The Quiet Labor of a Painter Born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, in 1894, Patrick J. Sullivan lived a life defined by the steady, often difficult rhythms of the American working class. The youngest of twelve children born to Irish immigrants, his early years were marked by the sudden loss of his father and a period spent in an orphanage before reuniting with his mother. This early instability did not deter a persistent, internal drive to create. Before he ever touched a formal canvas, Sullivan sought out any surface that might hold an image, experimenting with window blinds, cardboard, and even t…