Artist Biography: Alice Ballard (b. 1945) is a master ceramic sculptor born in Florence, SC. Ballard spent her formative years traveling and living around the world, including Paris, France, with her Air Force family before settling in her current home in Upstate South Carolina.
Ballard’s life’s work has been centered around observing and interpreting our universal world, and its abundant life forms, into transcendent sculptural statements as a continuing reminder of the deep interconnectedness of all things.

Alice received her Masters Degree in Art from the University of Michigan before becoming a professional artist and educator. Her teaching experience spans five decades and includes artist residencies in southern Alaska, leading classrooms at Charlotte Country Day in the mid-80s, positions at Francis Marion University, Coastal Carolina, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont Craft School, the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, and Christ Church Episcopal Middle School. Ballard has also led multiple museum workshops including sessions at the Greenville County Museum of Art. Her steadfast commitment to craft and mentorship was formally recognized in 2019 with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in the Arts from Wofford College.

As a recipient of a Fulbright Grant, Ballard studied in India, was one of eight ceramic artists to be invited to the International Ceramic Colony in Resen, Macedonia, has been supported by the NEA, and received two South Carolina Arts Commission Individual Fellowships. She was awarded an MAC grant through West Virginia University and spent a summer studying in China.
She has had solo shows at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, SC. A series of ceramic sculptures, “Wild Garlic,” resides in the collections of the Renwick Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, Arrowmont School, the Mint Museum of Art, and the Greenville County Museum of Art. Ballard’s work traveled as part of “Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft & Traditional Art,” an exhibition organized by Art South and Knoxville Museum of the Art.

Alice recently retired from the classroom but maintains a studio practice in Clover, SC, under the watchful eye of her architect husband, Roger Dalrymple, and their two loving standard poodles. Her work can be enjoyed online at alliceballard.com and on Instagram @aliceballard64. Ballard is represented by Blue Spiral 1 in Asheville, NC, and Cerbera Gallery in Kansas City, MO.

Artist Statement: The first memories of my artist’s journey are delighting, as a small child, in making of marks with crayon along my bedroom walls. This discovery soon coalesced with an introduction to the wonders of the natural world when my wise grandmother presented me with the life-changing gift of corn and beans for planting in our family garden. The miracle of observing tiny green shoots emerge from the planted seeds would become the genesis, and focus, of my life’s work.

Years later, the influential Paulus Berensohn and his book “Finding One’s Way in Clay,” inspired me to work three-dimensionally. Today, I am primarily a ceramic sculptor, observing and interpreting our natural world, and its abundant life forms, into transcendent sculptural statements as a continuing reminder of the deep interconnectedness — and inherent strength — of all things.

Whether I am working in my home studio, surrounded by my lush gardens, or in verdant, magical spaces like Penland School of Craft, nature continues to spark my passion for both learning and teaching. I consider much of my work a form of self-portraiture that documents and celebrates the phases of healing and rebirth related to traumatic events. I view life as a spiral that returns us, over time, to important people, ideas, places, and events. To that end, much of the work has required decades of germination before emerging as something tangible in the studio.

The Tree Totem is one such series that, in retrospect, was a response to the death of my first husband, Charlie Munn, in a small plane crash. Alone with our young son, Ryan, I quickly threw myself into teaching as a solace from the loss. Twenty years later, with the occurrence of 9/11, the personal and collective traumas revealed themselves to me through a year of dreams filled with burnt forests and blackened trees.

Upon witnessing the resilience of flora once ravaged by disaster, learning that many plants relied upon fire to open their seeds, I could see green tips of new growth in my mind’s eye. Holding onto those visions of burning, cleansing, and resilience, I embarked upon the Totem series, a body of work that encompassed ten, organic vertical sculptures to speak to the story of my trauma and, more importantly, my inevitable healing.

Each of my creations — whether a sketch, painting, or clay sculpture — is composed upon countless hours spent contemplating a subject. The process yields a special connection with the object, an almost Zen-like meditation. As an alternative to this labor-intense work, I often yearn for something lighter and more intuitive, like my beloved Wall Pod series. Though the Totems became more fun as their message grew more hopeful, I was immediately enthralled with the joy I felt when crafting the Wall Pods. Today, I still love making the Pods as I continue to grow other groups of work.

My affinity for Eastern religion, culture, and art, exotic Zen Gardens, my obsession with horticulture, and an earnest devotion to dreamwork, have spawned numerous series. As an artist, the call to express myself visually is only complete once I share what I discover — the tiny Yixing Teapots were inspired by a summer studying in China while my most recent Ming Rose series was in response to my new garden. Both can also be traced back to a dream from 1984 in which the line, “My mother took the ming rose out of the cradle,” resonated loudly until it took form as sculpture. My ongoing installation, Walk Remembered, has also had much to teach me, the ceramic garden being continually rearranged and evolving in response to the spaces where it is shown. Whenever a piece sells I am provided with the opportunity to add more and different objects that are inspired by other places I have visited.

I embrace this cycle of observation, contemplation, and making with a deep desire that those who connect with my work can share in the calming, grounded narratives that reveal themselves to me during the creative process. “Healer be healed” has become a mantra for me as a reminder of how our eternal stories of struggle, growth, renewal, and hope continue to connect each of us to ourselves, one another, and our very wise, and wondrously brave, natural world.