By Logan Canaday
The Scene staff
Amanda Nutter is the art department secretary at Forest Park, but she’s also an avid artist and storyteller.
Her work will be on display through Oct. 5 as part of an exhibit in the Forest Park Gallery of Contemporary Art.
“It’s a multiple-medium exhibit that shows the unseen connections of the world, whether that is through religious imagery or nature, just the things that aren’t felt but yet bind us together,” said Nutter, 41.
The exhibit is called “Atoms in the Void.” It consists of 11 pieces, including digital photographs on large format photo paper, oil paintings and a mixed-media sculpture made of acrylic foam and actual moss.
Nursing student Brittany Altizer, 34, stopped by the gallery earlier this month after one of her classmates told her about the exhibit.
Altizer found Nutter’s artwork to be among the most unique she had ever seen.
“’The Angel’ is just so pretty and unique,” she said, speaking of a digital photograph that depicts a combination fairy and angel in the forest. “I have never seen anything like it, and it really speaks to me at my core.”
Nutter grew up in Imperial, just outside of St. Louis. She earned a dual associate degree in fine arts and graphic communications at St. Louis Community College and a bachelor’s degree in art at Webster University.
Nutter teaches children’s art classes from time to time at The St. Louis Artists’ Guild.
Beyond school and work, Nutter has spent much of her life searching out ways to further her abilities and share the beauty of what she creates with others.
“It has always been my destiny to make art and share stories with others,” she said.
All the artwork in the exhibit is for sale, except for “The Visitor,” an oil painting on wood with an image of a pair of eyes in the sky.
The piece is based on an encounter Nutter had with a wild hawk, perched about 10 feet away on her porch. She considers it to be the main anthesis for her exhibit.
Nutter also calls “The Visitor” her “North Star” because it reminds her of what she is constantly seeking: A true north in her art.
General transfer student Alton Jackson, 25, enjoyed viewing the exhibit earlier this month. He particularly liked “The Visitor,” noting the eyes drew him in.
“The art is great, truly,” Jackson said. “I love the energy in spaces like this where I can just feel the creative energy of the artist flow through the space.”
“Atoms in the Void” opened on Aug. 25 and will run through Oct. 5. The public is welcome to view the exhibit free of charge. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.