Meet Marsha Dorsey-Outlaw
Marsha is a native Houstonian, born and raised in the Third Ward, a fifth generation Houstonian. She’s an artist, specializing is multi-textured mosaics and civic art. Some of her pieces around Houston are Raiment in Emancipation Park, Geo’d in front of the Townwood Community Center, Know All Men By These Presents at the Community Center in Pleasantville, plus much more. Her work is also featured in many area SPARK Parks such as Whidby, Walnut Bend, Lockhart, Tinsley, Wharton, Mahanay, Osborne, and Piney Point Elementary Schools.
Knowing from a young age that art was her calling, Marsha’s mom made sure that she had pens, paper, markers, crayons, tracing paper, and books. In college, instead of spending money on a debutante dress, she asked her mom if she could take a trip to Europe. She went for three months on a trip that took her all over Europe, starting in England, making her way over to Yugoslavia, stopping to see cities and towns along the way and then returning back to England. One of her favorite memories is tying a t-shirt around her head, pretending like she was from Tobago, and selling watercolors to tourists in some of the cities she visited.
For a brief stint, Marsha lived in Pasadena, California in the ‘90s. She remembers it being a fun adventure, working with collectors such as Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight, getting involved in art departments doing work on sitcoms like the Cosby Show, movies, and music videos. When she works with students, she makes sure they know how much versatility there is in the arts. Visual art doesn’t just mean that you have to create paintings for a gallery.
For many years, Marsha served as the Museum of Fine Arts Community Liaison in the Education Department. She worked directly with Third Ward, East End, and Near Northwest neighborhoods opening dialogue between the museum and area residents to understand how the museum could better serve and partner with communities. She wanted to get at the root of what they felt was missing in the museum. One thing that impressed her was the concept of civic art, telling the story of the community and its history through art.
According to Marsha, “artists find themselves in an interesting place where they hear one thing from the community and something completely different from the client. Art is a response to that conflict, the perceived barriers between ideals and ideas”. Marsha likes to use architectural elements in her pieces, especially those things she feels are slowly fading. Examples include the pecan tree and the chain-link or cyclone fence. The pecan tree is a barometer for many things. It helps you to know when spring is ending, kind of like Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog. When the little green sprigs start to emerge, you know spring is coming soon. Then, there are the branches, great wood for barbecue, and of course, the pecans themselves, prized in so many recipes or eaten by themselves. And, remember the chain-link fence? We don’t see these so much anymore, but it was so important in our past. It was where neighbors could visit; you could see through them. But they’re being replaced by fences with wooden slats that you can’t see through, blocking out our neighbors.
