Mary O'Brien

Mary O’Brien creates remedial environmental art installations and interactions in the public domain. O’Brien co-founded the art practice, Watershed Sculpture with Daniel McCormick. and leads the practice’s social engagement work, researching and authoring projects that pose inquiries, engage public interaction, and foster participation by various stakeholders in a community. These artistic interactions contribute to the restoration of lands and waters by influencing the ecological balance at these sites. The work itself becomes an act of activism.

An early career path in legal advocacy led O’Brien to environmental activism. She worked as a film and video director and script writer. She spent 16 years developing a sculpture practice to explore the nature of shifting cultural identities.