Women in focus at the 11th annual Art of Nature 

At the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, art and nature are intertwined. For 11 years, the Preserve, a sprawling greenspace in North Buckhead, has welcomed artists to create and install works for the Art of Nature annual exhibition. 

This year’s Placemaking exhibit was curated by none other than Nancy Jones herself, the founder of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve. 

Jones is an environmentalist and an artist. In 2000, she was working as an art teacher at Sarah Smith Elementary School when she grew concerned about the impact of new buildings and communities in her neighborhood. With the support of her community, she purchased seven acres of land to preserve it and protect the nature within. Over the years, she expanded the property to encompass 30 acres of wetlands, meadows, riparian and woodlands.

“I have really enjoyed the challenge of working outdoors,” said Jones, who will display her own artwork alongside that of the artists she invited to this year’s exhibit. She now lives and creates art from her home in the Florida panhandle. 

“Art of Nature has given me an opportunity to expand my work three-dimensionally and include the equation of nature. Nature’s palette — of color with the added elements of sunlight, wind, Earth and trees — became an automatic component of my work, and working with that flow was so much fun,” Jones continued.

Working in mixed media, photography, sculptures, textile art and installations, Jones showcases women’s histories that are often overlooked. 

This site-specific exhibition series invites artists to create works that communicate and engage with nature on the property. Considerations such as exposure to the elements, sustainability of materials and the ecological impact of the works all come into play. Some works are meant to stand out, while others literally and figuratively blend into the natural environment in which they are positioned.

“Creating site-specific projects that will live outdoors among the natural world always feels like a celebration of nearly everything I love,” said Dorothy O’Connor, whose large-scale installation works incorporate nature in inspired ways. Many of O’Connor’s works feature kinetic sculptures that hang from the ceiling or are suspended from handheld posts, composed of natural elements such as sticks, leaves and moss, which she then captures in photographs. 

For Blanket of Pinecones, O’Connor layered vintage Victorian undergarments topped with a blanket of pinecones. In the final image, her model stands perched atop a tree stump, a look of defiance and fortitude on her face, while a fire burns in the foreground. This is a tribute to the traditions of the Muscogee women, who relied upon fire for cooking food for survival and the protection it offered to their community. 

This year’s theme recenters the conversation of place, and placemaking, as an act of communal love for the natural world. The exhibit intentionally features works by women and about women as a means of challenging the traditional connections of land ownership as a male-oriented concept. 

The art on display includes an indoor exhibition of works by members of The Atlanta Collage Society, pottery by Rose M. Barron, outdoor installations in the woods and a new mural along the creek’s edge. 

Barron is a multimedia visual artist who works in photography, videography and painting. Barron, who will have photography on display in addition to pottery, noted her excitement at the prospect of “telling stories of the past females who lived on the grounds of the nature preserve — also the camaraderie of the fellow female artists in this exhibition. I feel like we’re building community.” 

Barron’s The Water Bearer, for example, portrays a young woman standing in a creek with a vessel delicately balanced on her head. This image is an homage to the sacredness of the water itself and portrays an act of service to one’s community. 

For Shannon Willow, who completed the mural titled Animal Spirits, it was essential to ensure her works were a conversation not just with the animals who call Blue Heron home but also a dedication to the indigenous ancestors of the Muscogee land and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW for short) of Turtle Island. 

“This mural speaks to our connection to all that is sacred — water is our life force energy and connects us to all land, forests, rivers, oceans, mountains and all the animals,” said Willow. “May we make more space for all wildlife and their habitats, and embody the ancestor’s wisdom to live in reverence, harmony and balance with all life.”

Inside the gallery space at Blue Heron is an exhibition of works by members of The Atlanta Collage Society. Featuring a mixture of figurative and abstract pieces, the works in this exhibit explore place as defined by nature, water, flora and the people who care for it. 

“The collages in this exhibit are as diverse and creative as the 22 artists whose work is on display,” said Ellen K. Stein of the Atlanta Collage Society. “Featuring a broad variety of styles and techniques, this exhibit focuses on a unified theme celebrating the history of the Preserve.”

This year’s exhibit centers the conversation of place around common themes of womanhood, community and connection to the land. While we enjoy the Blue Heron Nature Preserve as it stands today — a tribute to Jones’ love for the environment and commitment to protecting nature despite expansion of our modern society — the exhibit reminds us of all those who have walked through those woods before us and those will do so in the future, long after we are gone.

The Art of Nature will debut at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve this weekend, with an opening day celebration on Saturday, April 26, kicking off at 2 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display until June 14, 2025. For more information, go online to the Blue Heron Nature Preserve website.

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Isadora Pennington is senior editor of art + design and dance. An experienced writer and photographer with a deep love for the arts, Isadora founded the Sketchbook newsletter with Rough Draft Atlanta in 2022. She is also President of the Avondale Arts Alliance and Director of the Avondale Arts Center.