Peggy Sullivan

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Peggy Sullivan, a Seattle native, lives in a wildlife preserve in the Sudden Valley area of Bellingham. Her poetry and art is inspired by her love of nature. Poetry and writing came first with published works beginning in the 1980’s in a variety of magazines. She earned a certificate in Publications Editing from Bellevue Community College, which provided a good foundation in graphic arts. Her degrees include a BA in sociology from UW and a M.Ed., Counseling and Guidance from Heritage University. While working as a guardian ad litem for Okanogan County Superior Court, she investigated homes on behalf of children, wrote reports for courts, trained CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) volunteers, and taught court report writing at state conferences. A licensed mental health counselor, she started a private practice in 2006 and published her first book, a non-fiction self-help book “Twelve Secrets of Happily Ever After Couples: A Love Prescription”.

She had written a book for her two children, based on their cats who were complete opposites but best friends and decided after publishing one book that she was ready for more. And there began her art career, as she illustrated Midnight and Moonlight with whimsical pen and ink drawings. She has recently published the fifth book in the now-completed award-winning series. She says her artwork has evolved over the years, including more details and requiring her to learn more techniques. As a long-time child advocate and supporter of healthy family activities, she has also published a series of activity books for screen free family fun on road trips. “Car Detectives” features eleven subjects (animals, colors, cultures, fences, gardens, imagination, people, recreation, signs, stores, trucks) to learn more about. Sullivan also did the cover art, a boy and girl in Sherlock Holmes outfits, looking out car windows. For fun, Sullivan writes poetry and makes collage and watercolor postcards for poetry postcard events.

Blank cards and prints from the illustrations were the last step and are now available for sale.

Peggy Sullivan – “I love nothing more than to capture cats in the act of doing what cats do in my artwork.” I envision drawings that I think best illustrate my cat stories, sketching them out with artist’s pencils, creating a story board, then scanning the drawings, and painting them digitally. I’ve been influenced in my work by the impressionist painters whose works I’ve been lucky enough to study up close at the Musee D’Orsay in Paris and the Musee de Van Gogh in Arles, in France.

You might have guessed that I, as a therapist (now retired), might write self-help books with practical advice to help people live happy, healthy lives. If you did, you were correct. First I wrote “Twelve Secrets of Happily Ever After Couples: A Love Prescription” and, after interviewing one hundred single people, published “Blissfully Single, A Single’s Guide to Finding Happiness,”. In between I wrote four children’s books with sweet messages for kids of all ages about friendship and diversity (“Midnight and Moonlight”), mindfulness (“The Moon and Star”), the transformative power of live performance (“Tevye the Magical Theater Cat, an Introduction to Community Theater), and shyness (“Shadow Walkers, The Secret Lives of the Shy Sisters”). My newest, the fifth of the award-winning series of Lessons from Cats, “Montana Cats, A Tale of Winter”, features wildlife found in Flathead County, northwestern Montana, which includes a portion of Glacier National Park. Every book has increased my artistic experience, Tevye the Magical Theater Cat involved a whole cast and audience of people so I had to work on my people drawing skills. Montana Cats takes place in winter, so I spent time learning to create snowy scenes.