“By creating art with or in nature, clients are able to prolong such sensory-based, wonder-infused moments, contemplating their connection to the world around them and cultivating synergy between environmental and personal well-being.” (Alders Pike, p. 2)
Ecopsychology research validates the benefits of experiences similar to the kind Dorothy O’Connor found at an early age. Creating with and connecting to nature offers humans opportunities to regulate emotions, reduce stress, and expand awareness (Adlers Pike, 2020). Nature provided psychological safety and social support in her childhood and again after the setback of a car accident. O’Connor’s work seems to reflect the themes from these restorative encounters and draws on humans’ sensory orientation to natural stimuli. As Schapiro (2016) explains, nature offers metaphors about ourselves if we are willing to attend to its messages.
Dorothy O’Connor
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Biography
Dorothy O’Connor’s constructed, fantastical works often combine elements of photography, installation and public art. A native Atlantan, she graduated with degrees in Literature and Studio Arts and a certificate in photography. As a fabricator, she is largely self-taught. Inspired by the natural world, and shaped by events in her life, her themes explore various personally meaningful subjects both broad, such as animal welfare and environmental concerns, to the more intimate; friends, family and community.
She has received grants from Possible Futures, FLUX, Forward Arts Foundation, Art on the Beltline, Crusade For Art, Fulton County Arts and Culture and most recently, City of Atlanta ElevateART to present her installations as public art. In 2013, she was artist in residence at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville where she built and presented her installation, "Shelter." She is a Hambidge Fellow and was part of the Hambidge Hive Collective in 2017. 2019 concluded with a solo show of her photography series, Scenes, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Ms. O'Connor's work is part of the permanent collections at MOCA GA, Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fulton County Arts and Culture, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library and is included in numerous private collections.