Marcia Wallace

Small Gestures

The Batesville Area Arts Council presents Small Gestures, an exhibition by Marcia Wallace, from June 16 to July 31, 2026. Join us Friday, July 10 from 5-7 p.m. for the reception, and a brief artist talk at 6 p.m. This exhibition is sponsored by White River Health.

Artist Statement

My life mantra has been “to make a life, not buy a life”.

Like many little girls I drew horses, but I never gave it up, I just kept adding more images, more media, more creations. I also drew to-scale floor plans and elevations for houses I wanted to build. You might say I am artistically eclectic.

For years if I said “I’m an artist”, people would ask, “O – do you paint?” It’s only been in recent years that I’ve felt comfortable answering, “Yes”. Then they ask, “What do you paint?” I stumble and want to repeat, “Yes”. The style and the subject are less concerning to me than the challenge and the feeling. Over time, my style(s) are beginning to emerge and I prefer to let that happen.

After a long life of looking at and critiquing art, in classrooms and in many of the world’s greatest museums, I simply hope that periodically someone will look at something I’ve done and find joy, or surprise or sadness, and feel connection to another person they might never have met, but they see humanity in the artwork. This selection of watercolor abstracts are simple and pure, letting the lines and colors dance on the page. I feel they tell stories to those who like to play.

Biography

Marcia Wallace grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio, received a BA from Connecticut College where she received the Outstanding Senior Exhibition award, and an MFA in Mixed Media from Arizona State University, being the first MFA to get that designation. After years of teaching college classes and artist residencies in Arizona, Nebraska, Alaska and waiting tables in between, she moved with Tom, her eventual husband, to Mountain View, Arkansas. During this time she exhibited mixed media and photographic works widely at colleges and museums. After years of Artist-in-Education residencies throughout Arkansas and while teaching at Ozarka College, she got a Masters in Speech and Theater from Arkansas State U. which led to her teaching full time at University of Arkansas Community College in Batesville for 17 years in Art, Theater and Speech. While art has always been central to her, all creation brings joy and she loves meeting and working with creative people across the spectrum. At UACCB she wrote and directed plays for students, organized art exhibitions, coordinated student improv nights and wrote the campus newsletter for years.

In Arkansas she achieved her lifelong goal of designing and building (with Tom) her own home and living in the woods. It has only been since retiring that she has focused specifically on painting. Now, oil and watercolor are her preferred media. She loves realism and abstraction equally for different reasons. While her oils and some watercolors are realistic, the freedom and expressiveness of the gesture in watercolor periodically calls to her.