Marissa Parsons is from Smithers, BC, Canada (unceded Gidimt’en clan territory, home of the Witsuwit’en Nation) but spent half of her childhood growing up in Perth, Western Australia. She is enrolled in a concurrent degree program at the University of Victoria which allowed her to recently graduate with an honours degree in Mathematics and Computer Science while finishing her degree in Visual Arts. She has received multiple awards in math and computer science; most recently the Ian & Sheila Barrodale Award in Computer Science & Mathematics (Sep. 2025) and the Jesse Short-Gershman Memorial Scholarship (Sept. 2024). Marissa displays her interest in the sciences through her artwork, as seen in exhibitions such as the group show Spillways (Nov. 2025) and the two-person show Memtomorph (Aug. 2024); both at the Audain Gallery.
Currently, her work is focused on spatial sculptures and using technology to evoke emotions. A continuous thematic symbol in her recent practice is spiders – specifically the redback spider. She is drawn towards provoking a heightened response of the audience's preconceived opinion of sharing space with the undesirable. Spiders interest her as she believes the majority of people have charged emotions towards arachnids – often curiosity, fear, or disgust. Additionally, she has noticed that such opinions about spiders are often related to one's body. She finds this element compelling for her spatial work as the emotions she elicits are charged from preconceived opinions of one's body in relation to an object. Her practice is driven by curiosity and determination to create something challenging. She hopes her audience shares her experience by questioning how she created a piece and feeling compelled to remain with the work until they are satisfied with their understanding. She does not want her audience to know what they are looking at upon first glance. She wants to challenge them. The challenge is the most important quality of her art.
