Galloway, N.J. — Stockton University senior Sandy Hanna thought submitting her work for the annual AXA Art Prize U.S. would be a long shot.

One of the nation’s leading student art competitions, the contest celebrates emerging undergraduate and graduate student figurative artists from across the country. The top 40 finalists are featured in an exhibit at the New York Academy of Art and the winner receives a $10,000 prize. Exhibition Jurors included curators from esteemed art institutions and museums such as MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“(Stockton Associate Professor of Art) Marianna Smith sent out an email that was like, this is a long shot. And I was like, ‘You know what, I might as well try,’” said the Egg Harbor Township native.

Selected from nearly 600 submissions from 132 schools, Hanna became the first Stockton student whose work has been selected as one of 40 finalists. Her painting “Our Lady, Queen of Palestine” is currently on display in New York until Nov. 19. The winner will be announced on Nov. 5. Hanna is the only student selected from a New Jersey university and one of only 10 who doesn’t attend a major art school.

“I’m so happy. I submitted my art not because I wanted anything out of it,” she said. “I had a message to share about what’s happening in Palestine right now and what it means to be a human. I wanted to create something new where people can have a way of being together.”

Smith said she’s so excited for Hanna, but she wasn’t totally surprised that her art was selected.

“She’s one of those honest, authentic, expressive artists. This is how she interfaces with the world,” Smith said. “She has a unique visual vocabulary and a vision as an artist. As a professor, it’s very exciting to see. It’s a gift to work with somebody like that.”

For Hanna, art is more than a creative outlet. It's a calling to express emotions and find joy. The daughter of immigrants from Syria, Hanna said growing up as a first-generation American she didn’t have a lot of things handed to her.

“It was hard. The reason why I make art is because it’s almost like a way of creating an emotional environment for yourself and for others, too. It’s a way to bring happiness,” said Hanna, who added that she recently changed her name to Sunsun “to bring out a more optimistic way of living in this world.”

But it’s her grief over the suffering of Palestinians, particularly women, that strongly influenced the painting she submitted for the Art Prize. The painting depicts two women in richly patterned clothing sharing a tender moment amid a sea of fiery red and orange grasses. The background depicts a lush green forest with a waterfall and a beautiful sunset.

“It’s a painting of hope and optimism for the women that are suffering under this genocide and femicide right now,” she said. “I just wanted to channel it through my work instead of keeping it inside. It’s the only way I could express myself.”

Smith credited Hanna with being fearless enough to commit to being an artist and not shrink away from opportunities like the AXA Art Prize.

“I don’t think she thinks she’s good enough, yet she pushes forward. She’s forever questioning herself,” she said. “What I respect about her is it doesn’t translate into her quitting. It translates into her pushing forward. I absolutely admire this quality in a young artist.”

Smith added that Hanna’s recognition could be a “foretelling” for Stockton’s Visual Arts program. She’s planning a field trip to take all of the senior students to the exhibition and is hoping to create new partnership opportunities with the New York Academy of Art.

“We really have a very strong faculty who are competitive with brand-name schools in larger cities,” she said. “We want to use this to activate our studio art program and engage with the students who are interested in private-school-quality instruction at a state school in the middle of the most beautiful woods.”

As for Hanna’s future, she wants to keep pushing herself. She’s currently working on a project involving a character she’s created named Umber who appears throughout her work. She’s also exploring other forms of storytelling such as multimedia, music and animation to tell the story of a “character who liberates people through joy and happiness.”

“I think I’ve found myself through art and growing up I didn’t have that much autonomy. But now I feel like I’ve given myself my autonomy in my head,” she said. “I love making art. It’s just so fun. I just delight in it. And I think that if you delight in something, that’s probably what you should do.”

She also hopes her success can inspire other art students.

“Create something new. Don’t be afraid to take on your own path, even if everybody else is doing the standard path. Feel free to take a path that doesn’t really make sense to everybody,” she said.

— Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen