Today we’d like to introduce you to Monique Sullivan.
Hi Monique, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Monique Sullivan earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her work is inspired by her dreams, spirituality, and Latina heritage. Her range of artworks includes photography, painting, meme assemblage, printmaking, installation, and video. Artistic influences include Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, Frida Kahlo, Annie Leibovitz, Mark Romanek, Dale Chihuly, Nick Veasey, Bansky, and classic masters Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.
Monique is a real estate Mompreneur who additionally participated in several Artist-In-Residence opportunities. She works as a Creative Art Director and Strategist for several businesses. She competes throughout the year at local, state, and worldwide exhibitions. Her photography has been displayed at galleries for international events such as Paris Photo, Germany’s Photoszene, Art Basel, and NFT.NYC. She has been published in numerous magazines, books, and calendars for her work. She has earned many recognition awards for visual arts and was even featured in Polaroid Magazine. She is a life member of the UTSA Alumni Association. She was born in San Antonio and graduated with Honors from Winston Churchill High School.
During that time, she became a member of the National Honors Society, National French Honors Society, and the National Forensic League. She was in Varsity Theatre, Choir and competed in UIL Oral Interpretation. She was a member in various UT Austin & UTSA clubs such as the Student Art Guild and the Ballroom Dancing Club. She was the first Vice President of Media Coordination at the Exposure Photography Club. Her historic district studios are located at her 1910 Craftsman three-story home. She lives with her husband, two children, and two chickens.
Ever since I was three years old, I would ask my Mom for a big box of Crayola’s and I would create a magical world of juicy colors. Creating every day, expressing that talent, and materializing at a young age were significant in how I approach life. While in elementary school, I was selected to be in the Young Master’s Exhibitions as a painter and illustrator. It changed my life to be present with my family, be supported for my creativity, and showcased among other kid artists who felt passionate about art. Enter Polaroid at age 9 and the love for photography would become a seed planted for the future. While in middle and high school, my interests surrounded athletics, theatre arts, and performance. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, track & field, and softball were a way to contribute my physical talents. My interests in theatre, oral interpretation, and choir introduced my creativity in extraordinary ways.
I was even the head emcee at my high school’s talent shows. While in college, I joined the UT Austin Ballroom Dancing Club and performed in a few Black Box theatre shows. After a few years of studying Psychology & Creative Advertising, I moved back to San Antonio to change direction and explore an untapped passion that was art. It was my first time taking any formal art course at age 22. Photography 101 transformed my perspective and I fell in love with the 35mm dark room. That next year, I received my first digital Canon camera when they were just emerging on the scene. It was the blending of digital and analog color that began my curiosity about my revisiting of the Polaroid aesthetic.
Joining the Student Art Guild and the Exposure Photography Club brought together collective ambition to change the world with our art. After graduation, I spent time working in video, photography, and real estate. I married my brilliant inventor husband and had two kiddos who light up my life. After taking a break to focus on my family life, I re-entered the art scene and was introduced to the Instant Film community. It was there where I found my place as Fine Artist to make my best contributions. Since the Impossible Project Polaroid revitalization, I have been creating, shooting, and exploring the Polaroid frontier.
Showcasing my instant film work at exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Cologne as well as Texas has been a dream come true for me. Currently, I am exploring the world of NFT and cryptocurrency’s integration into art history. Opportunities to have NFT works in the Oscar 2021 Celebrity gifting suite swag bag, NFT NYC, and Art Basel has truly changed my art career as well as life. It is through these mediums that I find myself expressing my talents with performance art, intellectual weaving of communities, and changing the world with fine art on the blockchain.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Incredible as it seems, my life is based on a true story…
The road has not been a smooth one, but it has been one of transformation, courage, and resilience. There have been many difficult challenges in my life experiences, but some defined my journey’s path forward from an artistic perspective. Growing up in the middle/high school, one major struggle was the decision to participate in theatre arts rather than art. My interests at the time were around performance and using my creativity for the imagination process. Competition acting with Oral Interpretation, emceeing at the school talent shows, and winning awards for singing in the high school choir were accomplishments I would not have had an opportunity to showcase if my path at the time were art.
Learning about the concepts of the stage, audience, and expression had a profound impact on my creative exploration. Another major challenge was in my athletic participation in high school. Growing up, I found my best contributions to teamwork, attitude, and effort were through athletic performance. Through hard work, practice, and tenacity to challenge me as a student-athlete I found that my talents really shined for everyone. It was super to start every game, pick my positioning, and sometimes even be the team captain. However, one coach was the one to challenge me the most in the sport I was the best at. She sat me on the bench most of the year, explained to me that I was too short and that I was not old enough to play the game to my face. Even though in practice I would really showcase my excellent skill, it was not enough.
That struggle was real, especially since I was working towards a scholarship for volleyball. It was her that stopped me in my tracks completely, and changed my direction to the creative arts. I see now that transformation was crucial in the discovery of my creativity, but it was hard at the time to deal with something I could not control about my age and physical makeup. It fueled me to find my place of acceptance and contributions. Another experience that challenged me was when I was going to school at UT Austin. At the time, I was studying Psychology and Creative Advertising. However, my curiosity in art did finally emerge and I decided to go to the school of art to inquire about transferring my major. I walked in and some important lady met me in the foyer. I simply said I am interested in changing my major to art and could I learn more about the program.
She said to me that because I had not taken any art course and was a nobody, I have no chance of getting into Art School. Shocked that a professional administrator at a University would tell an inquisitive student “No, you can’t do it ” sparked a fire in me. Who was she to tell me what I can and cannot do? I was determined to prove her wrong and to prove to myself that I could do it without negative people. So, I moved back to San Antonio, I began my first art courses Photography 101 and Drawing 101. It was the right fit and I found my home. Lastly, a major challenge from an artistic perspective was the evolution of photography to digital. At the time, darkroom work was recognized as the medium’s singular expression for studying fine art.
However, I was gifted a Canon digital camera for my birthday and decided to make my BFA concentration photography. My focus on color, space, and perspective became alive with the digital capture. It was amazing, but peers and some professors did not accept it as true photography. One visiting artist teaching in particular interrupted right in the middle of my presentation to tell me/everyone that my favorite photographer David LaChapelle was not a real artist. Her small-minded view wasn’t going to stop me from continuing to represent my passion for color photography.
To be one of the first in the school to explore digital photography as fine art was lonely. But the few that did also dive in and take the chance became my respected contemporaries. They say that swords sharpen swords, and it was those friends who supported my journey that elevated my work. It was there at UTSA that I was reintroduced to my love for Polaroid. And the rest is analog history.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Instant photography captures the nostalgia of idealism and the magic of serendipity. The digital age and analog film are colliding to create a new interaction in the conversation of contemporary photography. With innovative tools, the enchantment of instant film is bursting with new flavors, creativity, and excitement. Within this new technology lives the mutation of fine art and the adventurous spirit of Americana. I explore these peculiarities with an assortment of cameras, mediums, and techniques.
The Polaroid series “Sunken B-Sides” began as an experimental technique. My analog B-sides created a chemical reaction within those iconic borders. Applying elements with the magic of nature, literary references, and prolonged time emitted a photographic alchemy recipe of manipulation. The process yielded results that are abstract expressions that soon became a premonition of the future.
The deterioration of our ways of life, social unrest, and political injustices unfolded while my instant film technique decayed in the lockdown period. Beginning a “Quarantine” era of my work, I am searching for sunken treasure in a sea of uncertainty. Panning for rare gold among this new frontier in the time of Corona. I believe that behind every dark cloud is a silver lining of beauty. In this new wisdom, freedom and truth work together to establish the results of the transformation.
I would say that my specialization surrounds Polaroid as the medium and defining instant film in an experimental way. Photography has all the elements of time, space, and magic that compounds into one expression. It is my favorite way to be creative and explore all the possibilities. Focusing through the lens conversations about analog and digital color. Other areas of focus include painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance art. The newest addition to the palette is the Meme Assemblage. This includes a byte-sized expression of behind-the-scenes music inspirations, animated nostalgic gifs, and current curiosities.
Lastly, my present and future exploration is the realm of art and blockchain. The merging of science, technology, and art all come together in beautiful synchronicity to create opportunities for legacy. Ownership, authorship, and provenance all combine to envision a self-sovereign artist that can be successful in a generational wealth way. It is a digital Renaissance and I feel really lucky to have found my place among art contemporaries.
I am most proud of my family, my creativity, and my higher calling to be a service to others in my artistic way. Check out my body of Polaroid work on Instagram: @m0niquesullivan: Texicana Vision: Polaroid & Experimental Artist. Analog. Digital. Meme Assemblage. NFT Explorer.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
When it comes to risk-taking, I am very calculated and scientific in how I approach the concept. I take the time to dive in, disassemble and research more about the opportunities. One of the biggest jumps was to concentrate on color photography and go against the traditional photography grain with digital integration. The pushback and outrage in the Fine Art world were tough to have to defend all the time honestly. There were just a handful of students that took that step back then, but their collective belief gave me the courage to become a voice in the contemporary photography conversation.
In the end, digital photography won and I feel terrific with the diligent contributions to advance the new medium/tool for my peers in my own way. Another risk for my experience was to change my major to art, even after not having one art class in my life ever. It was scary, to pursue something I was always doing for fun, expression, and healing as a career. However, that path opened up more worldly doors with different keys to fancier locks. The most unpredictable and exciting risk I have taken currently is pursuing the NFT and crypto art world. The day that I decided in my mind to go full throttle, the opportunities came my way by synchronicity. Never have I found an experience where the mindset is that the tide raises all ships.
WAGMI. “We” begins the very first letter Frens. An artistic collective of contemporaries is driving science, tech, and art into a multidimensional gift to creators. The possibilities for abundance, diversity, and inclusion are available for everyone to learn about in Web3. Culture creation which revolves around authenticity, ownership, and provenance drives the space forward. However, our SATX & Texas voice is very much needed to shape it y’all. Become an instrument of transformation in this hour. We need you too! The unknown is always an exciting adventure.
Focus with a positive attitude, constant daily effort to sharpen your talents, and believe in a higher power which brings us all together to feast. I love waking up to create, inspire and light up life to the world with my overflowing creativity. Do you hear that distant song calling to you too?
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://linktr.ee/m0niquesullivan
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m0niquesullivan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/M0niqueSullivan
Image Credits
Polaroid Instant Film, Artist: M0nique Sullivan (2019-2021)
