Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman Adds Fairytale Charm to 14th Century Painting

Hollywood based artist Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman adds an enchanting, fairytale-like charm to her paintings made by a 14th century technique of oil paints and egg tempera. Her youthful images evoke the romance and luminosity of works by Old Master painters like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, combined with elements taken from religion, legends, and glyphs or pictograms, used to tell her stories. Her primary subject is often a little girl, sometimes wearing a pinafore dress, depicted wandering in a nonsensical realm with talking flowers and white rabbits, recalling images from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The main source of Beeman’s unique mythology, however, comes from her own personal experiences and what she writes down in a dream journal that she has kept over the years. “I love combining this chaotic dream realm with reality,” she has said, not unlike some of her favorite contemporary artists, which include Mark Ryden, Tom Bagshaw, and Ray Ceasar. Beeman’s young subjects visit a magical world inspired by tarot cards in her new series, “One”, where they present various celestial bodies like the Moon Girl, and earthly creatures like the Goldfish Girl and Rose Girl. “In the Tarot, One is The Magician who symbolizes “As Above, So Below.” The innate qualities and energy of One tie its singularity to the multitude of all else that comes after,” Beeman explains. “One exposes itself and completely owns the consequences of being seen in its oneness – its aloneness. I imagine One can represent the many who are able to see and feel through its primordial strength.” Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman’s “One” will be on view at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles from February 5th through 28th, 2016.