Deirdre Sheean, ROOSEVELT
Member Since July 2019
Artist Statement I grew up in a large artistic family--the middle of five children. My mother was a successful portrait painter and the president of the Guild of Creative Art, located in Shrewsbury NJ. She taught classes in drawing and watercolor. I began attending these classes at the age of 12 and forged a lifelong love of the arts that I have tried hard to keep at the center of my life. My father sang in a band in his early twenties and assembled an extensive collection of records, especially jazz, that was pivotal to our otherwise solidly middle-class life. After graduating from high school in 1970 I studied portraiture at The Art Students League with Robert Brachman and graphic design at Parsons School of Design. Soon after I moved to Vermont and for 7 years worked as a graphic designer for a small TV station. After being offered a job at Princeton University Press, I moved back to New Jersey and for the next 20 years I worked at various publishing houses; McGraw-Hill Publishing Companies, Visual Education Corporation, and Mathematica Policy Reseach. During this time, I married, raised two sons and continued to paint and exhibit my work in various local group shows and galleries. I retired 5 years ago and now work full time at my art. I have achieved a modicum of success: most notably acceptance in the NJ Arts Annual, Reemergence Exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ and the Annual Juried Exhibition at the Monmouth Museum, Lincroft NJ. I have been a board member of the Roosevelt Arts Project for over twenty years where I help curate and produce an annual roster of events. I also teach drawing to local elementary school age children and to teenagers at RISE, a Social Service Agency & Food Pantry in Hightstown NJ.
Artist Statement
I am interested in abstraction - in paring down objects to their simplest forms. I work with a variety of materials and techniques that adhere to certain principals and ideas but is flexible enough to welcome accidents and take advantage of mistakes. Adding and subtracting, applying layers and textures, and then hunting for hidden interlocking patterns is where the excitement lies. The use of geometric stencils are used extensively in my work to create visual rhythms and to strengthen the composition. I also pay close attention to the power of differences. (small shapes beside larger shapes; the play of dark alongside light; scrubbed or sketchy, areas juxtaposed to flat, solid areas of color).
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