Anna Grace Burch has been painting and drawing for as long as she can remember.
She remembers attending art camps in grade school, and she began taking private art lessons in the fifth grade.
“I’ve always had a liking for drawing and painting since I was very, very young,” Burch says.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, native went on to study painting and drawing at Anderson University, where she received her bachelor’s degree. At age 24, she was named one of three 2020-21 Brandon Fellows by the Greenville Center for Creative Arts. The yearlong fellowship program is designed to help young local artists develop within the arts community. It also comes with a free studio space and mentorships with other artists.
Related: Local artists named Brandon Fellows at Greenville Center for Creative Arts
Burch works primarily in acrylic, though she says she paints in all mediums and also has an interest in ceramics.
“I work in layers. I’ll do something, and then I might cover it up or I might add onto it constantly,” she says.
Lately her work has focused on the merging of art and science, especially the fields of astronomy, biology, robotics and anatomy.
“I’ve always wanted to make God my inspiration and always to glorify him in everything that I do,” Burch says. “That’s what really influences my current work — how God created the human body in the sense that it is beautiful and abstract and complex in so many different ways.”
Burch says her dream is to pursue a master’s degree at Clemson University and teach at the collegiate level.
“If not, I could also see myself being a local artist in Greenville,” she says.
