Frank Sullivan of Littleton may not have been born and raised in Aroostook County, but his passion for the area is undeniable. An artist by choice, his journey to northern Maine started out as a dream that eventually became a reality.
Sullivan, 53, has called Aroostook County home for the past 12 years. He arrived in January 2006, with his wife Meryl and children Rothery and Damien, leaving behind a successful career as a graphic designer, illustrator and art director in Massachusetts to devote himself to his art full time.
Born and raised in Marlboro, Massachusetts, Sullivan is the oldest child of Frank and Gail Sullivan. He has two brothers and a sister. Art drew him from an early age.
“I drew obsessively from the time I could hold a crayon in my hands,” he said. “My dad actually thought there was something wrong with me because I was always drawing. I never really thought of it as a career back then.”
In high school, Sullivan studied with a local Massachusetts artist, George Lynch, who became his mentor and inspiration in the art world. “I went to an all-boys, private college-prep school in high school that was big on academics and sports. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any art, so my father arranged for me to have lessons,” he said.
“My first plan was to be a psychiatrist and go into medical school. But when I got to college and started taking chemistry, I hated it. By the end of my freshman year, I was at my wits’ end.”
Although he had a passion for drawing, Sullivan said what he really wanted to be was a professional musician. He had played with a local band called “Altar Ego,” and actually released a couple of CDs with the band. When he developed tendinitis in his thumb and could no longer play, his father suggested he pursue a career in art, setting him on a path that would see his skills blossom.
“I really started to thrive and discovered that yes, you can do this as a career,” he said.
In 1986, he earned a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he studied drawing and printmaking with Elizabeth Peak. While at Holy Cross, Sullivan learned from visiting artists Michael Mazur and Richard Sheehan, whose work had a lasting impact on him.
He later attended The American University on a graduate fellowship in printmaking, studied figure drawing at the Worcester Art Museum School and completed the Graphic Design Certificate program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he studied 2-D design, color theory and advanced drawing under Maggie Fitzpatrick and illustration under Joe Landry.
Working for an advertising agency, Sullivan spent most of his free time doing art. “I discovered I really wasn’t happy doing magazine advertisements and billboards,” he said. “One of my friends tipped me off to a goal setting exercise of ‘Imagine if you won a million dollars. What would you do?’”
The second question in the exercise was, “What would you do if you found out you only had a year to live?”
Sullivan’s answer to both questions was the same — quit his job and move to a rural farmhouse in Maine or Vermont and paint.
His wife stumbled onto a Maine real estate website and entered the phrase “Maine farmhouse” on a whim. A quaint farmhouse in Littleton popped up with a small barn, and the two decided then and there to make that dream a reality.
Sullivan converted an old potato barn on his property into a studio and gallery, where he has shared his passion for art through classes and workshops. He has also taught art at numerous County schools and organizations.
He currently teaches drawing at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and art appreciation and drawing at Northern Maine Community College. His artwork hangs in private collections throughout the United States.
His daughter Rothery, active in stage presentations as a youth, is 17 and a junior at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone. His son Damien, 13, is an eighth-grader at Houlton Middle-High School and has developed a passion for videography.
Visit Sullivan’s blog at http://rainbarrowstudio.blogspot.com/, or follow this video link to see him discuss his work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnYRPYQth2zHcA7L-kcBlsA.
