Melanie Moore

Melanie Moore is an American mixed-media collage artist currently creating hand held (Palm Peace) art made from pieces of palm gathered near her Las Vegas home studio. The sealed and varnished palm is interwoven with copper wire and semi-precious gemstones: rocks, tumbled stones and beads to form abstract and flowing, meditation inspiring art that is intended to be held.

While studying painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2000-2002, her interest in collage and mixed-media quickly took off.  She exhibited her first collection from 2002-2008; (Mixed Media Montages) setting out to re-create the energy, excitement and diversity that she felt in the city. In 2002 she was recognized as one of the Wicker Park Around the Coyote 'Curator's Choice'  top artists. She was awarded the 2003 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Photography and Visual Arts. In 2004 she won the Northwest Area Arts Council's Women's Works 2004 People's Choice Award. Her work was sold through The Light of the Future galleries in Naperville and Darien, IL as well as Art Encounter in Las Vegas.

After moving to Las Vegas in 2007 and while working as a blackjack dealer in 2016, she was inspired to make her first Mosaic Sculpture (Lady Luck), out of broken china and a female dress form. Seven stained glass mosaic sculptures and wall pieces followed. The pandemic lockdown inspired a larger than life seashell mosaic mermaid sculpture.

Devoting more attention to her love of crafting in 2021, she began working on her current Gemstone Art Collections: Palm Peaces in the in process, upscaled tabletop sculptures.