FEATURED ARTISTS PROGRAM

Meet our new springtime quartet—and explore all our other artists

Since we founded our Missouri Featured Artists Program in 2020, we have highlighted over 250 imaginative makers from throughout the state. We’ve brought you painters, pencil artists, sculptors, dancers, singers, instrumental musicians, poets, novelists, filmmakers, ceramicists, jewelry artists, glass artists, and many more who create in myriad other ways. You’ll find them all in the ever-growing gallery below our current highlighted quartet.

FAQs

Artist application form

Dexter Silvers
painter
St. Louis

Elisabeth Spillman
designer, painter, creator
Lee’s Summit

Danielle Anderson (Danielle Ate the Sandwich)
songwriter, performer, and teacher
Kansas City

Shannon Nahara
multidisciplinary artist and art therapist
La Plata

Dexter Silvers | Icy Water, Compton Hill Water Tower in St. Louis, oil on canvas

DEXTER SILVERS

painter | St. Louis

I paint to honor the beauty hiding in plain sight. Photorealism is my way of slowing people down—inviting them to really see the streets, buildings, and everyday moments that quietly hold our stories.

I’m drawn to everyday places—the corner store, a familiar street, a quiet moment that feels personal to a lot of people—and to stories rooted in community, where grit and beauty coexist side by side. I’m a self-taught artist, and I believe painting is both a gift and a responsibility, from God and passed down from my parents. I believe art should be accessible, honest, and shared, whether through a finished canvas, a lesson in the studio, or encouragement offered to the next generation of creatives.

My Dexter’s Art Studio is a family owned and operated business that offers original artwork, prints, custom designs, private lessons, and paint parties for all ages in a fun, eclectic, and relaxed environment. Beyond the studio, I care deeply about sharing art, mentoring others, and giving back to the neighborhoods that continue to inspire me. As long as I can paint, I’m still dreaming, still learning, and still reaching for what’s possible.

dextersartstudio.com

Danielle Anderson | Danielle Ate the Sandwich onstage at Denver UkeFest | photo, Kit Chalberg

DANIELLE ANDERSON

Danielle Ate the Sandwich: songwriter, performer, and teacher | Kansas City

I want people who hear my songs to feel seen, like someone put into words what they were feeling but couldn’t find a way to say. My songs are meant to comfort and console.

I tell the truth through songs. My work spends time with grief and family, elicits laughter and curiosity, and offers validation for the things we think and feel as humans. Working under the name Danielle Ate the Sandwich, I play ukulele and guitar, write lyrically-driven folk songs, and create one-woman shows with musical comedy characters. I love to connect with an audience through shared experiences and storytelling. I aim for authenticity, vulnerability, and humor in everything I do.

I’m a self-taught musician and got my start putting original songs on YouTube. I grew a fanbase performing self-booked house shows, ukulele festivals, and coffee shop shows in every corner of the U.S. After establishing and sustaining a professional arts career, I’m finding joy teaching others to write their own songs, facilitating community songwriting projects, and continuing to push myself to use my creativity in new ways.

danielleatethesandwich.com

Elisabeth Spillman | Woman, digital illustration

ELISABETH SPILLMAN

designer, painter, creator | Lee’s Summit

My goal is to make people stop and think, to use their personal lens to contemplate and conclude through awe, solace, comfort, or conflict.

I am a designer, painter, artifact maker. Painting primarily in oil, my work is mostly nature-focused, capturing scenes of color and energy, and presenting those scenes in abstract. I do not intend my artifacts to be obvious, yet invite the audience to reflect and draw conclusions independently. My work is heavily influenced by my background in design, structuring each piece mathematically to maintain a focal point, balance, and energy.

My life is a work of art in progress, perpetually adding to or subtracting from my experiences and environment to be meaningful, memorable, and to strike curiosity. Outside the studio, I enjoyed over 20 years as lead vocalist in a punk rock band. I am an avid cook, gardener, and teacher. During the day I lead a team of exceptional designers developing customer-facing editorial and marketing artifacts. These tangibles aside, my most significant, accomplished, and beautiful artifacts are my two children, Cecilia and Charlie.

ejspillman17.myportfolio.com

Shannon Nahara | Like a Small Bird, digital photography collage

SHANNON NAHARA

multidisciplinary artist and art therapist | La Plata

I’m drawn to how images can create narratives and hold traces of untold stories.

I am a visual artist and art therapist working in photography, collage, and mixed media. My practice explores the intersections of memory, myth, and the unconscious through layered imagery that invites reflection and transformation. My current work explores how visual fragments from different eras can coexist in a shared symbolic space—inviting the viewer into a dialogue between past and present, conscious and unconscious. I often merge my own photographs with found and historic imagery, making narratives that bridge personal and collective experience.

I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art, a Master of Fine Arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Master of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology with an emphasis in Art Therapy from Naropa University. My art has been exhibited and published in the United States and in Europe. I was one of nine artists selected internationally for a 10-week artist residency by the art organization Photo Trouvée in 2025.

shannonnahara.com