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 RJ (Robert Jerome) Sullivan
Artist/Educator
Daytona State College
386-898-2900
rjsnmg@yahoo.com
www.rjsullivan.com
Education
MA Art Education University of Florida (expected graduation, 2013)
BA Studio Art University of South Florida 1979
Key Professional Appointments
Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, FL
Adult Education Instructor May 2009 – Present
Instructing students for preparation of TABE and GED tests. Instrumental in development of curriculum; language, reading and math instruction.
New Media Group (owner) Ft. Lauderdale and New Smyrna Beach, FL
Website consulting and development July 1995 – Present
Web development, for corporate and non-profit foundation organizations;
GaryNader.com (Gary Nader Fine Art Gallery, Coral Gables)
FLIFF.com (Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival)
LEF.org (Life Extension Foundation)
WordWiseDrills.com (Vocabulary Building Website)
Prior to 1995 I worked in the emerging digital graphics industry in the architectural and engineering sectors i.e. Army Corp of Engineers, Daniel Frankfurt Architects & Engineers NYC, Duke Power, FLDOT, RJ Reynolds, & PPG in a consultation capacity and made guest speaker appearances at trade shows and company demonstrations discussing the implementation and benefits of this emerging technology.
Selected Works
South East Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, 1987 Venus.dgn mixed media; selected in juried competition by Atlanta’s High Museum’s curator Susan Krane.
Daytona Beach Art League Achievement Award, 2011 The Chair acrylic
“The artist has taken on a real challenge with the perspectives in this work, and has rendered them convincingly. The strong use of lights, darks, and shadow shapes enhance the composition. The artist has elevated a simple chair into a monumental object.” Rachel Stewart, Judge
Art Education Online Learning Unit
The Work Flow Unit was designed by RJ Sullivan for grades 8-12. It utilizes the wealth of peer reviewed, as well as reputably published, articles and videos available on the Internet in order to coordinate a comprehensive lesson on what it is the artist does. The unit discusses the not so simple idea of what is now considered artwork and art making and will analyze the artist as worker, observer and commentator.
Professional Associations
Daytona Art League Member
Charities
Helped start and develop Caroling for Coats, a charity that takes donations of clothing for school children and homeless shelters.
Travel Experience
Visited art centers in Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and London, as well as Central and South America. (Spent the spring and summer of 1998 busking –playing guitar in the streets- in Nice, France and the resorts around Lago Maggiore in Italy and Switzerland)
Recognitions
Guest speaker at Florida Literacy Council, Adult Community Educators (ACE of Florida) 2010; Topic: Education in Prisons
Research Interests
Public Education (the value of smaller classroom sizes)
Education in prisons (reducing recidivism and crime rates)
Visual Art (late 19th century to present)
Economics
Biography
My exploration in art took me to the University of South Florida where my studio concentration was mainly drawing and print making. While there I was introduced to a really vibrant group of instructors and artists who seemed to have their fingers on the pulse of what was happening in the art world, especially through the Graphic Studio, where artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine and James Rosenquist worked. The artists/instructors I studied with and most influenced by at USF were Donald Saff, Theo Wujcik, Jeffrey Kronsnoble, and Jose Rodiero. Graduate student teachers Jake Fernandez and Julio Mateo were great inspiration as well as fellow student Wayne Bryan.
After college I took a job as a technical illustrator. It was while working in this capacity in the early eighties I was introduced to computer graphics. However, my interest in music (did I mention music yet as I had been a guitar player since the age of 8) and writing songs kept me from really pursuing visual art in a very structured and prolific way until the last several years. A good amount of the eighties and nineties saw my creative energies spent working with other musicians creating music in the alternative/original music genre that had its roots in the punk and new wave movement of the late seventies.
Computer graphics work took me to North Carolina and New York City where I was able to make a decent living in the emerging electronic graphics industry while also creating drawings and paintings as well as playing music. My interest in the computer never eclipsed my desire to make handmade art; in fact the amount of synthetic stimuli in the world today has actually increased my desire and interest in art that uses paint and graphite applied by hand though I am not at all averse to using whatever medium I deem necessary to make art; everything is game.
I have exhibited in Florida, North Carolina and New York City. A mixed media piece (computer graphic, pen and ink, colored pencil) entitled Venus.dgn was selected for the Tenth Annual Henley Southeastern Spectrum in Winston-Salem, NC, by Susan Krane, then curator at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, for a nationwide museum tour.
Some of my current work is comprised of acrylic paintings of outdoor venues capturing the high contrast lighting that dominates the Florida environs. I am also interested in what could be considered often overlooked and even mundane objects, homing in on what is majestic about every visual thing. Hopefully I am shedding light on conventional subject matter in a distinctive way. I think it’s a challenge to make the obvious unique and the unique obvious.
Currently, I am an adjunct reading teacher at Daytona State College and have taught adult education classes at the local campuses as well as Tomoka State Corrections. Additionally, I am enrolled in the MA Art Education program at the University of Florida which allows me to engage with other like minds about today’s education system and art world. Upon graduation I would like to be able to utilize my background working and/or developing art curriculum for schools, museums, community centers and prisons while also researching and writing about subjects I feel are interesting and important, as well as continuing my exploration in creating art.
(the self portrait above is a computer colorized scanned pen and ink drawing)
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