Maroquin showcased by Fireplace

In her message to aspiring artists, Sam Marroquin said that “you’ve just got to do it, you’ve got to get your ideas and get them on paper and just try it.” Marroquin’s exhibit in MHCC’s Fireplace Gallery titled “A Location Near You” will be on display through Feb. 26.

Marroquin is a Northwest artist with a master of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies in art and graphic communication, Eastern Washington University, and a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary visual art, University of Washington.

She has been working with wax-based paint for the last four years and focuses heavily on appearance, texture, layering and activism. Marroquin said her art is a way for her to spread the message of what’s going on behind the scenes, and to inform the viewer of what’s going on in the world. “I wouldn’t say that I lose anything. If anything, I gain something because sometimes when you start a piece I don’t have it fully visualised or fully formed in my mind but as I work on it, it comes together,” she said about the how her work develops.

Marroquin pays special attention to how her art looks visually opposed to the message behind it. In her piece “A Cold Deck” currently on display, she said, “I wanted it to be kind of a pastoral scene where, if you were standing kind of far back, it might look a little bit idealistic. But if you get up close, you can see that the white house here is actually fashioned out of playing cards.”

The art on display in the Mt. Hood Fireplace Gallery deals with issues like: unstable government, conditioned behavior, whistleblowing and many other messages that Marroquin said she wants to be “cryptic,” so that the viewer interacts with the piece and explores the topic further on their own.