Meredith is the Website Committee Chair for the Crossroads Arts Alliance. She grew up in central New Jersey but now lives in Gainesville with her husband, John, plus their dog and cat. Her career has spanned the fashion world, emergency medicine, disaster management, and now a full-time artist and teacher for Meredith Moss Art.
A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, she also received a certificate in emergency management and a Master of Disaster Science degree from the University of Richmond, and has an additional certification from George Mason University.
Art has always been a part of her life. In high school she was lucky enough to attend a school with an excellent art specialization program. Building a strong portfolio got her accepted into the prestigious FIT in New York City, which included courses in fashion drawing/illustration, sewing, draping, pattern-making, fabric studies, as well as traditional liberal arts.
After just a few years working in the fashion industry, she felt a disconnect from helping people, and in 1993 trained as an emergency medical technician (EMT) volunteering at the Hoboken Volunteer Ambulance Corps. She became fascinated by emergencies and disasters, and while working in fashion, she pursued online degrees from the University of Richmond. In 2003 she moved to northern Virginia to support disaster preparedness and response.
For many years, her work left little time for art and creativity, but in 2016 she took art classes including a phenomenal workshop — Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The week before the COVID lockdown, she shipped off her first commissioned portrait and, despite the pandemic, her art career flourished.
Her original plan was to wait several years and shift her career to creating and teaching art. However, a job layoff and a medical diagnosis moved the timeline up to spring 2022, and it continues to work out well.
4 Things about Meredith:
- While most people perceive me as focused and serious, I absolutely adore the Muppets.
- I was a first responder to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
- Unlike most artists, I really enjoy creating commissioned art; for me, art is a way to help others heal and grow.
- I have a chronic illness of my autonomic nervous system which limits my physical activity, stress levels, and how long I can stay in one position. We joke that I’m allergic to gravity.