Statement

I embrace the challenge of recreating the world through my art, but I am often surprised by the stories that emerge. The resulting work is frequently surreal and engaging. Portraits are rarely straightforward and still lifes are often “not so still” with objects falling, floating and flying. Fascinated by reflections which create worlds within worlds, I depict objects and rooms seen through the distortion of curved surfaces. The work invites you to enter into a world that is at once strange and familiar.

Ironically, we now live in a world that is both strange yet familiar. The Climate Crisis has altered our planet more quickly than predicted. Living with this shadow over us prompted me to create several drawing series; Portraits of Glaciers, Dead Horse Bay, and Ugly Fruit, are three drawing series in which I express concern for the environment, stressed by global threats. Read more about some of these works in an article on the Columbia Climate School’s State of the Planet Glacierhub blog Portraits of Glaciers: Art, Identity and the Self in Retreat by Shermaine Tay

My ongoing drawing series, SELF, created over four decades , is a series of self-portraits that have become an unexpected lifetime journey. Using the vocabulary of my own forms and features, I bear witness to the changes of time on myself, but also the ways I am affected by what is happening around me, offering a broader experience of being human.

“Look closely at the paintings of Fran Beallor … you’re likely to see more than meets the eye.”
–Barbara Gallo Farrell, Journalist/Editor Poughkeepsie Journal