Marin Jurgens shares what motivates her work, creating an ethnographic comic and more
The Portland State University Collaborative Comics Project aims to change the narrative around homelessness through ethnographic cartooning based on the experiences of PSU students. The project will culminate into the 10 comics published as a booklet and sold by Street Roots vendors. Street Roots spoke with 8 of the artists to learn more about their process. Read all the interviews here.
For graphic designer and college student Marin Jurgens , the Portland State University Collaborative Comics Project was the first time she published a comic outside of school projects. Jurgens, who has done work with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon , developed a passion for restorative justice in high school, which drives her art. This Fall, she left Portland to pursue a BFA in graphic design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her comic “Toward Light,” tells the story of Star, a Vietnamese-American woman who escapes domestic violence.
Sarah Hansell : What started your passion for restorative justice?
Marin Jurgens : I think it was my high school news magazine. Sort of our whole mission with that magazine was to be able to share the stories of students that don’t usually have as much of a voice in their school community as most other students do or just voices that have been marginalized. So that made me realize that to me, learning is really just about getting to hear other people’s perspectives, so you can get a more well-rounded view on a specific issue or topic. So I’m just really interested in being able to help share other people’s stories, and I think that’s where it all stems from.
Hansell : Is that kind of what drew you to be part of the PSU project?
Jurgens : Definitely, because obviously anyone who lives in Portland realizes how big of an issue homelessness is, but I definitely hadn’t had much of a direct connection to that issue beforehand. But I just knew how prevalent it was, and I wanted to educate myself on the topic and learn about other people’s experiences. But I also definitely wanted to be part of being able to amplify their voices as well.
Hansell : How did you decide how you wanted to tell her story or the focus that you wanted it to have?
Jurgens : For Star’s story it’s pretty apparent that her daughter was going to be the main focus just because while Star was in a very unhealthy marriage, she was suffering from a lot of abuse from her partner — I mean she’s a very courageous and brave person — but she wasn’t able really to pick up the courage to leave that situation until she realized how much it was going to affect her daughter. She wasn’t really able to stand up for herself until she realized how much danger her daughter was in. Especially because they also decided to use the name Light for her daughter, I just wanted to portray her daughter as the source of, not just happiness, but strength, throughout the comic. So that definitely became a focal point for everything.
Hansell : One question I had was, as writers, we often write about things that are personal for us, themes and stories that we can personally connect with. For this project, since you were writing someone else’s story, how or where were you able to find that connection?
Jurgens : Throughout my life, especially moving to college this year and learning to do things just for myself, I feel like I was always someone who would put the people around me before me, or put other people’s needs before mine, and so I felt like I really connected to Star in that way. So I felt like I could really relate to Star’s character. Even hearing about her story, there’s no way I’ll truly know how much pain she went through with everything that happened to her. But I feel like I definitely put part of me in her character just because I felt like I could understand how she ended up in that situation even though that’s the sort of situation that no one deserves to be in. But I really related to her where it took her considering how her situation would affect her daughter to finally make a big decision for herself.
Hansell : What impact would you say that this project has had on you?
Jurgens : Oh, I would say it’s had a pretty profound impact. I mean, I think all of us who are artists for this project realized how heavy of a topic this was going to be going into it. But just reading Star’s quotes from her interviews with Kacy’s (the project’s lead researcher) team was really emotional. Getting to hear her voice almost directly from her, and just realizing that while I feel like Star’s story is very unique — I don’t think there are that many people out there who have similar experiences as her — there are just so many people who have suffered from homelessness who just have such unique stories of their own.
And it just really opened up my eyes that even when you meet people in your life, day to day, you never really realize how much that person has gone through or what sort of baggage they may have. So that was really eye-opening for me. And then Kacy sent us a PDF of everyone’s comics once they were complete, and I was so excited to go through and read them right away. And I just felt really inspired, not just by the subject, the bravery to come out and speak up about their experiences, and being willing to share such intimate or private information with all of us. But just really inspired by the other artists that are part of this project that are also really passionate about this issue, and found really creative ways to share everyone else’s story. I’d say it’s just had a very positive and eye-opening impact on me for sure.
Hansell : How do you think this project will affect readers’ understanding of houseless folks’ experience?
Jurgens : I think Kacy and her team did such a good job of interviewing all the subjects, that I think all the artists were able to portray everyone in a very humanistic way. Because I think in media there’s definitely a lot of stigma around people who suffer from homelessness. I definitely used to have preconceived notions about why someone may be homeless or what kind of person they may be, which is just a really inaccurate portrayal of who these people really are.
Because the reality is, they’re people just like everyone else. But some people have really real experiences from this issue. So I think that readers will be able to connect to the subjects. I think it’ll help them realize just how similar we all are to each other, and the label of saying someone is homeless is just a label that divides us. And really we should be uniting with each other on what we can relate on.
Hansell : In your comic domestic violence is what causes Star to be houseless, and we know domestic violence is one of the leading causes of houselessness in women and families. How do you think that comics can shed light on this issue in a way other mediums can’t?
Jurgens : So, that was something I was definitely struggling with for a while. I wanted to be able to convey the seriousness of what Star went through, but also present it in a way to readers that was still digestible or maybe even relatable to some people without scaring people away. I was also worried about portraying the issue too lighthearted or not serious enough.
So finding a middle ground was definitely something I was just really going back and forth on with Kacy and with Star. But I think that’s also the beauty of comics, is that you can really speak about issues that are very serious, but in a way that people may be more susceptible to learning about. Because it’s not only in writing, or it’s not a very graphic photograph or anything, you can be a lot more abstract about it, but in a way people can still relate to. So I think it definitely felt like a struggle at first, but in the end, I definitely realized how powerful comics and graphic novels can be in that way.
Hansell : Yeah, absolutely. What’s next for you, what are you working on now?
Jurgens : Well, I just finished my first semester in college. I’m currently at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Actually I’m not entirely sure if I can speak about the next project, but I will be working on a commission for The Immigrant Story, which is another non-profit organization in Portland. They’re going to be starting a new campaign that’s heavily focused on sharing the stories of Asian-American immigrants in Portland. So I’ll be working on some portraiture work for them.
Hansell : Is there anything else about your work or your identity that you want readers to know?
Jurgens : I guess another part — just going back to your questions about where I was able to put some of myself into the comic — Star is Vietnamese American, and I’m Japanese America. There are so many differences between our cultural backgrounds, but I also really felt for her, just because within immigrant - especially Asian-American immigrant - communities, I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to just put on a brave face and just sort of put on an act that everything’s okay when it’s not.
So I really felt for Star too when I was reading about her experiences with the pressure she felt from her community of Vietnamese family and friends. So I feel like that was another thing I forgot to note, but other than that, I’m just very grateful that I was able to be a part of this project. I’m really proud of everyone and the work that they did, so I’m just really happy with it overall.
Editor’s note: Street Roots has partnered with Kacy McKinney and her team at PSU to publish the PSU Collaborative Comics project. Street Roots’ vendors will sell the publication alongside the newspaper beginning Feb. 2.
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