Marissa Erickson
She/Her
Denver, CO/USA
My name is marissa. I am a jeweler and object maker living and working on unceded Hinono’ei (or Arapaho), Tsistsistas (or Cheyenne), and Nuche (or Ute) land otherwise known as Denver, CO. I am a recent graduate from Metropolitan State University of Denver with BAs in Cultural Anthropology and in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (with a cherished and very beloved minor in Studio Art where I studied jewelry and animation). my research interests include disability futurism and rhetorics, illness/accessibility and the body, queer futurism, intimacy politics, and challenging biases through the body as a site of expression, identity, and connection. When I am not making, I spend a lot of time cooking for my friends and family, roaming the desert for strange rocks, and learning as much as I can about gardening cleverly in the city.
“How quickly the world can get so small, when I look at you, and you at me. How strange and scary and beautiful we become when we look this close. Here, I discover the same soft matter I see of you, is the same of me. Laughter. Grief. Time. Movement. Color. Wrinkles. Eyelashes. Kaleidoscopes. You and me. This work, functioning only when worn by two people, is meant to facilitate connection through the act of looking, of coming close to another person. The image through the looking glass, you and me, blown up in macro detail. While the piece is suspended between two faces, the glass can be manipulated—pushed, pulled, twisted—to change the view of the other person. The moving, breathing image of the other person can be sharpened, distorted, blurred, and disappeared. Through this dance, we are able to see in another’s face what we aren’t able to with just the naked eye, unveiling something new. “
How does your work relate to the theme of flourish(ing)?
“This work was made from a place of both my own adoration of people and what makes us human, and from a place of urgency for our world/culture to remember our power as a collective, to see the beauty of another, especially in those who we think we have nothing in common with. In this way, the work brings about a flourishing within, a flourishing between people, and ultimately a chance to change the things about us that hinder our ability to flourish together. “
"I don’t think I’ve ever noticed”, brass, glass, 10’’x5”x4”, 2025How does your creative practice allow you to flourish (grow, thrive, blossom)?
“Only through the act of creating am I able to make the best sense my body, my identity, of the world around me, and to create new worlds and new dreams. My practice provides me with the best tools to learn about myself and see myself and my story through new lenses, and through this, I connect with others, am supported by others, and we all flourish.”
As a queer+ artist, what would you like to see and/or what do you need in order to flourish during this time?
“The community I have found through art and art-making has been imperative to my ability to live, grow, eat, be housed, dance, hug, grieve, make art, and to flourish. Communities and collectives like the one at QM are crucial for queer+ artists— it gives us a chance to connect with other queer+ artists and to celebrate queerness together, which is life-giving and a beautiful thing.“
[queerphoria]v4 @ ECU Symposium