Chandler Wigton, our Associate Director of Events & Studios visited Marianne in her studio to learn more about her and her practice!
Marianne was born and raised in Detroit, MI, where art was always a central part of her life. She earned her BFA in Fibers from Wayne State University in Detroit in her late 20s and has maintained an active studio practice ever since. Eager to keep growing as an artist, she continues to push herself outside of her comfort zone by participating in specialized workshops across the country, studying with a variety of artists and teachers.
She also spent four years living in Toronto, where she maintained a studio and developed skills in bookbinding and traditional Japanese paper making. Since 2011, Marianne has been based in Albuquerque and became a Harwood Art Center studio artist in 2019. She is also an alum of Harwood’s Surface: Emerging Artists of New Mexico program, having been part of the 2019 cohort.
What new art are you working on currently?
What is your process?
Walking into Marianne’s studio, one encounters a wide range of work that reflects her years at Harwood. Her earlier pieces include small to medium works on paper that layer found maps with delicate Japanese paper and expressive mark-making using her own homemade walnut ink. These mixed-media works are rich with texture and subtlety, creating dynamic visual landscapes.
Another striking series features a wall-mounted grid of “little cushions”—small, hand-sewn sculptural pieces made from diverse fabrics and materials, all set against a felt backing. These works are tactile and playful, exploring softness, form, and repetition.
Her most recent body of work departs from textiles and paper, moving into sculpture with materials like porcelain and glass. A recent workshop challenged her to experiment beyond her usual practice, prompting her to fill balloons with insulation foam and link them with chains into hand-sized sculptural clusters. This playful yet unconventional process sparked a new idea: casting the balloon forms in porcelain. After firing, she arranges them into suspended installations. The porcelain sculptures appear both delicate and resilient, revealing the demanding nature of the process—many casts don’t survive the kiln.
She continues to experiment with finishing techniques. Some pieces remain a stark white; others are treated with wax and graphite, or adorned with metal leaf. She has also translated these forms into glass, adding another dimension to the series. This evolving body of work holds great potential, as it continues to grow and shift in form and meaning.
Marianne’s artistic process begins with a deep engagement with materials. Her work is rooted in making—through tactile exploration and experimentation, concepts slowly emerge. Over time, recurring themes like grief, loss, mythology, and transformation begin to surface. The porcelain hanging sculptures, for example, are titled with personal references that reflect these ideas. One recurring figure in her work is Artemis of Ephesus, the ancient fertility goddess whose temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Scale also plays a vital role in Marianne’s practice. Her work moves fluidly between the intimate and the monumental, always grounded in a deep respect for process and materiality.
What do you get your inspiration from?
Marianne draws inspiration primarily from materials and the act of making. Her creative process is deeply tactile—she finds energy in working with her hands, experimenting with unfamiliar materials, and deliberately stepping outside her comfort zone. That sense of discovery is central to her practice.
Themes of mythology, magic, and the occult are also important sources of inspiration. She recalls being particularly moved by an ancient sculpture of Artemis of Ephesus, whose form features a cluster of mysterious, rounded shapes. Some scholars suggest these could be representations of magical sacks or offerings—an idea that resonated with Marianne, especially in relation to her own hanging porcelain forms. The symbolic layering of meaning, form, and history in that sculpture mirrors much of what she explores in her own work.
She is also influenced by the concepts of energy healing and the interconnectedness of all things—ideas that guide both her approach to art and her broader outlook. In her studio, you’ll find collections of thread, twine, and an impressive array of Japanese and Korean papers, each item carefully chosen and full of potential.
Do you have any exhibits or exciting projects coming up that you want to share, or past exhibits you want to highlight?
Marianne has an upcoming exhibit at Exhibit 208 in Albuquerque called Octomanos: Four Artists, Eight Hands from June 13-July 5, 2025 where she will be showing alongside Sandy Hill, Maude Andrade, and Jennifer Pretzeus. The opening reception is Friday, June 13 from 5-9pm.
She also has an installation called Between Heaven and Earth at a small outdoor public art space in Magdalena, NM which will be up until August 17, 2025.
This past April she had a piece in the New Mexico Women in the Arts exhibition at the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe — and in May she participated the Spring Exhibition for the Taos Abstract Arts Collective.
What music have you been listening to lately?
While she often prefers to work in silence, letting the sounds of her materials guide her, Marianne does occasionally turn to music for inspiration or rhythm. Her tastes lean toward jazz greats like Red Garland, Oscar Peterson, and Wes Montgomery—artists whose improvisational style aligns with her own exploratory approach. She also finds deep resonance in the poetic songwriting of Leonard Cohen and John Prine, whose lyrics speak to emotion, memory, and storytelling in a way that complements her work’s conceptual undercurrents.
