Recognition in one’s field is always a great complement.  When that comes attached to a $500 check, that recognition is all the more important, especially as a student struggling to pay tuition in the current economic climate.  Such was the case for Stacy Isenbarger and Jaclyn Senne, two students selected by a panel of sculpture professionals to be the recipients of the 2008 Tri State Sculptors Memorial Scholarships.  In addition to the payments, both women received free membership in the organization for the year, a waiver of the conference fee, and travel support so that they might attend the conference. 

Celebrating its 30th year, Tri State Sculptors held its annual conference on the tree-lined campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.  During a digital presentation at the Gray Fossil Site Museum, Isenbarger, a third-year graduate student and M.F.A. Candidate at the University Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art.  With elevated structures in steel, wood and velvet, Isenbarger placed the viewer before rectangular “alters.”  Rather than offering moments of revelation, however, Isenbarger’s works asked one to look and wait. 

TSS President, Greg Shelnutt, was very impressed with this year’s winners.  “Both Stacy and Jaclyn make hauntingly beautiful and demanding work.  Being able to hear Stacy talk about why she creates was a very powerful moment.”  Mark E. Brown, TSS Scholarship Chair, noted that the competition for this year’s scholarships was very stiff and “only a few points” separated those who got the awards from those who did not.   Senne, a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute, recently completed the University of North Carolina School of the Arts two-year visual arts program. Her mixed media sculpture, The Inexistence of Pure Thought, was recently published in the May/June issue of John’s Hopkins University’s Imagine magazine.  Senne was unable to attend the conference and received her award in absentia.  

If you would like more information on Stacey Isenbarger, please contact the Graduate Art Office, Lamar Dodd School of Art, 270 River Road, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-7676, tel/706.542.1636 or 706.542.1624, , art.uga.edu.   

If you would like more information on Jaclyn Senne, please contact the Kansas City Art Institute, 4415 Warwick Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111-1820, tel/816.802.3438, .