Olivia Mulloy (Chandler, Ariz.) is a junior on the Middlebury women's basketball team. She is an economics major with a minor in Italian.
                                          
Tell us a bit about how you got into drawing and painting.
When I was younger, I used to draw a lot. My mom was always the artistic one in the family, and it spread to her kids quite a bit. In my early days, I would bond with my mom through various art projects. However, when I started playing

basketball, my artistic side was in a way put in a box and saved for later as I felt many social pressures surrounding me as an athlete: the pressure that I was not allowed to be artistic while also being athletic. However, I have since reopened this metaphorical box since COVID-19 and no longer feel the need to hide my artistic side. My team is a team that celebrates each other's passions that derive off the court. I enjoy painting landscape photos more specifically of the beautiful campus which I walk every day.    

                                         
How did painting help you grieve the loss of your mom?
When I was a freshman, in March of 2020, we all got sent home due to the outbreak of COVID-19. I remember this was the first time I was home for an extended amount of time since my mom had passed away. Not only was it my first time being back home for an extended amount of time, but we were also in the middle of a pandemic, so I was not able to leave the house. During this period of time is when I would say that I was able to actually grieve losing my mom as for once the world slowed down. With a lot of time on my hands, I decided to indulge in my creative side which I had suppressed for so long. I started painting a lot, and mostly I painted pictures of Middlebury as I missed being on campus so much. Painting for me, during this time, very much stood as a therapeutic way of passing time in the lockdown. Painting made me feel closer to my mom since we used to draw together when I was younger.                 
                                         
You took a class called "How Not To Get Away With Murder" for J-term in 2021. Tell us about that experience.
In J-term of 2021, I decided to move into an Airbnb 10 minutes off campus with a few of my friends since J-term was remote. I spent most of my time on the slopes learning how to ski as I am from Arizona. When I was not skiing or exploring the beautiful state of Vermont, I was on zoom in my basement taking Peter Bevere's course, "How Not to Get Away with Murder." In this course, we worked to solve a theoretical murder of a Middlebury student. In each class, we would receive more information on the case and discuss how we wanted to move forward. While it felt as if we were detectives on a crime show, Professor Bevere would only allow us to move in a direction if we had probable cause to do so. This class taught me a lot about the process for detectives, as well as the legal and court systems. Most of all, this class was incredibly engaging in a stress-free way!