Written by Avery Melhado. Photos courtesy of Talia Sullivan and Yuhan Chen.
“I have been a painter, always. It’s never really been a question.”
Master of Fine Arts Painting student Talia Sullivan may have always known she was a painter, but she never could’ve imagined her life would turn out quite like this. Born in a small village in Dartmoor, England, Sullivan grew up the daughter of two artists. Her childhood was shaped by lush green landscapes, much like those depicted in her paintings, and what she describes as “magical, earthly, hippie-child experiences.” Her creative passions were ingrained in her from a young age, but her parents always made one thing clear: “You’re an artist, but you’re going to get a job.”
So, when Sullivan set her mind on studying in the United States, she made her way there by any means possible. She started running, convincing a coach of her potential as an athlete and working hard to improve – which she did, and quickly at that. Soon enough, through a stroke of luck and maybe some careful persuasion, Sullivan found herself at SCAD on a track & field scholarship and on the path to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting.
Sullivan’s undergraduate experience was uniquely shaped by her dual identity as an artist and athlete. “They’re two separate parts of my personality, but they marry each other well,” she says. Sullivan describes how her commitments as an athlete have forced her to paint with a much more structured routine than her peers. She needs to paint fast, if for no other reason than to just get everything done. “I’m making so much work in such a short period of time,” she says. “I just have to.”
The athletic aspect of Sullivan’s career doesn’t just stop at running, either. After a year of injuries, Sullivan started cross-training and joined the SCAD cycling team. She is more than humble about her technical cycling ability but describes the experience as perfect timing. “It’s been a good time. I have more friends because of it, and I’m more diverse as an athlete.”
Sullivan continued her artistic and athletic legacy beyond her undergraduate studies. Due to time off from the COVID pandemic, Sullivan still had athletic eligibility after finishing her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, which led to her staying in Savannah to pursue her master’s. Currently, she’s training to run the marathon for SCAD as she continues to paint and finish her second degree.
‘Where We Belong,’ Sullivan’s MFA thesis exhibition, is an exploration of her varying inspirations and identities as a painter. The works are primarily landscapes – scenes that guide you through the space of the Alexander Hall Gallery, and subsequently Sullivan’s life. Subdued English landscapes flourish into vibrant, tropical ones. Small works exist in between massive canvases. Sullivan explains that she wanted the viewers to feel intrigued by smaller pieces, then overcome by larger ones. “You zoom out, then you zoom in,” she says.
Many of Sullivan’s smaller works in ‘Where We Belong’ include embroidery in addition to paint. Sullivan describes it as a totally different experience from painting, one that did not always feel easy. “I have to be okay with being uncomfortable,” she says of the medium. “I can’t just chuck it away if I’m not enjoying doing it.” Sullivan incorporated embroidery into her practice after taking a fibers class to challenge herself. She found it to be a much more portable expression of her craft, which felt especially exciting as so much of her time was spent on buses and at athletic events. She says, “I just make it like my paintings,” describing how she has worked to test the limits of thread as its own landscape.
Throughout all of Sullivan’s work, there remains a magnetism to the natural world. She describes it as being inspired by an “awe of the earth supporting us.” Sullivan discusses how she spent much of her early life exploring the feeling of being in a place she wasn’t native to – traveling to destinations like Guatemala and Egypt and examining how people live and work in those regions. There was a disconnect, though, she says. “There wasn’t any tie of myself to these places.”
Sullivan describes it as an “aha moment” when somebody asked, “Why aren’t you just painting where you live?” She says, “I’d spent so much of my life trying to get away from where I live. I want to explore; I want to be free.” But as she painted faraway places, the influence of home was never too far away in itself.
When Sullivan started at SCAD, she painted exclusively in shades of green. “The brand of paint that I use, I know every single shade of green,” she says. “It was actually really difficult for me to venture out of the green.” She attributes this habit to her childhood in the countryside – the green of the natural landscape and running through the woods being core parts of her memories. Eventually, the all-green palette gave way to green and blue, which can still be seen in many of the works in ‘Where We Belong.’ The exhibition challenged her to connect the paintings of her travels with her more recent explorations of home, and to reflect on her growth as an artist.
“I sit and I think back to my life seven years ago, and I could not have imagined this at all,” Sullivan says of her experience at SCAD. She describes how grateful she feels to have had the opportunity to have spent so long painting and being a part of both her creative and athletic communities. She says, “I’ve really done some manifesting, because I don’t know how I got this lucky.”
Now, Sullivan is nearing the end of her Masters in Fine Arts. After graduation, she hopes to continue to travel, but artistically, she is still finding herself drawn back to where she’s from. “I hadn’t realized that what I do has so many ties back to home,” Sullivan says of her recent work. “I feel even more inspired to continue than I ever have.”
From all-green paintings of faraway places to embroidery explorations, Sullivan has found her full circle moment as an artist – all roads leading back to home.
Avery is double-majoring in Graphic Design and Writing at SCAD. She loves making zines and spending hours in coffee shops reading, writing, and working on projects. When she’s not glued to her laptop, you can find her walking through Forsyth with a dirty chai in hand, probably still writing in her notes app.
