Amanda Outcalt was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. After attending East Carolina University to earn a BFA in painting, drawing, and metalsmithing, she moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where she now lives and works. Outcalt’s mixed media etchings explore the interplay between individual identity and community. Inner personal struggles are symbolized by figures balancing precariously, staring at objects just out of reach, or interacting with animals and places in uncommon ways; relationships to others are represented with stitched thread, ropes, and anchors. Her mix of the bizarre and the commonplace tease out narratives that read at first as curious and amusing, but hold something sinister on closer inspection. Unique hand-shaping of her intaglio plates allows Outcalt to re-imagine the space around the etching after printing, to tell a story through drawing, painting, and stitching that makes each piece entirely one-of-a-kind.
