Marisa Lawrence
Fiber Artist, Maker, Researcher
She/Her
Marisa is a fiber artist and researcher currently studying for her MFA in Costume Technology at the University of Texas at Austin. Originally from Houston, TX, she grew up sewing and developing a love for craftwork at an early age. She has spent a large portion of her career as a seamstress working for notable companies such as The Alley Theater and The Santa Fe Opera. Her current research centers her lived experience as an Afro-Mexican woman with ADHD, and the unique ways intersectional individuals cultivate community and knowledge through artistic practice.
“I see fiber art as a means of literally and figuratively joining all aspects of my identity. The process of making gives me the chance to embody all that I am.”
Current Research
Textiles and fiber have been a lifelong interest of mine, and I am fortunate enough in the age of automation and computerization to be able to consider them my profession. Tactile skills come quite easy to me, and a common saying in my family is that I “get my sewing skills from my great-grandfather”. As a child, I imagined there was a section of my DNA that held a tiny needle and thread that I could trace through my lineage. In recent years, I have become increasingly curious about inherited craft practices and their relationship to identity.
My current research seeks to understand how the act of craft-making as a method of cultural epistomology.