Speaker 32:03
an annoying thing to be around. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's kind of funny. I think a lot of people don't realize the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes of any successful art career there is. You spend as much time on the business end of it as you do on the art and have it I guess unless you're independently wealthy and you can just sort of go to your studio with tea every day and and just don't really care if anybody buys anything or not. But yeah, I'm
Unknown Speaker 32:41
just in closing, ask you if you were talking to younger women, or any woman actually, who has a dream and an inspiration, what advice would you have for them to make it happen?
Unknown Speaker 32:58
I lived in Lambertville. When I was in my in my very early 20s for just a brief period of time I was still kind of floating all about and I would walk by Eli field and their families out there. You know all the little kids play in and like walk by the Strand Theater and I look at these big beautiful houses things like oh my god, how do I how do you get to have that? How do you how do you get to have a family and live in house like that or buy a building like that? And it certainly was not. I would like to have been able to tell myself at that point to just relax and work hard. You know, be be reliable. Take time to daydream. Be creative, but but don't don't let the don't let the the work end of it the or the you know, it was it was it was a long time. Through my career seen before I actually made a budget. And when I actually started when I actually created a budget and really paid attention to where my money was coming in. Where it was going is when I actually really started making money. Until then it's like pie in the sky and you don't know where anything is. So that would be something I would tell myself to maybe start a little bit earlier. I don't think there was ever one. There's not in my experience. There was not one big lucky break. It was a series of interaction I've done so many really wonderfully interesting projects. And I mean, people like The Rolling Stones have painted on my work but also like Bruce Springsteen, Harrison Ford, Willem Defoe, Carol Burnett Van Cliburn, like I've had a really interesting career of small successes, coupled with you know, small failures to certainly been an up and down kind of thing. And I think that consistent consistency and the desire to continue is what brings you success. I worry too much. Worry, my father told me if I continued this art, baloney I would live in a refrigerator box on the streets of New York. So I have spent so much of my adult life being terrified and motivated, motivated by the thought of sleeping in a refrigerator box. You know, my husband and my husband and I, we bought a van and we turned it into this really awesome little mobile studio. So if all goes to hell, that's my refrigerator box.
Unknown Speaker 35:36
But it's worth noting that you live in a beautiful house on a beautiful street and that you actually live in one of those houses that you looked at.
Unknown Speaker 35:45
Do but you know what that was not done in any traditional way there are we we knew the guy that owned it he fell in love you wanted to move you want it you know so we sort of we we wound up moving in here as renters with a with a contract to purchase within five years if we wanted to. So even when we did that we didn't know how we were going to you know, we didn't have all the answers and I think if I waited till I knew all the answers to do anything, I never would have gotten anything done.
Unknown Speaker 36:15
Yes. Perfect place. I think to say Kelly, it's been such a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Thank you again.
Unknown Speaker 36:25
Thank you. It was my pleasure.
Unknown Speaker 36:29
So that was Kelly Sullivan arts Crusader. A powerful feminine leader who continues to make things happen. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. So many pearls of wisdom layered into her stories.
If you're interested in having Kelly be part of your corporate event, or learning more about her art or progress with Australian Theatre, find her at WWW.KellySullivanfineart.com
And as always, don't forget to follow review and rate this podcast, please, if you're enjoying it.
Next time my guests will be Susan Berman, Executive Director and co-founder of the Help Group which is the largest most innovative and comprehensive non-profit of its kind in the United States.
They serve children, adolescents and young adults with special needs related to autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, developmental delays. Abuse and emotional challenges. I look forward to seeing you then.