Nanette Moss (b. 1973) is a Canadian and American artist living in Nanaimo, BC. Nanette came to mixed media visual art via multi-media performance art. She applies the same approach of spontaneity within a framework to push her skills, combining unexpected elements to shift the perspective of the viewer. Her work focuses on expressive representations of botanicals and landscapes.

Nanette was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A life long creative, she received training throughout her school years in the arts, including drawing, painting, photography, dance, theater, and writing. Her artwork was regularly selected for annual city-wide shows. In 1992, she painted one of the first murals in the iconic Graffiti Alley, depicting stages of personal evolution.  Her first crossover into performance art occurred while painting a mural about the birth of the universe during a string quintet concert.  Struck by inspiration, she began to dance while painting herself into the backdrop. 

Nanette’s style developed in San Francisco to incorporate elaborate headdresses and costumes of bone, feathers, found fabric, body paint, mud, and plastic wrap.  She referenced global myths and her own visions of the dynamics of energy and matter. Many of these materials and symbols are used in her current practice.

Nanette performed, created, and lived in five states across the southwest and west coast before settling in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. She has called many alternative arrangements home: yurt, school bus, one room cabin, floorless tent, and backpack. Her experience of living on the fringes of society opened her eyes to unfounded biases, both internally and in others. She came to appreciate that each person has a story beyond her assumptions. Gratitude for every kindness, comfort, and sunny day developed from this period with no keys, no phone, and no bank account.

A simultaneous internal expansion occurred. She was no longer insulated or separate from the natural world. Nanette became intrigued by the use of medicinal herbs and food for physical and mental health. She worked as an organic farmhand, and later in a plant nursery. While homesteading in rural Washington state, she learned to identify native plants. Throughout periods of change, plants grounded her with a sense of place and belonging.

After experiencing severe hearing loss two decades ago, the visual and tactile senses became crucial to Nanette’s interpretation of the world.  It led her to consider how art and words can be presented in different ways, for different ways of perceiving. She withdrew from performance to focus on raising her two children and establishing a career in healthcare. Hiking and botanical illustration became her modes of meditation.

To balance stress from the healthcare field during the pandemic, Nanette picked up her brushes again. Her dual pursuits of creativity and healthcare are intertwined. Curiosity toward finding new approaches and adapting to change continue to be driving forces in Nanette’s artistic and personal development. Nanette aims to move toward multi-sensory exhibitions, offering touchable artwork and audio components. The assimilation of multiple mediums emerged naturally as a way to reconcile different aspects of the self. Plants are a metaphor for growth throughout life’s stages.

Nanette’s artwork can be found in private collections across North America. Her work has been exhibited in the Government House in Victoria, Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Ladysmith Art Gallery, Nanaimo Museum, and Averill Creek Vineyard, among others. She is an active member of ArtsBC, the Art Brand Alliance, and the Arts Council of Ladysmith and District.