Amanda’s illustration career could probably be traced back to the crucial moment her kindergarten teacher showed the class how to draw turkeys for Thanksgiving crafts using their hand as an outline. The thumb being the turkey’s head and the rest of the fingers make up the feathers. Immediately she began composing grand, complex, cinematic stories boards about turkeys and their struggles with life, other turkeys and Farmer Brown’s axe. Sadly none of these literary masterpieces have survived.

Amanda’s work still focuses on the natural world and its drama, both as a scientific illustrator in training (working on certification in Botanical illustration from Phipps Conservatory) and as scenic illustrator, striving to capture a raw glimpse of her surroundings.

Past work includes:
Illustration of mollusk collecting tools and additional illustrations for The Mollusks: A Guide to Their Study, Collection, and Preservation C. Sturm, T. A. Pearce, and A. Valdés, editors .

Euchemotrema fraternum (snail) for Identification Guide to Conspicuous Land Snails and Slugs of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania T. A. Pearce, and Matthew S. Murphy.

Sully and Telly the Construction Dinosaurs featured on a 68ft x 8ft banner for the Carnegie Museum of Natural Histories Dinosaurs in Their Time expansion project. (Sully shown in portfolio)

Other special commissions include:
Luck on the USS Marvin (about a tough day fishing)

Evening Light (a private moment between Darcy and Eliza) Pittsburgh Irish Classical theater performance of Pride and Prejudice, Winter Season, 2007.)

Additional works can be seen at Box Heart gallery in Bloomfield, PA.

Affiliations:
Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators