Olivia Rains Art

I want to share something more personal than I usually do.

If you’re new here or maybe didn’t know: I grew up deaf. It wasn’t a tragedy. Not as something broken. Just as a way of being in the world.

My life has moved through different landscapes since then. Surgeries. Speech therapy. Learning to navigate sound. Learning to navigate people. Learning to navigate identities that sometimes felt like houses I was visiting, never quite unpacking my bags in either one. Deaf. Hard of hearing. In a hearing world. Between worlds.

I didn’t overcome deafness. I lived it. And it shaped me, for better. It gave me perspective that feels almost sacred now. It taught me how to listen with my eyes. How to feel vibration before I understood tone. How to study faces like constellations. How to sit inside silence without being afraid of it.

Somewhere along the way, music found me. Or maybe it had always been there, waiting for the right doorway.

Now I sing. I write songs. I perform. I create visually the way I always have. Art was my first translator long before sound ever was.

And recently, the universe connected me to my friend Karen , who is working on a documentary highlighting deaf interpreters in live music spaces. I’m so honored to be involved to help in any way I can, however I can. Watching Deaf interpreters move music through their bodies is one of the most spiritual experiences to witness. Its rhythm made visible. It’s proof that sound is bigger than ears. Being invited into that world, given my story, feels full circle in a way I can’t quite put into words.

I have lived in silence. I have lived in sound. Both are part of me.

If there’s anything my path has taught me, it’s this: sometimes the passions that define you aren’t obvious at first. Sometimes they reveal themselves after everything shifts. That doesn’t mean something was wrong before. It just means you were becoming.

Wherever you feel like a visitor right now, keep going. You’re not behind. You’re gathering perspective.

This is me. Deaf. Hearing. Singer. Songwriter. Visual artist. Human.

And I’m grateful for every version.