I was born in San Francisco, California and attended the University of California, Berkeley, getting Masters Degree in Art. I have worked with photography and mixed media. I taught art and photography, and worked as an artist in residence in 3 different
California Arts Council programs. I work with painted film collage, portraits and architectural photography. Currently I have a studio in West Oakland, and have begun to do international artist residencies. I was at Sanskriti, Delhi in 2013, and will be going to the Escuela de Arte in Toledo Spain in 2016.
My work combines photographic images with layers of paint, pastel and collage. Architecture has served as a framework for the exploration of space in my work, and I often search for found paintings in the industrial architecture that surrounds my studio. In the late afternoons, when all activity has ceased, these abandoned areas are lit up by warm washes of light as if coming to life in a silent, spectacular ritual. Back in the studio, I use layers of light and paint to create images that summon the sense of place that emerges in these moments.

In the last few decades, international travel and study have directed my investigation of place toward a more three-dimensional, object-based practice. Beginning in the 1990s, I traveled several times to France and Italy, studying the foundational architecture of the west. Italian architecture inspired me to begin embedding painted film images into actual architectural structures such as doors, creating a resonance between image and object. In 2013, during an artist residency at Sanskriti in Delhi, I designed some frames based on the architectural shapes of Indian and Mughal architecture. I had several frames made at a nearby Muslim workshop, and have been working on a set of Indian miniatures. I also traveled to the Bundi Palace in Delhi, where the pavilion of the palace is filled with wall paintings, illuminated by candles attached to mirrors; centuries ago, dance performances were held there in the evenings. I was enchanted with this story. The mirrors must have beheld such beautiful color and movement as the dancers streamed by; what if we could see what the mirrors once reflected? I began to incorporate mirrors into my work, de-silvering the surface and using the de-silvered mirrors instead of glass in my frames.
BIO

Jeannie O'Connor's work has been shown internationally and was awarded the SECA award by SFMOMA and the Phelan award in Photography.

Jeannie O'Connor taught art and photography at CCA, SF Art Institute and Berkeley City College. Her work has been associated with the Michael Shapiro Gallery, the K Kimpton Gallery, the Susan Spiritus Gallery and the SFMOMA Artists Gallery.

Her work is in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson and many private collections.

"Jeanne O'Connor's rural and urban landscapes at Susan Spiritus Gallery are equally painterly and photographic. By reconciling these two methods that seem mutually exclusive, O'Connor creates a body of work that is evocative, poignant and extremely personal." Nancy Turner, Artweek