California artists Daniel McCormick and Mary O’Brien collaborate in Watershed Sculpture an ecological art practice that creates installations with remedial qualities. They work as artist, designer, researcher, and writer with an approach that gives aesthetic weight to the commons. They focus on projects as living laboratories where community-driven installations encourage civic awareness and communal stewardship. These works are meant to restore the equilibrium of adversely impacted ecosystems eventually becoming part of the communities they serve.

For over twenty-five years, McCormick and O’Brien have been using art to restore and affect a positive ecological balance in damaged environments. Working in both urban and agricultural watersheds, they respond to environmental issues by moving away from an anthropocentric view to create sculptures that work with natural systems. Their collaborations reflect the artists’ concerns for the environment and community, but also their belief that art has a responsibility to do more than document cultural changes. Their installation works can be found on public lands and watersheds across the United States.

Daniel McCormick is an interdisciplinary artist who looks beyond witnessing and documenting environmental change to create art that becomes positive interventions.  McCormick’s experience as a multi-disciplinary artist in the fields of sculptural installation, architecture, and environmental design brings both a public art and ecological trajectory to their work.

Mary O’Brien is a writer and sculptor and initiates community engagement plans enlisting the support of art organizations, government agencies, and community groups. O’Brien’s non-fiction essays have been published in The Solutions Journal, WEAD (Women Environmental Artists Dialogue, and MAHB (The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere). McCormick & O’Brien both hold degrees from University of California, Berkeley.