Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily O’Hara. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Emily , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
Walking in the woods has precipitated singular life-shaping moments that influenced my life as an artist- a metalsmith, weaver, and installation artist, and as a holistic nurse entrepreneur teaching Energetic Intelligence.
After an early spring walk in the Bird Sanctuary amidst the vivid green moss, and rich browns of damp earth I spread my arms wide and announced to the trees and my dog, Blaze, “I am an artist!” As a lifelong creative/maker, seeing myself as an artist allowed me to feel a sense of belonging in a wider artist community.
Joining the Andover Arts and Cultural Alliance, I met two innovative, creative women, and we founded Cazimi-a Creative Collaborative. Together, we began making temporary, interactive public art installations in our community. We continue to work with our town to promote community art because beauty affirms humanity.
Just as beauty enhances the community, it enhances the individual. As a metalsmith and jewelry creator, I make one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces in my business, Silver Labyrinth Design. I also teach classes to encourage people to tap into their innate creativity.
After through-hiking in Shenandoah National Park on a week’s notice in March 2020, I returned knowing I wanted to pursue holistic health. After 25 years as a community-based maternal-child health nurse and a 7-year hiatus, I returned to graduate school, earning a Master’s in Integrative Health and Healing. Before the pandemic, I began co-developing a program to support resilience in nursing, a need that was identified, magnified, and remains. My business partner and I co-founded 4th Wheel Flow, LLC, and developed a framework for Energetic Intelligence and copyrighted Flow Maps. We have created a variety of entry points for you to explore this next-level intelligence.
The common thread woven throughout my work is energy. Each of us has a unique energy signature. When we develop the skills to work intentionally with our energy, we influence our ecosystem and the surrounding environment. Energy influences how we understand experiences and relationships. Art does the same. Walking in the woods, pieces of art, and public art installations evoke emotion and awe, inviting pause or perspective-taking. Beauty, nature, and creative expression are essential to human dignity, reminding us of our inherent worth. Nature has energy, art has energy, we have energy, and all impact energy. In collaboration, I am cultivating energetic experiences vibration by vibration.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
What I have come to honor about myself is that I am an unapologetically multifaceted person. Creativity and connection are at my core. I love starting with an idea, a blank page, or raw material and bringing something new into being. I enjoy working alone and truly love collaborating. There is energy in the exchange of ideas, expansion, and growth, leading to that which is greater.
There is energy in connection. As a holistic nurse, I encourage people to expand their sense of wholeness beyond mind-body-spirit-emotion to include creativity and nature because this speaks to our human essence. I also guide people to become caretakers of their subtle energy, the human biofield. At 4th Wheel Flow, we introduce Energetic Intelligence, teaching fluency in the language of energy, connecting people to their innate wisdom of energy, and teaching skills to intentionally work with and care for their energy. Learning these skills is transformational and empowering. They changed my life for good and for joy. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to share this wisdom with others.
Making art grounds me and brings joy. I make art for myself first, relishing the process of working with raw materials and manifesting a finished product. At Silver Labyrinth Design, I usually work with silver and have begun working with steel and gold. Textures, shapes, dimensions, wire-work, and stone cabochons inform my jewelry designs which are influenced by my background as a weaver.
At Cazimi- a Creative Collaborative, we relish the process of creating interactive public art installations. Weaving is an integral part of our mixed media work. We deeply desire to spark conversation and invite interaction to encourage people to challenge or reconsider their ideas and see from other perspectives. Healing, resilience, and beauty are central to our work. We believe that art has an important voice and place in community building. And beauty is essential.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
I see life as an ever-expanding spiral, moving forward. All my collective experiences, the people I have met, the work I have done, and the places I have lived or visited have shaped and influenced who I am and what I am doing today. I would not choose to go back. Honestly, I am happy where I am now.
My work with 4th Wheel Flow, Cazimi- a creative collaborative and Silver Labyrinth Design is energizing, interesting, and satisfying. I feel authentic, grounded, and rooted in service. The people I work with are supportive, have a growth mindset, and shared values. Integrity and service are key elements in building our reputation in the community.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Books:
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Energy Healing by Ann Marie Chiasson, MD
How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Howard Marshall
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Deliberate Calm by Jacqueline Brassey, Aaron De Smet, Micheal Kruyt
Emotional Intelligence: Focus by HBR Press
Body of work:
Brene Brown’s body of work, including all her books,TED Talks, and podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead.
Adam Grant’s body of work
Podcast:
Hannah Cole’s podcast Sunlight and her tax workshops for artists and entrepreneurs.
Practices that shaped me:
Walking in the woods
Making art/creative practices and play
Meditation: Psychic, Guided meditation, Akashic meditation, Loving-kindness, Heart-centered
Shamanism
Prayer and Spiritual practices
Reiki
Contact Info:
- Website: www.4thwheelflow.com, www.cazimicreativecollaborative.com, www.silverlabyrinthdesign.com
- Instagram: @cazimi.collab, @silverlabyrinthdesign.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-o-hara-7541a948/
Image Credits
Photo 5 taken by Taylor at Dovetail Apothecary of Beauty.
Photo 8 taken by Lillian Gendreau, MFA