We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deirdre below.

Deirdre, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Art was my first love. I grew up with an artist for a mother, and from a very young age, she nurtured my creative abilities. I remember that once when I came home from a friend’s birthday party with a coloring book as a party favor, she wouldn’t let me color directly in it—insisting that I draw on blank paper next to the book, using it only as inspiration.

As a teenager, I received some national recognition for my artwork and was offered a scholarship to Pratt when I graduated high school. I decided not to take it. A lot of things made that decision, but ultimately I think the strongest element was wanting to go my own way in life and to get out from my mother’s shadow. I ended up studying film at USC and really enjoyed my coursework. I think the way that film school helped me develop my narrative thinking and world-building has become incredibly important to my artwork today.

After school, I worked in the film industry for a while and eventually built a career as an event designer. Throughout my adulthood, I was most happy when I was working as a creative. Even though I was still on a hiatus from painting, I knew that creative endeavors were what most fueled me.

I feel strongly that whatever path is meant for you in life, you will be drawn back to it—even if you’ve strayed. In my 40’s, I couldn’t deny the call to fine art any longer. I had picked painting back up as a hobby and a few friends in the art world encouraged me to put my work out there. I dove back in headfirst and was lucky enough to study with a few masters of the surrealist art world and true visionaries of the Mischtechnik craft.

Beginning my professional art career later in life, I feel really grateful for the life experience that informs my work. I think my technique and subject matter both benefit from the wisdom I’ve gained in middle age. Sometimes I imagine what my career would be like had I started sooner, but ultimately feel very grateful for the perspective with which I’m able to approach my art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a figurative surrealist painter, and my subject matter is young women at the tipping point between childhood and womanhood—I try to capture the power within these moments. I am passionate about telling these stories, as parts of my own story and as part of the global feminine story.

I live and work in Los Angeles, CA, and Vancouver, Canada. I came into my own in Los Angeles in the 1990s alongside cultural movements like riot grrrl, Queercore, and DIY. While I have a BFA in Cinema from the University of Southern California, I am a self-taught artist. As a self-taught artist, I utilize many DIY ethics and methods.

I paint with a modified Renaissance-era technique called Mischtechnik. It was developed as a way to combine oil and egg tempera (water-based) paint in order to extract the best qualities from both types of paint. I think that the luminosity that Mischtechnik lends to artworks is unparalleled. I also find it meaningful that at the time of this technique’s development, women were not permitted into the field of professional arts; now, I can study and master it (even modify it) however suits me.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to unlearn lessons around societal pressure to let the judgements of other people impact what you do. Growing up, I was completely preoccupied with other people’s opinions of myself. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve done deliberate work to shed those anxieties. The world is full of people’s opinions, none of which offer truth or even consensus. Fixating on them is neither helpful nor productive. I’ve found that following my own intuition is the only way to create my best work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of my career as a painter is watching viewers respond to the work. When people see themselves within the stories of my painting’s characters, I know I’m communicating the way that I want to be. If I can help any person understand their power and/or their struggles, I’ve succeeded.

Conversely, even in negative reactions to my work, I feel a similar sense of gratitude. Again, I’ve learned not to internalize the negative judgements of other people as criticism. All reactions fuel me positively. I’m grateful to spark anyone’s internal monologue. Knowing that my work has touched someone deeply enough to engender any sort of response is important. Without reaction, art is lifeless.

When I first started showing, I was painfully shy when attending my openings. Now, I very much look forward to them as moments where witnessing viewer reactions to the work can be truly magical. I treasure every second of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sullivanbeeman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dsullivanbeeman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sullivanbeeman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sullivanbeeman/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DSullivanBeeman

Image Credits
Katie Frankenbach (image of Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman)