THE 11th ANNUAL
ART OF NATURE EXHIBITION
For 11 years, the annual outdoor exhibit Art of Nature has explored the profound dialogue between human creativity and the natural world. Nature, a wellspring of artistic inspiration, shapes our very concepts of beauty. Through this reflective exhibition, art becomes a means of deepening our connection to the landscapes we seek to protect, revealing their essence and importance.
This year’s exhibition, Placemaking, is especially meaningful. Curated by Nancy Jones, the founder of Blue Heron Nature Preserve, this exhibition offers a unique look into the heart and history of the Preserve from the woman who started it all.
In 2000, Nancy gathered community members around her kitchen table to devise a plan to save the first parcel of land from development. She was an art schoolteacher who lived nearby, with a dream of protecting the creeks and wildlife that she and her family had grown to love. That effort grew into a thriving 30-acre urban nature preserve, with programs for conservation, education, and the arts. Now, in celebration of Blue Heron’s 25th anniversary, Nancy returns to curate Placemaking, weaving together history and art in a powerful tribute to the Preserve’s past and future.
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THE OPENING DAY CELEBRATION!
Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 2pm
Registration for this free event is not required, but recommended.
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Art of Nature with a vibrant day of art, music, and nature appreciation:
- 2:00 PM: Indoor gallery opening with the Atlanta Collage Society, pottery by Rose M Barron, and introductions to all the artists that have come together to create PLACEMAKING.
- 3:00 PM: A musical parade! Follow the parade from the indoor gallery to discover the outdoor exhibition, with artists present to chat and talk about their works. Live music and interactive experiences provided by Acton Academy and the Amphibian Foundation.
- 4:00 PM: Explore the Preserve’s trails, encounter native reptile and amphibian species presented by the Amphibian Foundation, enjoy refreshments along the wooded paths, visit the community garden, and revisit the indoor gallery at your leisure.
The art features a dynamic mix of indoor and outdoor installations:
- An indoor exhibition presented by The Atlanta Collage Society alongside handmade pottery by Rose M Barron
- Large-scale outdoor installations among the trees, presented by artists Dorothy O’Connor, Shannon Willow, Rose M Barron, and Nancy Jones
- A brand-new mural by Shannon Willow
We hope you will join us in experiencing this powerful exhibition and in celebrating the art of nature.
This exhibition was made possible by the generous support of Northside Hospital 
The Exhibition Program
Read about the artists and artworks featured in PLACEMAKING
JUMP TO SECTION:
Nancy Jones | Dorothy O’Connor | Rose M Barron | Shannon Willow | Atlanta Collage Society
ART BY NANCY JANE LEE JONES
The Little Old Store Beside the Road
Multimedia Collage and Photography
“A hundred years ago, Miss Jane ran a nearby country store—an important resource for her community. Unexpected for her day, she was a business woman who never married.
Because she often wasn’t in the store but rather out working in her garden, visitors used a bell to summon her inside.
There is a granite marker in place for the store location at the intersection of Roswell and Piedmont roads listing her name and dates: Miss Jane Donaldson 1849-1931.”
Alice in Wonderland
Photography, collage, antique artifacts
“While Miss Jane was running her store, Alice Eidson and her husband ran a grist mill at the current location of Blue Heron Nature Preserve. Her granddaughter Elinor passed down a charming story of her grandmother’s love of fishing using strands of her long hair as fishing line.
She is pictured here floating in the utopian greenery of the Preserve.”
Nancy Jones is more than Blue Heron’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence—she is its founder, the original visionary who saw the potential for a patch of Atlanta land to become a thriving nature preserve. Decades after helping protect this land, she returns to curate and contribute to this year’s Art of Nature.
Working in mixed media, photography, sculpture, textiles, and site-based installations, Nancy’s art unearths women’s histories often excluded from the dominant narrative. Her practice blends natural materials with memory, evoking both reverence and reflection.
She lives and works in the rural Florida panhandle, where she continues to honor forgotten women’s voices through her creative practice. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Southeast—including ArtFields, the Wiregrass Museum Biennial, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art—and featured in national and international publications such as the Social Art Award in Berlin and Florida State University’s HEART Journal.
ART BY DOROTHY O’CONNOR
Blanket of Pinecones
2025, black and white photograph captured with 8×10 camera and film
“By using natural elements in the creation of the blanket and layering it with vintage Victorian underclothing, this image acknowledges pieces of female-centered Muscogee histories and customs, as well as the histories of women who made their home on the land that is now Blue Heron, after the tribes no longer held the land. The pinecones and fire represent rebirth and indigenous ways of working within the wisdom of natural boundaries and systems already in place. Something that resonated with me while reading the history of the land was that Muscogee women always kept a fire going. The fire represented, drew and fed community. That historical acknowledgment of the importance, beauty and strength in community connects and carries the history to the present, and to Nancy’s vision for the possibility of the Preserve and then gathering the community to make it happen. Through the act of community comes the creation of Blue Heron Nature Preserve and once again, the land and the natural systems are protected and restored.
Also, I’d like to note that this photograph pays homage and is a memorial of sorts to the tree, now a stump, that stood in that spot. The tree existed in the neighborhood next to mine behind the parking lot of a long-abandoned school building. It was huge and must have been pretty old and I really loved it. It was alive and there was a lot of space surrounding it, so no danger to houses
or buildings that I could see if it were to fall. I used to visit it fairly frequently while walking one of my dogs. I was surprised and sad to discover that it was suddenly gone. And, I wanted to think of a way to honor it. Now complete, I think of many things when I look at this image. Initially my thoughts run to the friends that helped me make it, the walks to visit the tree with my beloved dog
and my love for the tree and these remembrances feel like the tree has now transformed into something else, as they normally would do once they age and fall and become life and food for others. Like now, for me, I have given it a version of its natural cycle back.”
Umbrella
2025, black and white photograph captured with 8×10 camera and film
“This image was created as part of my BHNP artist residency in 2024. Since Nancy is ultimately responsible for saving the 30 acres that is now Blue Heron Nature Preserve, it was important to me to find a way to weave a bit of her story into the work I created for my exhibition.
Over the phone, I walked the Preserve while Nancy told me the story—her story—of how the Preserve came to be. It’s incredible, and honestly, it seemed to me like she manifested a bit of magic. There were certainly setbacks and difficulties, but also tremendous moments of serendipity.
That said, those moments could only happen if someone is already positioned in the right place at the right time—something that only comes in due course through incredibly hard work.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this image was taken in one of Nancy’s favorite spots in the Preserve. I found it while following the flight of a hawk through the creek.”
Re-wilding
2025, color photograph captured with 8×10 camera and film
“I was so pleased when Nancy invited me to make work for Placemaking. BHNP felt like a special place to me from the moment I first walked the land and I was glad to be able to celebrate it through creating art once again. I was also pleased because Placemaking aimed to celebrate women’s stories and histories as they were connected through the land that BHNP exists on. I loved the concept of connecting stories of different eras and ethnicities of women through land (traditionally male centered). I also loved that the history of the land (as we know it) began as home to people that listened to, respected and lived within the natural systems in place. And then through all the years of change and everything that might have been, it once again through Nancy’s vision and hard work becomes restored to its original state (more or less). The land undergoes a re-wilding of sorts.
This female form, created of natural materials, has been a recurring theme in my work in various forms for some years now. Considering the theme of the exhibition, I decided to revisit her, this time for the creation of a photograph. She, in this classic female dress form, also undergoes a re-wilding. Made with a variety of plants, seeds, nuts, nests, bones, skulls, bark, flowers, feathers, vines, branches, fungi, pinecones, lichen, and moss all found in Georgia, she will suspend, in printed form on fabric, over the forest floor and blow in the breeze for the duration of the exhibition. Stripped of expectation and tradition, she becomes and exists as she is: life, death, birth, growth, change—natural cycles connected, balanced, and coexisting.“
Branching Ribcage
2025, black and white photograph captured with 8×10 camera and film
Dorothy O’Connor’s constructed, fantastical works often combine elements of photography, installation, and public art. A native Atlantan, she holds degrees in Literature and Studio Arts, as well as 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 personally meaningful subjects—ranging from broad issues such as animal welfare and environmental concerns to more intimate topics like friends, family, and community.
Her images for Placemaking were inspired by the layered histories of women who lived and worked on the land that is now Blue Heron Nature Preserve—beginning with the matriarchal society of the Muscogee tribe and culminating in Nancy’s incredible story and the creation of the Preserve.
These artworks are available for sale through the artist. Learn more or contact Dorothy through her website, dorothyoconnor.com
ART BY ROSE M BARRON
“My interdisciplinary art practice often explores female identity and how that identity fits into larger social constructs. I look at relationships between the present and past to honor the matriarchal power structure rooted in the gift of a woman’s ability to create and sustain life. My work further investigates ancestral heritage and feminine mysteries to uncover subconscious beliefs that shape our connection to the world, with the intention of fostering healing and offering a deeper sense of self.
For Placemaking, my imagery highlights female identity alongside the history of the Muscogee (Creek) people who once inhabited the land that is now Blue Heron Nature Preserve. As I walked the grounds, I felt a strong spiritual presence. My intent is to honor the Muscogee matriarchal society—where women were revered and balance was maintained among genders, generations, and between humans and nature. Caretaking, nurturing, and peacemaking were integral at every level of life: economic, social, political, and spiritual.
My large-scale, photography-based images aim to convey that same sense of spirituality—honoring both nature and life. In The Water Bearer, a young woman stands in a creek, balancing a vessel atop her head. She represents both the sacredness of water and the act of giving. Through this work, I hope to create imagery that viewers can relate to and identify with, while offering a sense of place, reverence, and connection.”
The Water Bearer
Dye Sublimation Print on Poplin, 72”x48”
Sacred Earth
Dye Sublimation Print on Poplin, 72”x48”
Sacred Waters
Dye Sublimation Print on Poplin, 72”x48”
Guardian Spirits
Dye Sublimation Print on Poplin, 72”x48”
Rose M Barron is a multimedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores female identity and how it fits within broader social constructs. Her work draws connections between past and present to honor matriarchal power, the feminine ability to sustain life, and ancestral wisdom. Through photography, ceramics, film, and installation, she investigates subconscious beliefs, aiming to foster healing and a deeper sense of connection to self and world.
Rose holds an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, an MA in Photography from Georgia State University, and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is held in collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Four Seasons in Morocco. In 2024, she was awarded the Bill Nixon Distinguished Fellowship for Georgia Ceramicists at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences.
These artworks are available for sale through the artist. Learn more about the artist & inquire to purchase work through Rose’s website, rosembarron.com
ART BY SHANNON WILLOW
Animal Spirit
Painted Mural
“This mural is a visual reminder of our sacred connection to the land. As a multi-disciplinary artist, my mission is connecting people with nature, encouraging them to be curious about how stewarding the land is the ultimate form of service.
Muscogee ancestors carried the wisdom of the forest: Then and now, Water is central to all Life. May we live in balance and harmony with our Earth Mother. We are all connected.”
Award winning artist, eco-activist and storyteller, Shannon Willow uses art and creative experiences to connect people with nature. As a multidisciplinary artist, Shannon has worked with 5 to 85 year olds to engage them in art that awakens the Spirit.
Shannon Willow offers large scale murals to team building on canvas in social and corporate settings. Many of her murals have been featured on Netflix and other series. Her most recent ‘Heart of Mother Earth’ is an 8’ anatomical shaped heart sculpture paired with a pollinator habitat she planted with the community, and located on the bike path in Clarkston, Georgia.
Shannon has an active studio practice in her home, surrounded by her certified wildlife habitat. Shannon is truly an Earth Keeper educator and is excited to feature the Acton Academy students working closely with her on the new ‘Spirit Animal’ mural to honor the Muscogee Ancestors of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve.
To see more of Shannon’s work visit shannonwillowart.com
ART BY ATLANTA COLLAGE SOCIETY
Founded in 2006 by a small group of local artists, the Atlanta Collage Society (ACS) has grown into a vibrant regional organization that promotes the medium of collage as a powerful and evolving form of contemporary art. With glue as the unifying medium, ACS artists work in a wide range of styles, techniques, and materials—creating work that is as diverse and expressive as the individuals behind it.
The Society includes more than 60 members—collage artists, assemblage artists, and mixed media practitioners—ranging from emerging creatives to experienced professionals. In addition to hosting exhibitions throughout the Southeast, ACS supports its members through educational programs, professional workshops, and community outreach projects.
Through this exhibition, Blue Heron Nature Preserve highlights the dynamic visual language of collage, and the Atlanta Collage Society’s ongoing mission: to foster creativity, promote innovation, and elevate the role of collage in contemporary art.
Learn more or join ACS on their website atlantacollage.org
