When you first talk with Brendan O’Connor, you might feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of his myriad projects.
“Yeah,” he laughs in his congenial, charming way, “I have my hands in a lot of things.”
However, it only takes a few moments to understand that this artist, student and eco-leader has a specific gift for combining. He’s a visionary and energetic, but his primary talent may be his ability to connect—with projects and with people. O’Connor marries sustainability and art with other enthusiastic and engaging individuals.
There’s no way to interview O’Connor without sensing the web of interconnectivity he inspires. To that end, this article gives you resources, so you can learn more about all that O’Connor is involved in.
So, before we jump into all your many jobs, tell us a little about where you’re from.
I’m originally from Canada. I went to college there and studied international development and fine arts. I do art. I have an upcoming mask show at Pom Pom’s Teahouse; it’s all funky, tribal masks. (More information is available at Myspace.com/PomPomArt) Almost four years ago, I moved here to be with Scottie Campbell (who freelances for Watermark), and I started studying at Rollins College.
Is that how you got involved with the college’s green initiatives?
Yes, besides being a student, a second job of mine at the college is as a sustainability coordinator. I’m studying environmental developing—like city planning but with a green spin.
How’d you get started?
I also happen to be president of the organic gardeners at Rollins, which kind of fell into my lap my first year there at school. We started an on-campus garden where people could grow their own food. It’s probably about 30 feet by 30 feet. I’ve always been a big fan of that; my mom taught me how to garden. We got a grant from Winter Park Health to make it larger and start to involve with Winter Park community more. I volunteer with the Eco-Rollins, the environmental club, and they just got hold of one of a residence hall, and we are overhauling it over the summer to make it a sustainable house. We’re also doing this completely native, funky organic landscaping plan around the sustainability house with an outdoor show for people who bike to class, and its right next to the garden. I also sit on a faculty-run sustainability committee; they invited me on so they could have a student point of view on initiatives we have on campus. Initially, the sustainability coordinators were recycling coordinators. Then we got a bike rental program, where you can sign out a bike for free from the library and have it for three days and bring it back. We’re working on 5-minute, 10-minute and 20-minute bike maps that you can use when you check out your bike, just to tell you where all the cool things around Winter Park are, just to introduce people to interesting things and local businesses that they may not know about. We also have a “once-in-a-blue-moon” markets on-campus where we have local vendors selling their wares, which is great. And now the college wants to step it up to make that market a larger event, and make it a more regular occurrence.
Wow, that’s a lot of balls in the air!
Yeah, I’ve got to watch that! [Laughs] I want to steer and have that vision, and I never want to give up control of any of it. But I’m working on that. It’s me getting comfortable enough to get people excited in their own ways, to give them building blocks and let them run with it.
Now, your other half, Scottie is also involved in this. He has the “Scottie Saves the World” blog. So you both share that personal activism.
Yeah, it all kinds of grows together: my relationship, my schooling, my art and my job. Which is good, in a way.
Do you work to make your art about sustainability and reuse?
Yeah, definitely. In fact, when I first came to Orlando, one of the first artists I encountered is Doug Rhodehamel. Everything he does has an element of using cool, reclaimed materials. That’s what I love about Orlando; you get to meet all these people who do these exceptional works on their own time. I’m going to do a show with Doug, where I’m going to do scotch tape sculpture, something weird and whimsical. I think of Orlando as an art incubator. (Rhodehamel’s art installations are viewable at DougRhodehamel.com.)
And it sounds like Rollins is a great incubator for your eco work.
Definitely. Rollins has small class sizes. All the professors and staff want their students to get as much out of it as they can. They are basically throwing resources and money at students, so that students can do things that they wanted to do. It’s like being paid for what you believe in.
How can people get involved?
You can come to Rollins and support the market, and you can get involved in the garden. Also, with any ecological improvement, it’s small, personal steps. Sustainability is vitally important, but the only way to make it lasting is to also make it possible for people.
More information about Eco-Rollins is under “Environmental Studies” at Rollins.edu.
