Artistic balance
Checking in with Skirvin’s newest artist in residence
With a practiced hand, Marissa Raglin swiftly and steadily cuts a colorful bouquet away from a faded magazine page, using a sharp blade to carve away the excess paper between every petal and around every leaf.
“In a digital age, I find it compelling to work with my hands,” she said. “Everything is hand-cut. A lot of time. It’s an average of between an hour to even three hours of cutting to remove a piece in its entirety.”
When she's finished, the Oklahoma City artist will toss the bouquet onto a long table under a wide window of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, where it will mingle with many other cutouts, from a group of children playing dress-up and a plate of carefully arranged vegetables to a desert scene with towering cacti and a woman modeling a once-fashionable pink gown.
“I love the pastel hues that happen whenever the paper starts to kind of decay, and I just love that kind of challenge of working with vintage papers ... from books, magazines, postcards,” Raglin said.
“My mom, on a weekly basis, will send things my way. My grandparents will pull things from estate sales; they love to do that. So, I like to think it’s a collaboration. My family is so important to me and is integral (with) them encouraging me to pursue the arts, getting a fine arts degree. They never once were like, ‘What are you going to do with that degree?’ ”
Raglin actually has at least two jobs at the moment: In addition to her regular role as the director of museum experience for the Oklahoma Hall of Fame at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum, she started last fall her tenure as the 201718 artist in residence at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, where she will be working through October in the airy studio in the northwest corner of the landmark hotel’s first floor.
“Creating a new body of work, it’s been exciting to have so much natural light, so much kind of encouragement,” Raglin said, looking over the paper images scattered across the table. “I can space it out and see how things are interacting with each other. I know some collage artists that put like-minded items together, but I love the spontaneity of something interacting with one another that I maybe wouldn’t necessary expect.”
Making a SPACE
Formally known as the Skirvin Paseo Artist Creativity Exposition, or SPACE, the residency is a partnership between the downtown hotel and the Paseo Arts Association, which handles the formal selection process.
“I think every year it gets better and better, and we get really interesting applications. It’s never gonna be the same, it’s never gonna be boring, and it’s just a really fun opportunity,” Paseo Arts Association Executive Director Amanda Bleakley said. “Marissa’s work is really creative and thoughtful.”
Raglin is the sixth artist to take part in the yearlong residency program, which along with studio space includes a monthly stipend, as well as complimentary meals and parking. Launched in 2012, SPACE is modeled after a program at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, which, like the Skirvin, is owned by Marcus Hotels and Resorts.
“We really love the arts and support the arts. That’s why we’ve got the studio here in the hotel … so we can let our guests experience it, plus also local people in the downtown area can come by and experience the studio, as well,” said Don Jackson, the Skirvin’s director of sales and marketing.
“Traditionally, most hotels just offer guest rooms, restaurant, bar and meeting space. But here with the added interest with the artist in residence, the guests if they choose to, can go in and participate, go by the studio and watch her put together a collage. It’s interactive, especially with her style of artwork.”
Raglin has devised a simplified version of her artistic process so that visitors can create a collage postcard from reproductions of old photos of the Skirvin, vintage magazine images and templates of the OKC skyline. She scans each postcard, uploads it to an online catalog and then shares it via social media before sending guests off with their own work of art. More than 300 postcards have been made so far.
“She’s a fantastic ambassador,” Bleakley said. “She’s got a lot of fun things going in her life and a great career in front of her . ... I’m looking forward to watching where she goes from here.”
Creating balance
Face intent, Raglin uses a small foam brush to daub the matte medium she uses as glue on the back of a row of colorful birdsthat she carefully aligns with an array of retro kitchen appliances.
“It’s about composition for me. I lean very heavily on design basics— unity, harmony, balance— trying to share a story, a unique narrative, using those elements,” she said. “I love from left to right how the color variations of the birds lead very quickly into the multiple appliances that the domesticated woman has. ... I love this idea of a free spirit kind of approaching something confined.”
Since trying collage about four years ago, the Louisiana native has found her artwork in demand, and she is preparing for a June solo exhibition at Mainsite Contemporary Art in Norman. The upcoming exhibit is one reason she applied for the Skirvin residency.
“I knew I needed more space, honestly, for this solo show happening,” she said. “Space is critical to this medium … and I love working with people.”
When she learned she was a top-five finalist for the SPACE program, Raglin let her boss know about the opportunity.
“She was like ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; you have to do it.’ For no moment was there any sort of hesitation. We work it out. I have a wonderful team that whenever I step out they are able to step in,” Raglin said.
The Oklahoma Baptist University graduate works at least 20 hours a week in the Skirvin studio— usually in the afternoons, evenings and weekends— and balances it with her museum job developing programs and exhibits. She and her team at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame recently launched Spring Thing, a two-week series of free, family-friendly activities offered daily during spring break.
In addition, Raglinwas named this year one of three Spotlight artists for the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s “Momentum” exhibit for state artists 30 and younger.
Her Spotlightproject, a collage installation called “Nesting” that uses bird’s nests, bad apples and biological clocks to address people’s urge to ask women “When are you going to have children?,” is now on view at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Mitchell Education Center. Plus, she and the other Spotlight artists currently have an exhibition of their previous work on view at 21C Museum Hotel.
Although she doesn’t have much free time, Raglin said she is enjoying balancing her many artistic endeavors.
“I just said yes to everything this year,” she said, laughing as she picked up her knife again. “There’s kind of a resurgence of contemporary collage now, so artists who are working in this medium are sharing it as fine art. … I like to think I’m painting with images.”