Spearmaiden is the translation of my grandmother's name. She, Gertraude, was a refugee of the holocaust - and survived so many horrors in her life here after, only to be a person who leads with generosity, empathy, and heart in all that she does. I wanted to honor her, as well as all of our lineages with Spearmaiden. The Spearmaiden is an archetype reflected in Indigenous, Aboriginal, & Pre-colonial mythologies & histories on every continent.
When I started Spear, I really just jumped on a string of faith via strong community encouragement (literal begging lmao) that I could parent a community oriented creative space. I really just wanted to create a container for us to connect, collaborate, process, and be reminded of what we love in life to keep us fighting for it, whatever that looks like. A lot of the building process has been in response to community need, desire, and crises - both environmental with the LA Fires, and fascist - via ICE raids and attacks on the humanity of trans kin. Many just wanted to fucking play a show with their friends without fear of violent threat. Connect with each other. We shifted from a multi-floor tattoo studio and gallery space, to an event space, photo studio, educational space & speakeasy with a tattoo storefront. My role as the birther of this baby is just to be responsible for her existence, protection, and longevity - while responding & adapting to whatever tf she wants to be.
I remember as a child in deep poverty knowing in a naive but innate way that we were in a sickness, on a death path. That most people around me were unhappy, conforming, struggling, avoiding, and just barely ~coping.~ I think many of us have had that innate feeling, or have recently been awoken to it. That the land is occupied by a violent force, that much of our lives are controlled and manipulated by forces looking to extract from & exploit its populace as well as the rest of the earth. That it also doesn't have to be this way - that we are meant for a symbiotic existence. This way - the colonial, capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal path - has its limits, and has reached its own jawline.
As we descend into death - climate collapse, fascist thread-holding, global genocides & most importantly global resistance - I think my personal experience has taught me that the most important thing we have is our connection to each other. Movements fall apart when we are unable to navigate conflict with grace. I want to create space where not only can we tangibly support ourselves through our talents, but also be playful in the construction of something collaborative and new while we still can. The more practiced we are at collaboration - and all that comes with it, the joy, the love, the chaos, the annoyance, the gossip, the difficult truthful mirrors, and the fruits of co-creating new worlds - the better we will be at weaving an interdependent structure where we •do• have the ability to play. Art is where we get to do that. And outside of our art, the stakes are fucking high. Becoming responsive & relational with each other through these crises is where we can defeat them.
Mostly, if you've made it this far, I just want us to have the chance to love each other and life itself as much as possible while we are actively fighting for the lives of our kin. We cannot engage in this with heart, if we don't know what it is we are fighting for. I say all this with a caveat that I am by no means perfect, and am in the thick of it with y’all - just trying my best to provide something small for all of us, the way many of us are doing, and maybe this space can give opportunity for a few more people to contribute <3
-Oz