Meet the Canaries
What’s up, canaries? Welcome to the Canary Collective blog!
We are so excited to share this project with you. We are an online magazine, dedicated to sharing the work of creatives all over the world. First and foremost, we feel it’s important to introduce ourselves and provide some insight into how we met up and how the Canary Collective ~essentially~ spread its wings.
Canary Collective was founded by three badass women: Molly McElwain, Sierra Wright, and Ashley Wheat. We met volunteering for a previous local startup publication in Oklahoma in 2021. After working on collaborating projects for about a year and a half we decided to start a new publication that aligned better with who we are and what we stand for. Thus, the Canary Collective was born.
How did the name Canary Collective come to be, you ask? Well, we tossed around quite a few names through our group chat for a few weeks; Do we want to be Oklahoma-focused? Do we want to branch out with a more artistic name? What can this name symbolize? Finally, we landed on Canary Collective. We all know the saying, “a canary in a coal mine,” and took this as an opportunity to flip the idea of using something so significant as a pawn in benefiting oneself–something we were all too familiar with–and use it for something positive. It became a warning for creative expression: if we keep ourselves caged, it will lead to the destruction of the imagination.
We are all creatives here. But this is not just for us. This is for all of us. Amplification of expression is paramount in the creation of this magazine and we want to see what the world’s got up its sleeve. We will use this blog as a tool to share updates on us, our contributors, local businesses, and so much more.
But first, we’re gonna get a little personal with the Canary crew. Take a peek below at our bios and while you’re at it, send us your work and answer the canary call.
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Ashley Wheat, Editor-in-Chief and Design Director
Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Ashley’s passion for all things literature was prominent throughout her childhood, all the way into adulthood. She graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2018 with a BA in Creative Writing. Upon taking a creative writing capstone course at the end of her college career, she soon realized that she was highly intrigued with publishing, specifically literary journals and magazines.
From 2020-2022, Ashley was the Editor-in-Chief and Design Director for a local magazine. Upon her departure in July 2022, she decided it was time to create something of her own. As one of the founding members of the Canary Collective and a mama of two dogs and two guinea pigs, she sees the magazine as her adopted child that she is thrilled to share with the world.
Ashley has been published in For Women Who Roar, New Plains Review, Edify Fiction, 34th Parallel, and Unvael. She enjoys writing poetry, scripts, and short stories when she’s not working full-time as a Copywriter.
She loves the Ozark Mountains, spinach pizza, the Oxford Comma, and Paddington.
Molly McElwain, Art Director
Anyone who knows Molly will tell you she’s a true Aries: bold, loud, and brave. Molly has always been drawn to the arts and written word. Growing up performing dance and vocal performance in the Midwest, she spent many years on stage and participating in school musicals (full-blown theatre kid). In college, she majored in Mass Communications Journalism, and Vocal Performance at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Molly lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma where she runs her own wedding and destination elopement photography business. She is a multi-published photojournalist and was even published by Stanford University where one of her articles was featured in a course for Dance Relations. She is a creator in every sense of the word and loves to write, shoot digital and film photography, develop in the dark room, and paint.
She is a mother to her one and only child Charlotte and devoted wife to Ian. She is a Sexual Assault activist and advocate for the RAINN Speakers Bureau and speaks on her experience as a sexual assault survivor and about her experience in the troubled teen industry.
Molly loves spending her time with her dog, Dexter Travis Doge, and her kitty cat, Cat Stevens. You can find her in her favorite cross fit gym, going on bike rides, writing weird poetry in her journals, snuggling with her daughter, cooking, smooching her husband, and taking pictures of anything and everything.
Molly loves every type of human from every walk of life. You are welcome here – no matter what.
