Paisley Mountain Press: You also have some funny stories from when you were playing baseball.

Richard Sullivan: Yeah right, so when I first got drafted I was in school in May. Then June came, and I was drafted, and playing professional baseball in July. It’s not like I knew what professional baseball was going to be like. Some of these guys had been preparing their whole lives just to be here, and I was like oh wow I’m here, and I’m going to make the most of it. I was very dedicated, but I was very naïve too. At one point I was with one of my friends who was a position player, and we were in a rain delay. This is the second year I was playing, everyone knew I was an artist. So, the rain delay happened. We’re all in the clubhouse.

PMP: And he was a Mormon guy, right?

RS: Yes, he was a Mormon, and I don’t think I really knew too much about what that meant. I know you’re Mormon, so you can probably tell me more about that. So, he came up to me in the rain delay, and he was like ‘Hey, can you paint me?’ And I was like yeah, sure, why not? I’d had life drawing all throughout college, and it was no big deal to me, and he said “Okay, I’m going to get naked.” I said “that’s fine.” I have no problem with that. But the whole clubhouse was like “What the fuck’s going on here? Where are we?” Because we were kind of in the center of the room. You know, right here, kind of like this – sketching. And he was right there. At one point, one of our coaches came in and was like “What the fuck’s going on?! What are we doing here?! And I think it was very shocking for all of these masculine men to see. They didn’t understand. Whereas I switched my brain, and I had done this before. I had been to art school. I think my friend was also a little bit nervous. He actually at one point, I was halfway through the drawing, I hadn’t even finished the drawing, he got uncomfortable. And put his pants back on. I finished the drawing. I finished his face. I was like okay. But I saw him six years after that, and he was like “I still have that drawing.” I guess it was really special to him. At that point, it was just something I did. I knew it was weird for that experience to happen. But I didn’t really give it a lot thought either.