Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Calley O’Neill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Calley, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

When told by a professor at my Alma mater, Pratt: Institute You have two options. ,You must decide whether you are going to get a job and ‘be a Sunday painter ora full-time artist? and potentially struggle. For me, there was never a question about my dedication to be a full-time dedicated public artist doing work for the land and the people to make as profound a positive difference in the world as I can.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Through 35 years of creating public art, interspecies art, and cultural art in the public realm for the community, I am grateful to be trusted on the Big Island and an internationally acclaimed conservation artist through my interspecies work on endangered species with Rama the Elephant. We are at a critical crossroads in our relationship with nature and each other. Mine is a passionate voice for the Earth. Before anything else, we must get it tight with the climate (our HA, breath), the living water that is life, and the Earth, our only home.

Now is the time when art must speak powerfully on behalf of life.

My art comes from my deep love of the Earth and its extraordinary biodiversity, the Hawaiian wisdom carriers, and the indigenous culture’s Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). My work seeks to educate, inspire, uplift, and transform consciousness into positive action to restore the Earth’s forests and natural ecosystems.”

I am working on a monumental Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts mural commission for the Kona International Airport at Keahole. I am humbled to say I won a competition among over 300 applicants for the 300′ long mural, experienced by 3 ~4 million travelers annually.

The message from the Kupuna conveyed on the mural is for all of us everywhere to Mālama Āina: take care of the land, and it will take care of you. It’s simple.; logical and urgent message expressed in larger-than-life (10’+) stained glass portraits of revered Hawaiian wisdom carriers (Kupuna) speaking on behalf of life to invoke action to take care of nature and restore our forests, reefs, climate, and biodiversity. There is nothing more important that we can do. Mālama ‘Āina is universal, timeless native wisdom seeking to reach our hearts and minds to stimulate us to do everything we can where we live at this time to plant trees, native forests, pollinator plants, food gardens, build the soil and conserve the water.,

Working with hundreds of students and community volunteers, I completed my second SFCA (State Foundation on Culture and the Arts) Art in Public Places stained glass mural in 2026, a call to restore Maui’s soil, water, and forests. The 52’ long public mural contains over 3,500 pieces of glass made in the US, and the border has over 25,000 pieces of handmade smalti handcrafted by 313 4th and 5th graders and their aunties, uncles, parents, grandparents, fire and police officers and community volunteers. Calley’s first State Foundation mural is a beloved stained glass mosaic cultural mural on Kipapa Elementary School in Oahu. Together with my double-walled mural on the University of Hawai’i Campus Center and my other ecological public art, these works set the stage for my huge airport commission.

In her former Magnum opus, I had the chance of a lifetime! I collaborated with abstract expressionist painter RAMA the Elephant for five years at his home in the Oregon Zoo. Chosen as the featured artist for the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS 2016, Honolulu, Hawai’i, I was honored to present THE RAMA EXHIBITION WORLD PREMIERE, a leading-edge interspecies collaboration with RAMA, applauded by leading conservationists from around the world. The exhibition was a smashing success! This will remain among the most significant accomplishments of my life.

None of this would have happened without decades of full-time work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Using the knowledge I earned through my Master’s Degree program in Social Ecology at Goddard College and my work as a gardener and activist, my mission is to work with Hawaiian wisdom and light carriers and create influential public art that grabs people’s attention, stops their ordinary incessant thinking, and opens their heart to ask, what are these Kupuna, what is this work of art saying to me.

I also teach The Full Body Elixir on the beach and online. This slow-flow practice integrates yoga, qigong, deep breathing, relaxation, mind-clearing, cultural and ecological wisdom, and Oneness to offer a profoundly transformational practice.

What if we all realize and act upon the fact that art must become powerful on behalf of life, or are we not paying attention to the natural world and our climate? Art has been a powerful agent in times gone by to uplift the human condition and must become so again.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a conservation and cultural artist is the importance of this work for our time and our future.

It is gratifying and deeply honoring to reflect the timely wisdom of our native Hawaiian Kupuna and offer them my time and all the skills and talents I can bring to this task of awakening consciousness and desire to take care of the land and waterways where we live.

I love being a gentle, powerful voice for Nature, as it seems we still have a bit of time to change our course and stop polluting the air and water land and create a beautiful, healthful, abundant, happy, loving future for all the children of all species for all time. (W. McDonough) and water.

Contact Info:

• Website: CalleyONeill.com,  TheRamaExhibition.org, CalleyONeillYoga.com , Calley O’Neill Kona Airport Mural
• Instagram: @MalamaAinaMural, @Calley_ONeill
• Facebook: facebook.com/Calley.ONeill/com
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@calleyoneill1155?si=zEZEKyxW-qDye9YD
• Other: Patreon