Jeanne Cameron

Jeanne Cameron is an environmental artist and photographer whose art is dedicated to exploring our spiritual connections to nature. Her unaltered photographs document her installations, which she creates using indigenous life masks placed in natural landscapes, creating visual narratives that celebrate life energies.

Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, specializing in the history and symbolism of flower decoration and mythology, Cameron spent many years creating inspiring environments for museum exhibitions and events at the White House, US embassies in Paris and Moscow, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and other venues throughout the United States.

Her childhood garden was near a forest preserve where she spent hours alone connecting with the energies of rocks, trees, plants and water, and learning to see and communicate with nature spirits. Her Danish grandmother taught her about arranging flowers: “they should look as if they could have grown that way, not squashed together, looking like they can’t breathe.” Her Scots/Irish father steeped her in myths and fairy tales. Later, while studying shamanism and herbalism with Lakota, Tewa and Navajo elders, she worked directly with nature and traveled extensively in Asia, Europe and America seeking spiritual wisdom and locations for her work.

Cameron and her artistic collaborator Linny Gibson have created more than 75 “Nature Spirit” masks cast from the faces and hands of people connected to the locations depicted in her photographs. She hopes that this selection will help viewers clearly see and feel the physical, psychological and spiritual connections that we share with the natural world.

The Irish poet John O’Donohue said, “The face is a threshold between an inner and outer world … a way into the consciousness of another.” Cameron adds, “The eyes of these beings are closed because they are waiting to be awakened and invited to share their wisdom and experience.”