Paisley Mountain Press: It’s interesting when sports and art cross over. We’ve talked about it. Sometimes there are people in the art world and sports are foreign to them. Sometimes sports are a motivation for them to become an artist. But I think there can be a lot of negative connotation with sports unfortunately.

RS: Well, I think the way people have perceived it in the past, they’re like oil and water. They’re two separate things that don’t really mix, especially as an athlete. I’m sure a lot of other sports are like this. You have to be so egotistic and masculine and there’s no room for any sort of edginess. And if you’re different there’s no room for that either. When I was playing it was dominated by a lot of southern white men that were Republican. My way is the highway, and I don’t ever want to hear any other opinion about it ever, you know? I think the world has changed a little bit since 2008. There is a little more compassion in sports these days. So yeah, I was myself. I drew in the clubhouse and didn’t really give any thought to it. But I was definitely different. People thought I was weird. But there was also no room to grow as an artist in that world. There was no time to paint. There was no time to be an artist because you had to be so focused on what you were doing on the field. It was interesting, the people who hadn’t experienced (art) being confronted with (art), and something outside of their comfort zone, seeing how they reacted.  All of the people in the clubhouse had never experienced (art).

PMP: Once you got into the art world there is some antagonism for your sports background.

RS: Oh yeah, at SCAD we were the only athletes in the country that were the outsiders. All of the other artists - a. no one knew we had a sports program and b. our professors didn’t have any leeway or forgiveness. We were traveling in the spring and we still had to create a project. There’s It was very fascinating.