Carolyn Beegan, Caroline Beegan, Carolyn Beagan, Caroline Beagan, Sag Harbor Artist, Sag Harbor Art, Sag Harbor Arts, Sag Harbor Painter, Sag Harbor Gallery, New York Artist, New York Art, New York Arts, New York Painter, New York Gallery, Hamptons Artist, Hamptons Art, Hamptons Arts, Hamptons Painter, Hamptons Gallery, East Hampton Artist, East Hampton Art, East Hamptons Arts, East Hamptons Painter, East Hamptons Gallery, Long Island Artist, Long Island Art, Long Island Arts, Long Island Gallery, Painter, Art, Art Gallery, Modern Art, Abstract Art, Arlene Bujese Gallery, Ambassador Gallery, Elaine Benson Gallery Carolyn Beegan didn’t declare herself an artist until 1994 when she was 27 years old and gave up a successful career as a systems analyst in the oil industry. After five years of working and showing in Manhattan she moved to Sag Harbor, New York to paint full time. An accomplished photographer as well as an artist, Ms Beegan lives in a 1790 ship captain’s house with an atelier studio in which she works. A summa cum laude graduate of Manhattan College with a degree in computer science, her first exposure to art was the religious imagery that surrounded her in the sixteen years she spent in parochial schools including St Francis Preparatory School in Queens, New York. Her strict Irish Catholic upbringing is strongly manifested in much of her earlier paintings, including studies of religious iconography, fragments of a Sistine Chapel-like mural, and self-portraits of the artist as the Madonna. Her family ties to Ireland remain strong and she maintains both U.S. and Irish passports. Although she studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan, Ms Beegan is primarily self-taught. She has traveled much of the globe — alone, with friends, and with rock bands. She is curious, adventuresome and sybaritic, in steadfast pursuit of good food, wine, companionship and creative inspiration. On her travels she has filled scores of notebooks with sketches and collages that serve as sources for her completed work. A sense of texture and tactility distinguishes much of her art, as evidenced in the draped fabrics of the empty costumes of her oversized oil on wood series A Common Thread. Her collages — layers of paint, pencil, charcoal, marker, and computer-generated images (a small irony since she once swore-off the use of computers) are similarly layered and tactile. In the late 1990s she introduced her most controversial paintings called The Body Politic, a Georgia O'Keeffe-like series of biomorphic self-portraits of her uterus based on internal photographs of Ms Beegan taken by her surgeon. Her personal philosophy of life is perhaps best embodied by her still life series of fruit and vegetables: The paintings spill over the large canvases, literally overflowing with bounty, leaving little negative space. Her esprit de vivre has inspired songs to be written about her, boats to be named after her, and a waltz dedicated to Lola, her Pug dog. Her work has been shown extensively in galleries in SoHo and Chelsea as well as throughout the East End of Long Island. Her art is in the collections of John Eastman, Larry Gagosian, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John and Ron Perelman. Steven Gaines