Lydia O’Hara is a multidisciplinary artist, trainee art therapist and mother based in Helsby, Cheshire. Lydia’s practice is primarily concerned with embodied cognition – the ways in which we understand and experience our world through our body. This has been explored through various lenses including mental health, play, womanhood, the world of work, collective consciousness, motherhood and otherness. Being led by concept rather than medium, work has taken the form of moving image (video), performance, installation, paintings, collage, mixed media, sculpture and participatory arts. Lydia has a passion for promoting arts for all and is interested in developing creative interventions that engage those who are othered by society including those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Lydia studied BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, MA Experimental Filmmaking at Kingston University and is currently in her final year of the Art Therapy MA at University of Chester. Lydia recently founded an art collective called (M)other, with nine other North West based artist-parents as a response to the impact of motherhood on practice.