Artist on the Rise: Ursula Demarquet Alban

Connection to the elements has always driven University of Sioux Falls (USF) student Ursula Demarquet Alban’s work — whether it’s in the classroom, in her chosen work environment or in the pool. This multi-disciplinary Ecuadoran artist has managed to foray her prowess as an athlete and designer into a vision for her future free from limitations.

Ursula Demarquet Alban

“I’m from Guayaquil, Ecuador — a big city, super busy and on the coast — and I’ve been a swimmer for the past 18 years,” the fifth-year senior and art and media studies major said. “I came here to the states with a swimming scholarship — I wanted to utilize that as a way to pursue my dreams and my personal goals.

“I’ve always been interested in design. I’ve always been super into architecture, interior design, painting, drawing — I enjoy a broad variety.” 

With concentrations in pre-architecture, graphic design and social media marketing, Demarquet Alban has taken to the USF mission of service most of all.

“I ended up here in Sioux Falls, which I didn’t know anything about,” she said. “I didn’t know about the weather, I didn’t know how the city worked — I never visited, I just moved here. So discovering that in the four-and-a-half years I’ve been here has been amazing.”

Demarquet Alban’s first dalliances with art came at a young age during her upbringing in Ecuador. Attending a service- and mission-driven Catholic school from age five, she always felt compelled to try new things.

“I will say it was more experimental and they were very onto service and doing stuff with purpose — and they were very artistically inclined as well,” she said of her early education. “I always wanted to express myself. I've always been an extrovert, and I think, growing up in my culture, we love colors and, especially in my city, we love to express ourselves and enjoy music and nature.

“So all these things combine again with just my natural desire to create art, which was shown since I was very little. I have drawings from when I was, like four, five and six drawing flowers or drawing nature, drawing landscapes. I knew I wanted to be an artist.”

In her own family, Demarquet Alban has something of a history of designers, with a grandparent who designed furniture, as well as some uncles in similar fields. “It’s kind of in my blood, but it’s also a little bit different of me to make it my whole career, rather than a hobby.”

This dedication to utilizing her penchant for visual arts as a career drew Demarquet Alban to architecture as a potential future.

“I think I was really interested in the technical part of it and just the possibility of creating something as big as a space — a functional and realistic space that could work for years for people,” she said. “And designing the space completely from zero to a hundred percent — it was always something that I was interested in.

“I've always been a leader, into planning and logistics. I think also my artistic and creative self was slowly shifting me towards interior design and the more personal interactions they have with people and the effect it has on psychology.”

The artist’s interior design work has brought her into both residential and commercial spaces since she began operating in the medium, including a pizzeria, a museum and apartment units.

“I'm redesigning my dad's house at home where I grew up,” she said. “Residential feels homier, of course, more sentimental. When I’m approaching a commercial project, when I have more liberty to be sustainable or scale the materials, I have the ability to be more specific and detail-oriented on smaller projects. That’s what I'm more drawn to.”

In her time at USF, Demarquet Alban has been able to hone her craft and prepare herself for a future career she hopes includes plenty of these sorts of intimate, detailed projects. The culmination of her work included a showing at USF’s symposium, where the artist presented a series of pieces.

“I have a series called ‘Constructed,’ and it's mixed media with architectural and technical drawings and then some blocks of colors and paintings,” she said. “Presenting this in the moment of my life that I was living — I was going through some stuff and I had had a car accident — so being able to talk about this felt very fulfilling to me. Seeing the outcome of all the hard work makes me say, ‘Okay, I'm doing good.’ A little pat on the back. You keep going. I know it's been hard and you have 10 other things to worry about and school and work and swimming, but you are working towards something. It's working out.”

These sorts of real-life inspirations pepper a lot of Demarquet Alban’s artistic choices, from her early influences to her current space in Sioux Falls.

“My paintings and drawings are full of colors or culture, or I'm drawing landscapes from home,” she said, “but in general, I think the main thing that I'm hopefully aiming my career towards is more sustainability. At home, we're closer to nature and we're so close to the ocean, we're close to the rivers, we're close to the forest. We have the Andes in the middle. So all that connection that I have with nature and helping people and being sustainable in general has always been in my mind. I'm always trying to better myself as in personal practices to implement practices, objects, materials, projects that involve sustainability more and more.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Okay, if I wasn't from Ecuador, if I was from South Dakota, what would inspire me?’ The culture for service that they have at USF is something I had growing up. My grandma was part of a volunteering club and Lion's Club and she always was up to helping people in need. So when I came here to USF and I discovered that they also have this ideology of having this culture for service, it made me really passionate.”

This passion will continue to drive Demarquet Alban’s pursuits in her future interior design and architectural career, where she hopes to continue using her artistry to give of herself in every project.

“I love the opportunity to keep expressing, for myself but also for others,” she said. “It's an amazing opportunity to be able to create art and create something that's coming from our minds and from our hearts and put it out there as a visual work that we can share outside in the world. So sharing that with others, with my family or with people around me in the community, I hope to be that person. Bringing people together and building community with my art.”