Local artist and Missouri Southern alumna Natalie Wiseman will present 30 of her acrylic paintings at Spiva Center for the Arts Regional Focus Gallery from March 8 to May 4.

Wiseman titled her collection “Un-Still Life” to represent her unconventional approach to the traditional still life. Her realistic pieces feature collected yet haphazardly placed household items such as toys, food, clothing, kitchen utensils and iconic American images. All of her paintings suggest an element of movement — a resting fork, a spilt cup of coffee, a wrinkled piece of paper. There is the sense that someone has left the scene in a hurry; real-life imperfection permeates the work.

“I love to have drips and spills and crumbs because that’s life,” she said. “I like to kind of blur that line between artwork and what might be going on simultaneously outside the frame of the painting — real life stuff that’s going on.”

Much of her inspiration, she said, comes from her experiences at home as a wife and mother of three. She has a studio but prefers to work from home to spend time with her family.

“The things I have surrounding me at home are kids’ toys and food and just day-to-day things,” she said. “That’s why I don’t paint nice little flower arrangements; because at my house, there’s a nice little flower arrangement, but there’s also a half-eaten sandwich sitting beside it.”

This is Wiseman’s first solo showing of her work, but she has been an active member since 2011, showing pieces at Spiva’s membership shows and small works auctions. Her journey to “Un-Still Life” began a year ago when Sean Conroy, the gallery and gift shop coordinator at Spiva, encouraged her do the Regional Focus Gallery. Over the last 12 months, Wiseman has worked diligently to create 24 new paintings for the show.

“My husband has been great over the last year,” she said. “He’s been very supportive and he’s done a whole lot of laundry. He knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel.”

She said she has always loved creating and had no trouble deciding she wanted to major in studio art at Missouri Southern. During her time in college, she was also a cartoonist for The Chart.

She went on to work as a cartoonist at The Joplin Globe and was a professional mural painter for 16 years. She also has professional experience in ceramic tile making and three-dimensional art.

“Sometimes as an artist you have to switch gears and try different things and find out what your niche is and it takes awhile — it took me awhile,” she said. “I think I’ve found my niche now.”

The opening reception of “Un-Still Life,” in conjunction with PhotoSpiva, will be March 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.