In this segment, Jeff sits down to visit with Marissa Raglin, the 2018 Skirvin Paseo Artist-In-Residence at her studio on the first floor of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel downtown.
She creates ethereal, whimsical collage works with images delicately removed with a cutting blade from vintage magazines, books, and postcards, and she favors the endless assemblages of collage imagery. Using original, unaltered imagery and basic design elements, the images are compiled and become unified, telling one story.
As we begin the conversation, Marissa shares some information about her participation in this program and about opportunities for people to come into the studio and participate in a hands-on program. She calls this part of her studio Cut & Paste OK, where guests create handmade collage postcards of their own using found images.
We then hear from Marissa about her artwork, process and how it has evolved. She then speaks about how she got started working with vintage magazines. Marissa heavily features women in her work, especially domesticated women that are featured in 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s advertisements as a way of making light, or poking-fun of the images of these women. She likes that she is "cutting the images away" from the stories that they were originally a part of and then creating a new story with them through her work and "giving them a second life."
She then reflects about the importance of how her friends and family have made efforts to find various vintage publications for her to use in her work and how that means so much to her to actively support her work in this way.
We then transition into hearing about her upcoming participation in the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition exhibition entitled, Momentum, featuring artists age 30 and under. Marissa has been selected as a Momentum Spotlight artist in this program. She shares more information about her Spotlight project entitled, Nesting. She also speaks about her work that is currently being exhibited at 21c Museum Hotel through July and about the future exhibit of her work as a part of the OVAC Momentum Spotlight Artist program at The Gold Dome at 1112 NW 23rd Street March 9 & 10 from 8-11pm and then at the Melton Gallery at The University of Central Oklahoma from March 13-19.
We wrap up this segment as conversation then shifts to Marissa and Jeff discussing how her work gives people the opportunity to view the role that women play in the work place, home, and as mother and how drastic the past portrays the identity of as compared to today. She talks about while there are improvements, there are still societal pressures placed on women to fit into a one-size-fits all narrative. She also talks about how she has heard from many colleagues and friends with shared experiences, while discussing the role a woman plays today, and the many facets and complexities to this role.