Statement
Bio
Pat O’Connor is an artist whose practice spans drawing, painting, assemblage, and site-responsive sculpture. Her work has been exhibited widely, most recently at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, Transmission and Mercury Twenty Galleries in Oakland, the Sasse Museum of Art in Pomona, and the Mill Valley O’Hanlon Center for the Arts. Her pieces are held in both public and private collections, including a commission at UCSF Medical Center.
She received her B.A. in Painting and Drawing from UC Davis and pursued graduate study in Textile Arts at San Francisco State University. Her honors include a San Francisco Foundation Grant, the Robert Rauschenberg-hosted Power of Art Award from the Lab School of Washington, D.C., the Arts Educator of the Year Award from the San Francisco Unified School District, and an appointment to the San Francisco Arts Commission.
O’Connor has taught widely at notable institutions, including San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley Extension, and the De Young Museum.
Resume
My work is a meditation on cycles of creation, erosion, and renewal. Early experiments casting paper pulp over structures at a former World War II naval base sparked a lasting interest in materials shaped by history and exposure. Today, I work primarily with cardboard salvaged from streets, recycling bins, and discarded packaging, drawn to surfaces marked by wear, weather, and use.
Through folding, layering, stitching, printing, and painting, I transform these fragments, along with other seemingly incongruent materials, into richly textured assemblages. Guided by shifts in patina and form, I build dense, layered surfaces that hold tension between strength and fragility, harmony and discord, and between the predictable and the unforeseen.
Cardboard, humble and impermanent, originates from trees, linking the material back to the natural world. In some works, I introduce imagery of branches and tree forms, creating both quiet and unsettled dialogues between the material’s fragile present and its living origin.
In a culture shaped by disposability, I seek to elevate overlooked materials, inviting viewers to consider the histories embedded in ordinary things and to imagine ways the industrial and natural worlds might endure together.
EDUCATION
University of California, Santa Cruz - Certificate in Educational Therapy
San Francisco State University - M.A. Art September 1979 - June 1981
San Francisco State University, Ryan Act Teaching Credential, Art September 1974 - June 1975
University of California, Davis - B.A., Art September 1970 - June 1972
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Cathedral School for Boys, San Francisco - Head, Art Department - September 1989 - June 2021
Mercy High School, San Francisco - Art Teacher - September 1986 - June 1989
San Francisco Community College - Art Professor - September 1982 - June 1989
John F. Kennedy University, Moraga, California - Graduate Advisor, Art - September 1986 - June 1987
De Young Museum of San Francisco - Art Teacher - September 1983 - June 1987
Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts, Berkeley, California - Art Teacher - September 1981 - June 1986
San Francisco State University - Guest Arts Professor - September 1982 - January 1982
INVITED LECTURER
Drew College Preparatory, San Francisco “Teaching the Learning Disabled Child” - 2001
Richmond Art Center, California. “On-Site: Artists in Response to the Environment” - 1989
HONORS AND AWARDS
2024 - California State Fair, Fourth Place, Other Paper Arts Division
1999 - Robert Rauschenberg Foundation “Power of Art Award”, Lab School of Washington D.C.,
Honored for developing a visual arts program to enhance academic understanding for students with reading and writing challenges.
1998 - Appointed Head, Children’s Art Task Force - Superior Court of California, San Francisco Unified Family Court,
Appointed to develop a program to place children’s art into Family Court.
1996 - Awarded Art Teacher of the Year - De Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, SFUSD Annual Youth Arts Festival
1985 - San Francisco Foundation Grant Recipient Artist-in-Residence - San Francisco State University Romberg Center for Environmental Studies, Tiburon, California
CORPORATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
University of California Medical Center, San Francisco
Adia Services, San Francisco
American National Bank Chicago, Illinois
Hersh Family Law, San Francisco
Hersh and Hersh Law Firm San Francisco
Kaiser Medical Center Walnut Creek, California
Heritage Bank of Commerce Sunnyvale, California
Solutions San Francisco
Trammel Crow Corporation San Mateo, California
Wells Fargo Bank Oakland, California
PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE ARTIST
1994 - Webster, Mary Hull, The Form of Stillness
1986 - Berrian, Elizabeth and Nelson, Fred New Directions in Paper Mendocino Art Center Arts and Entertainment
1985 - Schoesinger, Ellen, Paper: Ephemeral and Enduring Sacramento Bee
1984 - Scarborough, Jessica Sculptural Paper: Foundation and Directions Fiberarts
PUBLICATIONS BY THE ARTIST
1983 - On Papermaking Shuttle, Spindle, Dyepot
ART EXHIBITIONS
2026 - “When Vision Refuses to Explain”, Sasse Museum, Pomona, California, group exhibit. 2026 - “New Spring”, Senator Scott Weiner’s Office in the California State Building, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2026 - “Bits and Pieces”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, group exhibit. 2025 - “Solstice”, Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland, group exhibit. 2025 - “Art Launch”, SOMarts Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2025 - “Pint Size”, Transmission Gallery, Oakland, California, group exhibit. 2025 - “Wabi Sabi”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, California, group exhibit. 2025 - “Bits and Pieces”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, California, group exhibit. 2025 - “ Save Our Planet 2025”, a virtual group exhibit of the Red Bluff Gallery, benefitting the Animal Rescue Centers of Northern California. 2025 - “Consumed,” The Drawing Room, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2025 - “O’Hanlon Annual Membership Exhibition 2025”, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, California. 2024 - “San Francisco Artists Exhibit,” Cafe Alma, San Francisco. 2024 - “Reclaimed/Repurposed,” Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, California, group exhibit. 2024 - ReLaunch, SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2024 -“Women Artists Making Their Mark,” O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, group exhibit. 2024 -“Paper Arts,” California State Fair, Awarded Fourth Place, group exhibit. 2024 -“Fiber Art: The Expressive & Innovative,” O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, group exhibit. 2024 - “Pint Size,” Transmission Gallery, Oakland, California, group exhibit. 2023 -“The De Young Open,” De Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2023 -SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2022 -“Debris Assessment Series,” Cafe Alma, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2022 -“Summertime, Noe Valley Artists,” Sanchez Gallery, San Francisco. 2022 -“Landscapes and Seascapes,” Laguna Art Gallery, California, group exhibit. 2019 -“50 x 50”, Gallery Sanchez, Pacifica, California, group exhibit. 2011 -“Nature,” Thoreau Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2010 - “Postcard as Art,” The Lab, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2009 -“Visual Aid, SOMA, San Francisco,” group exhibit. 2009 - “Meet the Artists”, BAE, San Francisco, group exhibit. 2008 - 2024 -“Open Studios, San Francisco”. 2001 -“Inaugural Art Exhibition,” Mercy High School Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit. 1998 -“Bay Area Art Faculty Exhibition,” Branson Gallery, Ross, California, group exhibit. 1994 - “Asian Roots/Western Soil” Japanese Influences in American Culture,” Berkeley Art Center, group exhibit. 1992 -“Judith Litvich Collection: Hobaica, Farnsworth, and O’Connor,” Piemonte, Oakland, California. 1991 -“Exploring Paper,” California Crafts Museum, San Francisco, group exhibit. 1990 - “Three Artists”, Pence Gallery, Davis, California. 1989 - “On-Site: Artists in Response to the Environment”, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California, group exhibit. 1989 -“Paper Dimensions: Sculptural Paper by Bay Area Women Artists,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California, group exhibit. 1986 -“New Directions in Paper” Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, California, group exhibit. 1985 -“Paper: Pushing the Limits” Fiberworks Gallery, Berkeley, California, group exhibit. 1985 - Collaborative Installation“Cartography,” Romberg Environmental Studies Center, Tiburon, California. 1985 -“Paper: Ephemeral and Enduring,” Matrix Gallery, Sacramento, California, group exhibit. 1984 - InvitationalSolo Exhibit:“Site as Subject,” Pacific Basin Gallery, Berkeley, California. 1984 -“Heller Gallery” University of California Student Union Gallery, Berkeley, California, group exhibit. 1983 -“Fiber and Paint,” Fiberworks Gallery, Berkeley, California, group exhibit. 1981 - “Masters in 1981”, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, group exhibit.