A lifelong traveler on the roads in-between, Nanette Kelley resides part time in her Osage and Cherokee homelands in Oklahoma and also calls the California Redwood Coast (unceded Wiyot land) home. She likes to tell people, “My family never stopped migrating.”

Her life’s foundation in the arts predates her birth by generations of craftspeople who lived off the land from time immemorial including leathercrafters, woodworkers, and metalsmiths. Her work includes culturally and regionally specific primary research materials and the result is historically accurate interpretation through an Indigenous Knowledge lens.

Personal mentors such as China-born artist Hung Liu (social realism), Switzerland-born fine artist Lucienne Bloch (Diego Rivera’s assistant and paint specialist), and Vietnam-born multimedia/transdisciplinary artist, Anh-Thuy Nguyen (whose work highlights human relationships and cultural conflicts), although ethnically diverse, gave her an appreciation for works of art as language and not mere aesthetics.

A first-generation college student, Nanette completed her B.A. in Art with a Studio emphasis at Humboldt State University, California during the redwood timber wars and the tribal water wars. Immersed in an environmental and tribal cultural conflict zone and working as the publicity chair for educational and environmental nonprofits provided her with a good understanding of direct political, cultural, and environmental Public Relations and community outreach.

Located in the town named after Osage Chief GRAH MOIE within her ancestral Osage territory, and where her Cherokee family settled after they walked the Trail of Tears, she chose Rogers State University to complete a B.A. in Corporate Communications. Her study pertained to community outreach in radio, TV & video, and the creation of regional Indigenous multimedia curriculum for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, media she continues to utilize in education and outreach programs today.

Recently, Nanette received a commendation from the California Legislature for “her participation in helping to create and preserve the cultural identities of all Californians.” She is one of five Indigenous filmmakers chosen for the Bartow Project about artist Rick Bartow (Wiyot) and was one of 10 cultural based artists selected for the 2021 California Arts Council Administrators of Color Fellowship cohort. She is a professional member of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), and a contributing writer to Indian Country Today, Native News Online, and First American Art Magazine. Nanette is graduating 2022 with an Indigenous Education M.A. (with an emphasis in Indigenous art narratives and program development) from the School of Social Transformation, Center for Indian Education program at Arizona State University.