I didn’t know how to do the wash, I didn’t have a book and there’s lots of painters I know who use gouaches. But I couldn’t remember what anyone had told me from one day to the next, so I had to keep calling different people. This is when I was doing that big mural. Did you ever see it? I’ll have to show you the postcard. I’d been doing murals for Sonesta Hotels as a sideline. I did two in Curacao and then I did one in the Purple Dolphins Room at the Sonesta in Miami. It was just when I was starting this swimming thing.

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Billy Sullivan currently has a show at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery