Reaching deep into her own psychic well, painter Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman channels gentle and otherworldly situations into her surrealist paintings. Using her dream journal as a jumping off point, she extends her personal curiosities into the subjects and themes of her work. 

This October, La Luz de Jesus Gallery presents Heavy Water, her latest solo exhibition in which she experiments with a mythical narrative. Sullivan-Beeman questions heavy water, a rare and lethal substance that comes from ordinary tap water, that was first produced in 1932 and adapted for nuclear energy research. 

In her rich and enchanting story, heavy water is still used as an element for nuclear reactors and weapons. The viewer will have to decide — if heavy water suddenly replaces what comes from the tap, would anyone even notice any difference while cooking, drinking or showering in it? Perhaps only when it’s too late, the artist muses. 

Creating an installation inside the infamous lowbrow pop surrealist gallery, she conceives a magical atmosphere of double-sided paintings suspended from the ceiling along with a life-size diorama. Self-taught, Sullivan-Beeman uses the modified egg tempera techniques of 14th-century master painters to give her artwork its sense of mystery within a beautiful layer of opalescence. Her dive into this subliminal and conjured world involves a cast of characters exploring concepts such as weightlessness, survival and the mysterious depths of the sea. The installation brings out her overt interests in alchemy, animal spirits and the truly bizarre. 

La Luz de Jesus, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz; opening reception: Fri., Oct. 4, 8-11 p.m.; through Sun., Oct. 27; free. (323) 666-7667, laluzdejesus.com. 

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