We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha Trionfo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha below.

Samantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This project in its entirety (The Empty Hourglass Project) is undoubtedly the most important work I’ve ever done and probably will ever do.

I’ve struggled quite a bit with mental illness growing up, but my whole family and I were hit with a major loss a few years ago, which was the ultimate catalyst for why Empty Hourglass even exists. In a nutshell, we take real stories of trauma, loss, and mental health and retell those stories through conceptual photography. Photography aside, The Empty Hourglass Project serves as a safe space for people of any age who’ve been affected by loss, trauma, or illness to heal through creative expression.

We’ve recently opened an interactive art installation at the Community College of Baltimore County (Essex campus gallery) where select stories and sets have been recreated where visitors can walk through each story, and can even share their own art and stories at the creation station. It’s gotten so much positive feedback and started a healing conversation among students and faculty, and I’m immensely grateful for it.

It’s been humbling and maybe a bit surreal that it’s come as far as it has and that there are so many who are supportive of the project’s vision and can relate to and find comfort in what we have to offer.

Visitors can check out the installation from October 10th, 2022 – December 2nd, 2022 at 7201 Rossville Blvd, Baltimore, MD 21237. Arts & Humanities Hall! A reception will be held on October 28th from 6 – 8 pm.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I was always neck deep in some artistic endeavor, even as a little one. Majored in theatre (with a focus on acting) and then fell into makeup artistry, set design, and casting for film and TV along the way. Art has just always been the one constant source of safety and fulfillment for me.

Because mental health has always been so important to me (both in part to my own struggles, but also those of friends and family), I’ve always wanted to merge art and therapy and provide a (hopefully) healing outlet for people, so it makes sense that that is exactly Empty Hourglass Project’s mission. There’s so much I’m grateful for and proud of; the concept team being one of them (Rebecca Ellis, Tim Brosius, Andrew Key. we call ourselves the Nogginators. It’s pretty catchy!).

Being able to give those who are struggling (or have struggled and want to share what they’ve been through) a creative outlet and safe space where their voices are heard and where they know someone cares about what happened to them is probably what I’m most proud of. Along with that, it’s really incredible to work with such a thoughtful concept team. Each story we get, we work closely with each author to make sure that the image accurately depicts what they’ve experienced in life (but through a conceptual lens). It’s important to us that each story is treated with respect and is done right.

These are people’s lives after all.

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

Specifically, we’re focused on raising awareness about mental health through creative means and all those taboo topics that can be uncomfortable for some (or a lot of) people to talk about.

But in a broader sense, our mission is to remind people that their life has value, what they’ve experienced and what they want in life matters, and that someone, somewhere hears and understands them.

Your story matters.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

At the risk of sounding trite, honestly…leaving myself behind. I think I’ve relied on relationships and other people to validate my existence. To remind me I have value. And at 34 years old, I’m just now starting to feel more in my body, capable, confident, and worthy of good things. Seeing how far this project has come and the support it’s gained has not only helped others but myself as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emptyhourglassproject.com
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/theemptyhourglassproject
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/theemptyhourglassproject

Image Credits
James Phelps (edits by Tim Brosius) Josh Triggs Kiati Plooks Scott Church The Community College of Baltimore County