O'Connor Allison

Article By Cheryl Brink
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January 21, 2012

Green Valley artist Allison O'Connor has a couple of new projects, featuring cedar posts and leaves.

Pieces of Allison O'Connor's hometown of Green Valley have made their way into her latest art project. The sculptor used cedar wood and colourful fail leaves.

"I've just been working around that theme of natural materials," said O'Connor, who is a programmer for an Orleans arts centre. '

She collected cedar posts from her parent's farm, and spent hours painstakingly cutting and reassembling them to mimic the growth of still living trees.

O'Connor said she also gathered handfuls of leaves as they fell last fall, manipulating them quickly before they dried into position.

"I fold them into origami." she said. "There's this theme of showcasing qualities " - the fragility of the leaves - by making them do something it wouldn't naturally do."

But O'Connor's creativity didn't start with leaves and old fence posts. "I've always been into art." she said, noting that drawing was where she started out.

She attended a visual arts program at the University of Ottawa, dabbling in photography and other forms before finding her passion in sculpting. "From there, I started exploring different mediums." she said. "From plaster, plastics, cement and onto wood. I had never thought of really working with wood, though there's a wood shop at my parents' place:' She said her grandfather does woodworking, which might be where she gained her skills.

O'Connor said she appreciates the material, since it provides direction that's missing from plastics or metals. There's kind of already an inert quality that you have to work with." she
said. "Clay, plaster, you can do whatever you want with it. (With wood) there's predetermined things it can do."

O'Connor, who graduated from university in the spring of 2010, said her cedar post series has already been showcased in at least a couple other galleries, but she was pleased to have
it exhibited near her hometown. "It's nice because it's a small town." she explained. "My mom talks about my art a lot, and she's really excited to be able to show people what it is she's
been talking about for six years now."

She added that both her cedar and leaf displays are more appreciated in rural areas. "It has a very back-home feel." she
said. "It's rustic. I'm happy to bring it
here, to show from where it's kind of
rooted."

O'Connor is continuing to create art with the leaves she's collected, and plans to head back into the woods as soon as spring arrives to gather new materials for her projects. Though she would love to devote all of her time to her art, she said her schedule often revolves around the weather. "It's just kind of working with what's at my disposal." she said . In the summer, I'll be able to go out and in the bush and find different things. It
rolls with the seasons."

For now, O'Connor is content to have her work on display for others to appreciate - but not purchase. "I really like creating an experience; she said. "I get really attached to my work. Everything is really time consuming, it's not mass production at all. The pieces currently being exhibited ... I would spend every day for several weeks and up to a month working on it. "I've developed a lot of attachment to them," she added.