St. Pete is celebrated for its fabulous weather, beautiful vistas, world-class food scene, and thriving cultural atmosphere but the people of St. Pete truly make this city something special. In appreciation, each month Green Bench shines a light on one of the many people that make St. Pete unique.
She’s a veteran of Tampa Bay’s post-punk rock scene and a successful multi-media folk artist. But at her core, St. Petersburg’s Natty Moss Bond is a witty storyteller who’s continually inventing new ways to share her tales.
Natty came to Pinellas County as a young bride from Asheville, N.C., in 1980. She fell in love with the beaches and the welcoming music scene. Within a few years, the waifish 4-feet 10-inch tall woman with a mane of red hair became a fixture on local stages. As the lead singer of the band Multi Color House, her powerful voice rocked downtown’s Club Detroit and other area clubs.
Tales of the Road
After Multi Color House disbanded, Bond sang with Ronny Elliott & the Nationals, Sparky’s Nightmare, and the Dirty Spoons and Trash. She sat in on more recording sessions than she can count. Over the years, her bands opened for performers such as Wilco, Cindy Lauper, and the late actor River Phoenix’s band Aleka’s Attic, which comes with a story. Bond recalls that Phoenix initially dismissed her. Being a woman in a largely man’s domain wasn’t always easy. “After I heard them play,” she says, “I told him I was surprised, because I heard that they stank.”
Trash to Treasure
For her day job, she’s worked everywhere from an auto body shop to a St. Petersburg catalog company. In between, she has found time to create folk art made from discarded objects. Hence, her art business is called Rubbish.
After moving from the beach to south St. Petersburg in 1991, she made picture frames from scrap wood and sold them to local shops. While working at the catalog company, she got the idea to reuse the mounds of discarded plastic sheeting for greeting cards. She cuts out words and images from old magazines and books and sews them behind the plastic to create one-of-a-kind cards sold in shops from Los Angeles to New York to Miami.
Mixing it Up
Bond also makes collage shrines of everyone from Elvis Presley to the patron saint of dogs. She cuts up tin cans to make earrings, Christmas ornaments, and shingles for birdhouses, which she also paints with whimsical stories.
Although she no longer performs regularly, she never shies from singing at benefits for fellow musicians, artists, and friends. She helped organize several charity events and has performed at more than a dozen.
Clay Affirmations
Despite her decades of living in Florida, Bond’s twang is still as fresh as mountain air, and her stories of growing up on a farm frequently fall from the tip of her paint brush. She once painted an entire series based on chickens and how and why she hates them.
Her primary medium at the moment is clay. When she isn’t working part time at Safety Harbor Arts and Music Center or Fabric Smart, filling in for instructor Jan Richardson at the Morean Center for Clay, or giving lessons at Craftsman House Gallery, she is making pottery that’s sold in area galleries. She tops each piece with a unique hand-painted message – an affirmation, the joy of a frozen Snickers, or whatever story comes to her mind.
