Sandy O'Brien

Sandy O'Brien is a full-time Mom who is fast becoming a full-time artist as well. She is passionate about encaustic painting and mixed media.

Born Sandy Fossett in Atlanta, GA, she grew up in neighboring Decatur. She studied art history at Davidson College but did not immediately pursue a career in that field - instead signing on as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines. While a flight attendant, she traveled the world and met her husband-to-be Miles O'Brien, then a local TV reporter in Boston.

Sandy returned home to Atlanta when Miles was offered a job at CNN in 1992. They spent thirteen years in Atlanta. At that time, Sandy did not pursue her art, but channeled her energy into investing and improving real estate.

Now that she is in New York, she is focused on her first and true love; creating art that reflects her life on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line, her love of history and her appreciation of the patina of the past.

Her work is multi-layered and embedded with all kinds of found objects (what she calls "junque") She works in mixed media-- encaustic painting, shadow boxes, altered books-- works that are three dimensional tactile expressions of creativity that reveal the stories beneath the objects.


Sandy and her family live in Manhattan with their two hound-dog mutts. She works in a converted nineteenth century shoe mill in Yonkers. (The YoHo Arts Studio)

To find out more about Sandy's work, please visit her website:
http://sandyobrien.net