A-STATE SENIOR EXHIBITIONS

HUMAN CONDITION - 2024 FALL SENIOR EXHIBITION

The Fall 2024 Senior Exhibition features five students graduating from the Department of Art and Design at Arkansas State University. They include Ethan Balch, Grace Burton, Emilee Owen, Savannah Sifford, and Marcy Wallace.

Ethan Balch, My work Anchor is a large-scale sculpture based on the human form that combines naturalistic proportions with expressive features. The piece has been assembled from a variety of materials and acts as a physical manifestation of my negative emotions. For a long time, I avoided making art that explored myself or my feelings; after examining my connection with hard rock, punk rock, and heavy metal, I found an outlet for expressing these ideas in a way that is deeply cathartic. Although the work is not expressly about the music, I am greatly influenced by its energy and uncompromising nature. Namely, I wanted a way to communicate my most vulnerable ideas and feelings as a visceral expulsion which is almost thrust onto the viewer rather than a self-indulgent and sullen expression of petty distress.

Ethan Balch is a multimedia artist who primarily works in sculpture, focusing on large-scale objects that delve into themes of emotion and the human psyche. He is currently a senior at Arkansas State University, where he anticipates earning his B.F.A. in Studio Art.

Grace Burton, Growing up surrounded by creative women in my family installed a deep appreciation for the craftsmanship woven into everyday life. The quilts, hand-sewn garments, and photographs passed down through generations became foundational materials for my artistic practice. Using fabrics, patterns, and imagery, I collage fragments of these traditions to explore how labor and love transform everyday objects into something meaningful and extraordinary. My inspiration comes from family quilts, domestic patterns, dishes, handwritten recipes, and flowers—elements that connect me to the women who nurtured me. This body of work reflects the clothing made for me, the meals I was served, and the quilts that comforted me.

Collage allows me to layer memories and objects, piecing them together to form new meanings. Just as quilts are made from individual scraps, my work mirrors the way traditions and memories accumulate and overlap across generations. This process reflects not only my personal history but also the shared nostalgia that connects me to the women who came before me. Themes of motherhood and nurturing run throughout, examining the generational exchange of skills and the overlooked or undervalued domestic labor performed by women. Through collage, I weave together these histories, honoring both the care and the hard work involved in making a home—a space of solace, comfort, and love.

By piecing together fragments of my past, I create work that reflects both my own connection to these women and the collective nostalgia we share. My art becomes a collage of memory, maternal love, and the enduring impact of intimate, everyday practices.

Grace Burton is an artist from Hot Springs, Arkansas, currently living in Jonesboro with her husband. Burton is pursuing her B.F.A at Arkansas State University in Studio Art with an emphasis in Drawing and Painting, as well as a certificate in Museum Studies. Her work focuses on collage; she works with various media—drawing, painting, photography, and fibers—to explore memory, nostalgia, and the intersection of personal and cultural histories. Burton uses collage to share personal narratives and explore the labor and love embedded in simple objects.

Burton has exhibited her work in multiple galleries, including The Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza and Art Center West in Roswell, GA. Passionate about working with her hands, she plans to continue her studies after graduation, deepening her exploration of art as both personal expression and cultural preservation.

Emily Owen, Growing up in the American South, I have developed my own version of southern life and what it means to be me. This is a self-portrait but not a self-portrait. These are my thoughts on the people, culture, and wilderness that I have come to love with all their beauty and imperfections.

Emilee Owen grew up in Paragould and is studying at Arkansas State University in anticipation of her B.F.A. in Studio Art. She enjoys working in a variety of art media and always looks forward to learning new techniques. After graduation, she hopes to maintain her artistic practice and travel.

Savannah Sifford, This body of work is a long-term project titled Chrysalis. My photographs explore the awkwardness of being a teenager as I watch my adolescent sister experience this stage of life. When I photograph her, I am reconciling my own memories as I observe the evolution of her identity. I compare this work to the protective coating around the caterpillar as it goes through metamorphosis. I want to be that chrysalis for her: to immortalize these moments in photographs.

Savannah Sifford is a photographer based in Jonesboro and anticipating her B.F.A. in Studio Art with an emphasis in photography. Using her acquired skills in digital and film photography, she explores various ways emotional experience can be translated to visual imagery.

Marcy Wallace, Mugs and Rugs Co. highlights the industrialization of some of the oldest documented artistic crafts, such as ceramic and fiber arts. By adapting elements of the Surrealist, Funk art, and Arts and Crafts movements, my goal is to reject the idea that craft art cannot exist in fine art spaces. This installation, modeled after a modern department store display, incorporates the utilitarian qualities of the mass produced with the unsettling notions presented by the surreal products on display. Traditionally ceramic items are made from fiber, and typically fiber or fabric items are replaced by ceramic variations. By swapping these traditional craft materials, I am drawing attention to a contemporary neglect of craft while highlighting craft's pedestrian nature in American society.

Born in 2003, Marcy Wallace is a Senior at Arkansas State University, where she anticipates earning her B.F.A. in Studio Art with an emphasis in Three-Dimensional Art. Predominantly working in ceramics and fiber arts, she is exploring the history of ceramics and fiber arts as viewed by the world of “Fine Art.” Wallace works with a stoneware clay body in her ceramic art. Rug tufting and crochet are her main fiber interests. Marcy has been awarded a grant-in-aid position in the ceramics area by the Arkansas State University Department of Art + Design. She has shown work in spaces such as the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion and Art Center West in Roswell, Georgia.