I guess like many people, I like to spend the tail end of the year reflecting on what has been achieved, what has been learnt, giving myself time to draw, read and plan next steps for direction and growth, all while thinking I should quite possibly not have eaten so much chocolate over Christmas….
This reviewing and rumination that follows is me trying to take a little break - (more difficult than it sounds), to get back on track before the New Year kicks off and things start going all too fast again….
Here is a speedy round up of the year for me as an artist:
One amazing afternoon actually floating around in the water at Miami South Beach after the SCOPE Art fair closed!
SCOPE ART FAIR MIAMI 2025 - Shrines & Portals
Installation view of Shrines & Portals at SCOPE Miami Beach, December 2025
Artists Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, Richard Glick, Frances Melhop, and Stewart Francis Easton, create artworks to focus and dream on, exploring the cyclical nature of existence, time, and being human, through obsessive mark-making. These four artists challenge traditional forms of drawing, while rejecting the slickness, lack of physicality, and false perfection found in the digital world, each embraces raw human experience, steps and miss-steps, and a sense of being Here, Now. All have implicit faith in the communicative power of art providing portals and pathways leading to thought, action, and transformation in both the artist and the viewer.
Top Left: Becoming Aware, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025..
Lower Left: Time Unstoppable Time, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025.
Right: Origin, oil paint on linen cotton thread, 12” x 12” x 3” on stretcher + maple frame, 2025..
Lower Center: Dreaming a Life, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 24” x 24” x 2” on stretcher bars, 2025.
SCOPE ART FAIR MIAMI 2025 "Shrines & Portals”
Top Left: Becoming Aware, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025.
Lower Left: Time Unstoppable Time, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025..
Right: Origin, oil paint on linen cotton thread, 12” x 12” x 3” on stretcher + maple frame, 2025.
Lifesaving hut South Beach Miami
WOMEN PULLING AT THE THREADS OF SOCIAL DISCOURSE: DON’T BE ABSURD, at the CAMP Gallery in Miami.
The Contemporary Art Modern Project presents the 7th edition of its annual exhibition exploring how women use fiber to challenge and reshape cultural narratives.
Over 100 years after Kierkegaard sparked Existentialism, artists continue to question meaning through material, gesture, and thread.
Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse: Don’t Be Absurd brings together women and fiber artists reinterpreting the writings of Camus, Kafka, and de Beauvoir — weaving Absurdism into circular forms that challenge the boundaries of reason and art.
Installation view, Some Days Are Better Than Others, 2025, oil paint on linen with hand embroidery, 24” diameter x 3” depth
Some Days Are Better Than Others, 2025, oil paint on linen with hand embroidery, 24” diameter x 3” depth. October - December 2025.
“All Men Are Mortal” by Simone de Beauvoir is the writing I am more familiar with, I felt like it applied to my work and the things I am currently working on. What often feels futile, incrementally builds up and becomes something beautiful. In this book Raymond Fosca becomes immortal and eventually tries to find a reason for living…his own existential crisis. Having no end made things feel purposeless, with no deadlines, motivation or reason….He loses everything….as everyone meaningful to him dies and he must carry on.
My current work is a kind of mapping of time or of a life. It consists of a spiral that ends as the fabric substrate is full. De Beauvoir’s point is that a human life is finite, and it is that limitation that helps us find meaningful things to do with our lives.
I have been thinking about the cyclical nature of time, with this series.
Timekeeper's Garden - solo exhibition at the Reno Tahoe International Art Fair
Installation View Timekeeper’s Garden, Solo Exhibition, Reno Tahoe International Art Fair. September 2025
Left: Timekeeper :NO NO NO, 2025. Oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 48” x 48” x 4” on stretcher bars, 2025
Center: Dreaming a Life, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 24” x 24” x 2” on stretcher bars, 2025.
Top Right: Time Unstoppable Time, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025.
Lower Right: Becoming Aware, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars, 2025..
Right: Origin, oil paint on linen cotton thread, 12” x 12” x 3” on stretcher + maple frame, 2025..
Bottom Right: Living in a Dream, oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 24” x 24” x 2” on stretcher bars, 2025.
NTI Traveling Exhibition - Nevada Arts Council 2025-2028, NV USA
These Odd Girls are off on a road trip with the Nevada Arts Council for 2 whole years!
Odd Girl #1, Odd Girl #2, Odd Girl #3, 29” x 14” blind contour embroidery, cotton thread on British linen. 2021
Artist Residency in Arao, Kyushu, Japan at Motomoto Residency - Many thanks to Hanako Miyamoto-sama
The most mindblowing experience!
Trying to eat our body weight in sashimi and sushi and other delicacies!!!
Visible Mending - solo exhibition at Motomoto Gallery, Arao, Kyushu, Japan
Installation image of Visible Mending exhibition, Motomoto gallery, Arao, Kyushu, Japan
Installation image of Visible Mending exhibition, Motomoto gallery, Arao, Kyushu, Japan
Yes Yes Yes, Actually NO. Oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 8” x 8” x 3” on stretcher bars. Visible Mending exhibition, Motomoto gallery, Arao, Kyushu, Japan
Installation image of Visible Mending exhibition, Motomoto gallery, Arao, Kyushu, Japan
Layers of Reiteration - Sierra Arts Gallery, Reno, NV, USA
Installation view Timekeeper NO NO NO, 2025. Oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 48” x 48” x 4” on stretcher bars, 2025
Timekeeper: NO NO NO, 2025. Oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 48” x 48” x 4” on stretcher bars, 2025
Side detail view: Timekeeper NO NO NO, 2025. Oil paint on linen, hand embroidered with cotton thread, 48” x 48” x 4” on stretcher bars, 2025
54th Annual Art Faculty Exhibition - at Truckee Meadows Community College
Betwixt and Between, Intaglio print, edition of 23, BFK Rives paper, 14” x 11”
This piece from 2019 never really got a good run as the entire portfolio of the print run was lost by someone at the Rocky Mountain Printmakers Alliance… never to be seen again…
Just stuff artists always have to navigate and deal with … 1 week solid printing and 3 weeks stippling the plate lost to time. All that is left is one or two Artist Proofs.
Honeycomb PROJECT - traveling exhibition, curated by Candace Garlock, NV Humanities Gallery, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Interconnectivity, 8” x 8” oil paint on linen with cotton embroidery.
Interconnectivity is part of the Timekeeper series. The idea of interconnectedness is especially poignant now - as we all seem to be deeply connected digitally, while many are feeling completely disconnected on a personal and social level.
Along with the exhibitions above:
Met loads of really amazing people in Japan, Miami, Oregon and Seattle!
Taught 7 sections of ART 270 - Women in Art, and 2 sections of ART 261 Survey of Art History at Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV.
Also learnt InDesign and published my first book, which will be available soon through AMAZON. Layers of Re-iteration, stay tuned…
And curated several shows and an Art Fair with the Melhop Gallery º7077 nomadic venture.
So - not a bad year all in all….