MISSION
My name is O’Malley and I am in search of hope.
I want to believe in people again.
to believe strangers can be kind.
and a voice can be heard.
I want to reach out to touch
and to grasp.
to gather and hold.
to wander and be held.
to MOVE.
I want to stretch my arms wide and VAST.
to actually finish something I started.
I want to listen
to your stories.
to build a well.
a reservoir,
of hope
to share.
My name is O’Malley and I am lost.
And my mission
is to make space
for those feeling little
to be VAST
to be heard
and supported.
Call down my well.
let your echo ring.
and hear your glorious sound come back to you.
AN INTRODUCTION
so, what are you gonna do next?
The answer is I don’t always know. In fact, I often don’t. And I don’t want to pretend that I do. I’ve found myself frustrated with questions and comments regarding my plans because “how does one plan right now?” How does one reach out and motivate oneself to do whatever “next” is when feeling isolated and cut off from…everything? I feel exhausted when I explain my artistic endeavors or hopes and am immediately met with questions and comments of monetization.
how are you going to make money with that?
With my degree? With my work? Isn’t creating something new a success in itself? Were the arts really on “pause” or was the commercial, capitalistic, money-driven work we have grown so accustomed to ingesting as our “normal” just on pause? Did artists stop? Or have we stopped listening? Have we just not been looking closely enough? To celebrate the brave and bold pivots to online, virtual, and socially distanced work--the creation of new forms, the prioritization of creative labor, and the constant modification and adaptation.
How can I support you? What is inspiring you right now? Can I connect you with a colleague, resource, funding?
I can only answer for myself. A 24 year old artist from Baltimore, Maryland. But, these, these are questions I wouldn’t mind hearing instead. That I try to pay forward. The arts have seen us through. Why are we not fostering and funneling more love and support to the artists in our lives and communities? This is something I want to help create. I want to find. As a young artist trudging out of isolation, I want to take part in cultivating kind and compassionate creative support systems. I believe we should all be one another’s patrons.
so, what is this story?
This story began in a grocery store. I was an essential worker through most of the pandemic after graduating with my acting degree in May of 2020. There was a moment--just after the mask mandate was lifted in Maryland--when a woman approached me from behind and touched my shoulder. She had gotten so close to me and I felt fear. I stepped back. I was startled. And I was shaken. She saw this and she saw me. We hovered for a moment and then she spoke: “Your hair is beautiful”. I remember thinking to myself “How did this happen?”. Another human being got close to me. A stranger spoke to me. And my first thought was that she would be unkind. I was so afraid. So hardened. That I couldn’t even receive it. It was in this moment I fully came to realize something had happened. Something had changed. I’d lost my hope. My belief in kindness. The kindness of other people. And I didn’t know how to get it back. That’s the moment I credit as the birth of this project and journey across the country.
“The world is clearly not perfect! And you lost hope because of that. But to regain, to rekindle that hope, you chose to seek out artists, who are most energetically tracing paths and putting up signposts towards the perfect world we all want to live in”. - Kit Baker, a wise friend
So what’s here? Not just what’s next, but what’s happening right now. What’s been happening? Look closely: as the world is re-opening, as we are “rebuilding”--Listen. There is a generation of artistic renegades, fighters, and comrades that have been your phoenixes all along.