The Quinces Shake Their Leafy Heads

Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman is a self-taught figurative and contemporary surrealist painter. She uses modified egg tempera techniques of the 14th century Old Masters to create works of magical realism that seem to glow from within. Celebrating the hard-earned wisdom of childhood, Sullivan-Beeman depicts subjects who are often young, hauntingly innocent, and teetering on the edge of naïveté and what lies beyond. The narratives, symbology, and illumination in her pieces emerge from someplace subliminal, a conjured realm of magic, mysticism, and mystery. She uses her personal dream journal to inspire her artwork, exploring Jung’s collective unconscious with an overt curiosity for the bizarre and the esoteric, especially alchemy, the tarot, and animal spirits.