Resiliency Through Her Art

Walton County Artist of the Year Mindy Moore

Story and photography courtesy of Walton County Tourism

Artist Mindy Moore was “thrilled to pieces” to be chosen as Walton County’s 2025 Artist of the Year. For her, the recognition is not just a career milestone but also a celebration of the restoration, community, and creativity that fuel her work.

Moore has lived in Santa Rosa Beach since 2005, and while she spent many years working as a graphic designer, a personal hardship steered the direction of her artistic journey. Not long after she began painting full-time in 2019, a forest fire devastated her neighborhood. But the following spring, she watched with awe as the land bloomed back stronger than ever.

“Mother Nature came back and took over with a vengeance,” Moore recalls. “The green and the flowers—I had never seen them bloom and grow that boldly before. She wasn’t giving up.”

Now, when Moore looks out across her backyard, she sees more than the lawn, the scatter of pine trees, and the quiet sweep of the Choctawhatchee Bay—she sees inspiration. The colors of the water and woods have become the foundation of her work, an abstract exploration of nature’s power to endure and restore. “I’m inspired by the environment out here,” she says. “You’ll find a lot of the colors I use are greens and blues. There are some pieces that look more like the woods—the earthy colors. And then there are some that look more like sand and surf.”

The Artist of the Year award honors a Walton County artist whose unique artistic expression captures the essence of the destination’s renowned creativity and beauty. For Moore, being named Artist of the Year is a recognition of both her work and the journey behind it—one marked by resilience, reflection, and renewal.

“As an artist, I create because I need self-expression,” Moore says. “To be acknowledged by my community for something so personal, to have my work represent Walton County, it scares me a little, but it’s also brought me many moments of bliss. This award is a significant milestone for me.”

Since immersing herself in the art world, Moore has also become a vital part of the local creative community. Through the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, she has shown her work at the Foster Gallery, the Bayou Arts Center, Point Washington Medical Center, and other regional art shows. Most recently, Moore’s paintings have been on display at the Ria Leigh Gallery in Grayton Beach. Her expertise has led her to serve as a judge for ArtsQuest, the CAA’s signature fine arts festival, and as a member of the Arts in Education committee, where she helps foster creativity in the next generation of artists.

When Moore began painting, she knew she wanted to work in abstract—and she approached it with both curiosity and courage. “I didn’t know how or what the next step was,” Moore says. “I would just start without any kind of intention of knowing. I would think, ‘Explore, and something will happen.’ And a lot of times, something did happen.”

Her work embraces imperfection. Moore reminds herself that no one creates a masterpiece with their first brushstrokes. “I start by making a mess on the canvas,” she explains. “And then I try masking things off that I do like, finding the things that are beautiful and focusing on that.”

That willingness to embrace uncertainty is at the heart of Moore’s philosophy. She doesn’t expect perfection—in fact, she leans into mistakes. A favorite quote from cartoonist Scott Adams has become her mantra: “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, and art is deciding which of those to keep.”

She adds, “Make mistakes, and learn what works and learn what doesn’t. That’s the art.”

Among her many projects, one stands out as deeply personal: her Thought series. The collection explores what it might look like to extract a thought from the mind and give it form on canvas.

“It’s how I would imagine a thought to look,” Moore says. “It would have a lot of different emotions and stories feeding into it. They’re complicated. They’re always moving. Always organic.” The idea was loosely inspired by the Roald Dahl classic The BFG, where the “Big Friendly Giant” collects and delivers dreams. Moore reimagines that magical act through paint, layering textures and colors to capture the fleeting, often chaotic nature of thought. Each painting, she explains, feels like a cross-section of her inner life. And the process has been profoundly therapeutic. “I recognize the importance of how you curate your own thoughts and going back to what you give attention to,” she says. “I’m pouring so much thought into them. Not necessarily about the painting, but I work things out in my head as I’m working things out on the canvas.”

For Moore, the Thought series has become both an artistic expression and a form of meditation—a way to turn inward, process life’s challenges, and transform them into something tangible and beautiful.

Moore says her paintings aren’t about control but about discovery. Out of ruin, something new emerges. Out of mistakes, unexpected beauty takes shape. Out of tangled thoughts, a canvas finds its form.

And in that way, her art mirrors not just the landscape of Walton County, but also the enduring spirit of the artist herself.

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To learn more about the Artist of the Year program and past winners, visit WaltonCountyFLTourism.com/Artist-Year.