NANETTE KELLEY

Description of Art

​Mentors such as Chinese artist Hung Liu (social realism), Lucienne Bloch and Stephen Pope Dimitroff (Diego Rivera’s fresco paint mixer and wall plaster engineer), and watercolorist Robert Benson (Tsnungwe Tribe), although ethnically and politically diverse, gave Nanette Kelley an appreciation for works of art as language, and not mere aesthetics. With a focus on social systems, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and art curriculum development for schools, Nanette focuses on regional themed and community-based social practice art. She interprets the natural environment including representational wildlife and cultural themed painting with the use of wax and water-based, non-toxic multimedia works on paper, leather crafts, woodworking design, and stained glass.

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Artist Biography

​A lifelong traveler on the roads in-between, Nanette Kelley divides her time between her Osage and Cherokee homelands in Oklahoma and unceded Wiyot territory on the Redwood Coast. As she says, “My family never stopped migrating.” She is a first daughter of the Wahzhazhe Nikashe (Osage Nation), Eagle Clan, and has dual Osage and Cherokee enrollment. Both a professional artist and a journalist, she comes from generations of hidecrafters and metalsmiths. To ensure access to regional culture, language, and traditional arts in education, Nanette builds cultural bridges among peoples and organizations and hosts cultural art events in both CA and OK: Nanette is the 2021 California Arts Council Administrators of Color Fellow for the north state region. A professional member of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), she is a contributing writer to various Indigenous publications including First American Art Magazine. Her media is primary research, both traditional and western materials, and the natural environment. Her method is historical interpretation through a Traditional Ecological Knowledge lens. With an appreciation for works of art as language and not mere aesthetics. She believes art and the environment are catalysts for underrepresented peoples to tell their own cultural histories. A first-generation college student, she earned a B.A. in Art from Humboldt State University, CA, a B.A. in Corporate Communications from Rogers State University, OK, and has a 2022 completion date for her M.A. in Indigenous Education & Policy through Arizona State University, School of Social Transformation with emphasis in regional art, cultural, and natural history community-based curriculum.