Laura Schiff Bean grew up on Long Island, NY where music, dance and creative pursuits were an integral part of everyday life. Museums and galleries and theatre in New York City were a routine part of family weekends.

While earning her BA in Psychology at George Washington University in Washington DC, she also attended classes the Corcoran School of Art. In 1991 she enrolled formally at the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and attended through 1997. It was here that she began to incorporate her interest in human nature with her art. Ideas of memory, dreams, subconscious thought and physical presence all permeate her work.

“Bean is best known for her dress “portraits” painted with many layers of thick dripping paint: “ Splashes, drips and brushed slashes of white bring this apparitional gown to life on a midnight background. For me, this ball gown was a feminine counterpoint to the freestanding bathrobes suavely posed by Jim Dine as “Pop” art dawned in the 1960s. Bean’s gown has an imaginative force and elusive presence all its own: it creates a decorative and decorous ruckus with exquisite drawing and a concert of memories. “ Artscope Magazine Aug 2008