My name is Molly Mahoney.

 

My parents homeschooled me as well as my two younger brothers from the time I entered kindergarten and have always encouraged me to love learning.  I got hooked on reading when I was six years old and haven’t stopped since, which is helpful when it comes to school.

            As you may have guessed by my name, my family is primarily Irish on my dad’s side.  My mom’s side is a mix of several European descents.  Since my dad’s side of the family is more easily traceable thanks to my grandfather’s serious geneology hobby, I have a deep connection to my Irish heritage.  My great grandparents are from County Kerry, which is in southwest Ireland.

  I spent three years learning the Irish language, and actually find it much easier to pronounce Irish words than many English words despite the obviously foreign grammar rules (for example, in Irish, the letters “mh” make a “v” sound).  Also, fun fact: I often spell my name “Mallaidh” on personal papers and art pieces, as that is the non-Anglicized spelling.  It’s still pronounced the same way.

Like most people, I have accrued many interests over the years.  My hobbies include drawing, homework, reading, video games, and animation, the last of which is my primary focus right now.  So much can be told in a single frame of animation using everything from the items in the background to the color scheme of the scene.  Many of my own favorite stories have been told through animation, and I would love to tell my own through it as well.

I am currently working on an associate’s degree here at LCC.  I plan to transfer to California Institute of the Arts in 2019 or 2020 to study animation.  Until then, my plan is to work hard in all my classes and learn as much as I can.  I am currently putting together a portfolio that will improve as I create more and hopefully better work.  Figure drawing is my primary focus and I hope to work on that as much as possible in the coming year.

 

Once I earn my BA, I hope to go on to make my own animated series.  Putting my own story into the world has been my dream for a long time. I hope to put the ideas in my head and written in my laptop into something others can watch for themselves.  Ideally I will have the opportunity to bring my stories to life at Wonderstorm, an animation studio that creates both video games and animated films and series.