An Interview with Stephanie Marion

5/6/21

by Clio Thayer

 Tell me about your senior project.

My senior project originally was going to be about a lot of other different things, but when it came down to it, it evolved into those I’ve lost in my life. During this semester, I lost my grandma. It was difficult on top of everything COVID wise, so my show kind of became my way of connecting to everyone that I’ve lost in my life that were all crafters in their own way and my way of remembering them. My working title is In Memory Of, P.S I Miss You.

What types of work are you making for it? 

I’m working with mediums that my grandparents and such worked with. My great grandmother was a crafter and she worked with plastic canvas and my other great grandmother worked with ceramics and a whole bunch of other mediums, so I’m incorporating those into my show beside mediums that I’m more comfortable with. I’m hoping to incorporate some of the pieces that they’ve made that I was able to have once they passed away. One of my great grandparents, I didn’t realize that she was an artist until after she passed away, so I’m hoping to incorporate some of her pieces in her show because she is part of what inspired me to become an artist. 

How are you thinking of incorporating those pieces? 

I’m thinking of having them displayed side-by-side with what I’ve made, because a few of the pieces that I’ve already done were something that she started that she never got to complete, so I completed it. I was planning on having those completed before she passed away, but she passed away the week after I started doing it. I was going to give it to her niece, my grandmother, but my grandmother passed away hours before I finished it. I’m hoping to incorporate those pieces into my show alongside what I’ve already done because they kind of connect, at least some of them. 

Are themes of loss common in your work?

No, not really. At least, not that I’ve felt. I think that theme came out because of everything that’s been going on this year. I’ve lost two people in my family this previous year and I’ve been to more funerals and wakes then I’ve been to weddings in my life, so I just think that loss is pretty prominent in my life. Before, my work was just really about nature, a lot of flowers, a lot of botanicals.

How are you hoping that this project is going to connect to other people?

I hope that it will remind people of what they’ve lost, like “Oh, yeah, my grandmother used to be like that,” “That reminds me of what this person used to love,” or anything like that. I’m planning on making these little books or cards that will have paintings on them that will say, “P.S I’ll miss you” so people will be able to have their own last things with that person before they passed.

What would you say is your artistic voice? 

I’m not entirely sure about that; I feel like it’s just me trying to be myself. I’m as quirky and weird as I can be at times, just trying to make things that I like, so that I can grow my confidence a little more. I guess that’s the best way to describe it. 

What are some of your inspirations?

I find inspiration in where I grew up just because I grew up in a small town. You know, there are more trees than neighbors, everyone has gardens, everyone rides the bus to school every day,  you drive by flowers and gardens, so I feel like flowers and nature were also inspirations for my work. Other than that, artist-wise, I do love Josephine Wall. She works in fantasy, primarily, but she mostly works in acrylic paint and that was a big thing for me because I learned that I was allergic to oil paint here. I didn’t know I was allergic to oil paint until I came here and we had to work with it. Someone somewhere, implanted in my mind that no good artist works with acrylic  paint. That it’s all just oil paint because I didn’t grow up around museums, so what art I did know was all oil paint. To find this artist who creates these beautiful works in acrylic was just awesome because that’s what I’m stuck with. 

Did you start out doing artwork in acrylic paint or did you start out somewhere else? 

At the very beginning, I was working with pencil drawing and from there I ended up taking a painting class. In that class, we only worked with acrylic paint. We were supposed to work with oil paint at the end of the semester, but didn’t have time, so she just gave us an assignment with acrylic paint instead of working with oil. I think primarily, I started working with metal and odds and ends. I would work on whatever I got my hands on: cardboard, metal, sometimes wood. In middle school, everyone had to learn woodworking to some degree, so that’s where I started. I learned that I like working with hands on things like that, so I started with the multi-media background and it just kind of fell back into the more normal mediums, like ceramics and painting. I still do those other things, from time to time, and I still work with them to a large degree.

Is your multimedia background what made you go into Fine Art as a major? 

Yeah. When I first joined NHIA, I was told Fine Art was this giant umbrella of mediums and it was just 90% painting and drawing and that’s not what I felt that I signed up for, but I figured that it wasn’t a bad place to start. I felt that those areas could use a bit of work, so I thought that I could incorporate my other stuff into that too. 

What are some of the things in your workspace? 

I have some ceramics that I’ve made, I have most of my printmaking behind my head, there are a few watercolor pieces too, and there are one or two paintings. I also have a little tiny zen garden as well. I think it’s pretty diverse. And a kitten calendar because what place is not complete without a kitten calendar. 

Do you often work in the Fine Arts Senior Studio space or do you do a lot of work at home as well?  

I do the planning at home. I don’t have a workspace there, but I have a mirror that I work on that’s 2’ by 2 ½’ and that’s the only flat space that I can work on at home. It’s really for puzzles and diamond paints at home because that’s really all I can do. Unless I want to work outside with the bees. Most of the time I just work in the Fine Arts senior studios or classrooms as much as I can.

How far do you think you’ve come since the beginning of your college experience? 

I’ve come decently far. I would have never seen myself actually working with ceramics in high school. Literally, I’d done maybe one or two pieces in ceramics that I would say were decent and the rest were like you would make your mom. With paintings, I had a few that I was proud of, but most of them I wanted to burn. I feel like I’ve definitely grown a bit, I’ve done a few things that were printmaking, but I never even dreamed of doing something half as decent as what I’ve done. I have a bit more confidence in myself, but I know that I still have a long way to go.

Where do you want to go after you graduate?  

This is something that I’ve been toying with, an idea that’s been in the back of my head for quite a few years since I’ve started working with art. I kind of want to have my own gallery, but not like the classical music sort of gallery. I want it to be more of a communal gallery, classes to teach younger kids, like an after school program sort of thing to teach them the ins and outs of the gallery. In a small town like mine, we never had an art gallery, we never had art classes for after school; art was not a huge thing. I want to be able to do something like that to teach kids that a gallery doesn’t have to be a boring hoity-toity museum. I want to bring more art into the world even if it’s not my own.

How do you feel that your peers, the faculty, the staff, and the general community has impacted you or your art?

Some of the faculty, I wouldn’t have gone as far in school as I have without them. Patricia Gibbs in particular, she’s been the one source of sanity this year because any problems we’ve had, she would go through Heaven and Hell to find a solution for us. She’s been an awesome teacher for us in Senior Studio, one of those teachers that you can just talk about anything to. Maureen Mills as well for me last year, when she was still here for the school with us, she was also that way. There were a lot of times last year and the year prior where I felt like dropping out and I felt that I wasn’t meant to be an artist because I was struggling so badly. Maureen was the only one to help me out and helped me reach out to the right people. I would probably not still be in this school, sitting here, if it weren’t for Maureen, Tricia, Kathy Binns, and quite a few other teachers. With that being said, there have been other teachers that I didn’t like that I could have lived without meeting them because their teaching style just didn’t work with me and I didn’t like their personality. I feel like if I didn’t have this teacher, I wouldn’t have learned that I don’t like figure. I would force myself to suffer through it a little bit, but because that teacher made it so difficult for me, I just never wanted to touch it ever again, so I didn’t have to actually suffer through multiple classes of it.

What advice do you have for underclassmen and for incoming freshmen?

This has always been advice that I would have given to my younger self: Be confident in yourself and what you like. Don’t let other people tell you that that is a bad route to go. If it’s something that you are passionate about, something that you enjoy doing, don’t let someone tell you that it’s stupid, dumb, or childish. If it’s something you want to do, go for it. You’re young and if it ends up not being the right path, you have time to find your passion and grow.