Marissa Erickson
she/they
Denver, CO, USA
Marissa Erickson is a queer disabled artist from the southwestern United States on unceded Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, and Ute land. Marissa's work floats and weaves through mediums of ceramic, metals, textiles, found objects, wire, video, animation, collage, and photo. Marissa's work primarily deals with questions and ideas of binaries, identity, class, value, the body, and relationship.
Marissa is a recent graduate from Metropolitan State University of Denver with BAs in Cultural Anthropology and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility with a cherished minor in Studio Art (emphasis in sculpture and animation). Marissa currently works as a graphic designer and metal studio assistant.
“Marissa Erickson created this ring as an ode to the choreography of queer affection/touch. The ring is meant to be worn by two people at one time, while the pansy adorning the ring is meant to simultaneously veil the contact between two people, while also simultaneously drawing attention to the beauty of queer affection, and perhaps even the intimacy that can arise between two people when having to keep something hidden from view. Ultimately, the work brings visibility to the sometimes-intricate nature of queer affection/connection and the process of hiding/being visible.”
How does your work relate to the theme connection?
“This work really came out of a time in my life where I was dealing a lot with questions of connection and the ways in which connection (both physically, relationally, emotionally, etc.) is uniquely shaped by queerness. This particular piece came out of a messy conglomeration of feelings and memories I have of navigating physical connection with my friends and lovers in public; sometimes ambiguously ‘holding pinkies’ with friends as a way to both conceal queerness from the public, but also sometimes as the result of the ambiguity that can come sapphic friendships (are we friends? are we more than friends?).
When creating this work, I kept returning to this idea that the ways I hold hands and show affection are orchestrated uniquely through my queerness: constantly teetering the line between friends and lovers, often out of necessity so as to maintain ambiguity in public, sometimes just out of confusion---and how beautifully messy and intimate queer connection can be through this confusion and navigation of safety.."
What role does connection play in your creative process?
“I find that my creative process from start to finish often involves connection to other people in my life. My favorite thing is to involve other people in my creative process. I'll admit that sometimes I think this might come from a lack of self-trust, but most often, it comes from a love of connecting with others through the creative process (mine and theirs). I think sometimes the art world can shy away from collaboration in favor of a tradition of hyper-individualism, independence, and rigor, and while I think there is a very important place for these things, some of my favorite pieces are the ones I create with the inspiration, assistance, feedback, and ideas of others---pieces I could not have made without the connection to another person. I love how art connects humans to one another. I also love how art connects me to my memories, my queerness, my dreams, my environment."
What connection(s) does your queerness make to the world around you?
“This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer... I suppose there is nothing that my queerness doesn't connect to in the world around me (in one way or another), though I am not always very vocal about my own queerness. I think maybe my queerness shows up most prevalently when I am in situations/environments/connections that are particularly rigid or set in traditional binaries---where I can offer lessons or empathy or perspectives that have come from navigating the world through my queerness."
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“Making and sharing this work with people in my life and community has been incredibly healing and exciting to me. It is hard for me to put into words the multitudes of what this work means to me, but it has been so restorative and sweet to watch others interact with this work, to be able to express what the work means to them, and to hear their own experiences of choreographing queer affection."
"(in)Conspicuous Affections", cast bronze, 2" x 2", 2024