From Baby Names to Big Ideas: Jennifer Moss Mixes Tech, Art & Heart

🎨 In this inspiring episode of Painterly Life, host Shannon Grissom sits down with Jennifer Moss—author, photographer, web developer, and founder of BabyNames.com—to explore a colorful creative journey that spans tech, art, and storytelling.

✨ Jennifer opens up about growing from a quiet, observant child into a bold, expressive creator. From coding and launching one of the most popular baby name websites to capturing nature through her camera lens and writing compelling novels, Jennifer’s path proves that creativity knows no bounds.

🌿 Discover how classical art, nature, and music shaped her voice—and how she balances multiple passions in a digital world. If you’re a multi-passionate soul looking for inspiration and encouragement, this episode is for you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Igniting Creativity
• 0:52 Jennifer Moss: A Creative Powerhouse
• 5:27 From Music to Technology: A Unique Journey
• 9:22 Building a Family Business: The Story of BabyNames.com
• 11:27 Transitioning from Nonfiction to Fiction Writing
• 16:13 The Evolution of Photography: A New Career Path
• 19:06 The Influence of Classical Training on Visual Arts
• 22:09 Finding Inspiration in Nature: Living in the Mountains
• 23:57 The Challenge of Modern Photography: Infusing Personality
• 25:07 Artistic Homage: A Personal Connection to Frida Kahlo

Transcript

Shannon Grissom (00:05)
Hi, I'm Shannon Grissom. Are you looking to ignite your creativity? Or how about be inspired by a steady stream of muses? Welcome to Painterly Life, the podcast that celebrates those who create, inspire, and innovate. So whether you're looking to spark your next big idea, reignite your passion, or simply soak in some creative energy,

This is the place for you. Painterly life, where every guest is a new muse, just for you.

Welcome to the Painterly Life podcast. I'm your host Shannon Grissom. Today's guest is Jennifer Moss. Jennifer is a creative powerhouse, a Renaissance woman, and she's done so many things and so many avenues that I think we might do this one in two parts. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Moss (01:09)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Shannon Grissom (01:13)
So you do a lot of different things. Were you always like that as a child? Did you always explore lots of different creative venues?

Jennifer Moss (01:21)
Yeah, absolutely. As far as I can remember, I was a painfully shy child, so I would lock myself in my bedroom and just create. I wrote poetry from before I went to first grade. I created like new games for my sister and I had a little camera that my dad gave me and a little Instamatic and I used to do setups and photography as far back as I can remember. I've always created.

Shannon Grissom (01:52)
So when you went through school, I know you've got a background in ⁓ music theory and computer science. How did these two work together for you?

Jennifer Moss (02:06)
It's funny

because it all came from the same source. ⁓ So I started singing when I was around 10 or 11 and I sang along with like my parents' records, which was like Laura Nyro and Linda Ronstadt back in the day, know, these wonderful, wonderful singers. And so I belted a lot and my mom was like, I'm worried she's going to ruin her voice. So I want to get her into lessons.

We want to get you into lessons if that's something you want to pursue. And I was like, yeah, sure. And ⁓ there was a voice teacher in our town who was one of the top in the country because we are a university town. Evanston, Illinois is where I grew up. And Northwestern University was there. That's my alma mater, by the way. And so at 11, I went to this voice teacher and in our very first session, he's like, well, what kind of music do you like?

And I was like, well, I like pop and I like rock. And he was like, yeah. And I was like, and he's like, well, I only teach classical. And then I was like, ⁓ what? And he's like, but I guarantee you, if you learn the technique and you learn classical, you'll be able to sing anything. He eventually was right. So I started my lessons when I was 11.

And ⁓ I was into singing. did a lot of musicals in high school and I also took a music theory course in high school, which I absolutely loved. And my theory teacher is like, you need to go into music theory. Well, at Northwestern, you have to go in on an instrument. So I went in on voice and that was my major. But the other people in the voice program were ⁓

like hardcore wanted to be opera singers and that was really not my path. That's not what I wanted. And so taking a turn into technology, my voice teacher who also used to be a programmer, he noticed that these newfangled things called personal computers were coming out on the market and he was an entrepreneur and he opened a like coding studio for kids and adults and he said,

We need we need instructors. If I train you to code, would you be one of our instructors? And I was like, hell yeah. You know, because it was something that was just like so new and cool. And I was always interested in computers. But and this is so silly and we'll talk about this later, but it was a guy thing. It was a boys do computers. Girls don't do computers. So

I never thought that that was open to me. So when he gave me this opportunity, he trained me to code and my first coding language was basic for the personal computer. And that was back in TRS 80 days and the Commodore 64 and all those. So I got in on it from the very beginning. And then while I was in college, took some computer music courses because I was like, everything was like,

kind of falling into place. ⁓ So that's kind of from the same man, I got into both singing and music and computers. And then when I graduated from Northwestern, I had this choice. I could go and be a starving artist and try to get into the music industry, or I can go into this brand new industry.

which was software development for these personal computers. And ⁓ that world was completely open and very lucrative. And so I kind of went into that direction, but still, you know, kept my art up during my life. So that was kind of the origin story of both of those.

Shannon Grissom (06:14)
Wow, so how did your software development lead you into your web development work?

Jennifer Moss (06:21)
Yeah, so like right around the mid 90s when the internet was opened up for ⁓ everyone, know, before then it was just for educational institutions and the government. So when it started getting opened, I was like, I was already a software developer and I was like, I really want to learn this platform. Like I knew this was going to be the next big thing.

And ⁓ so I started learning HTML and I already had like the experience for database development. And so the first ⁓ programming language that I learned for the web was Pearl. And just kind of it, I took to it immediately and I knew it was going to be huge and it was connecting everybody. so, ⁓

I jumped right into that and I was in Southern California at the time and I was one of the very few web developers that was in LA, let alone female web developers. And so I got a lot of work and ⁓ yeah, and so I developed my own sites. I got a lot of work in the website development industry, working with some ⁓ really top, top companies. The last

company that I worked with full time as the VP of Development was sold to Amazon IMDB. It was a film festival submission service. And after that, I decided to just go on my own because I love working for myself.

Shannon Grissom (07:56)
Wow, what a ride. you talked about your own website is ⁓ you started the website, babynames.com is how did that.

Jennifer Moss (08:07)
So that started at the very beginning. I wanted to have a test site so I can learn these skills, these web development skills. And I already had a database of names and meanings that I had put together for a software program that my mom and I wrote together, which was like an online baby book. ⁓ So that it was kind of putting that software online and seeing what would happen.

Well, because I was the first baby name site online and it wasn't even before I had registered the domain name ⁓ and I put it into Yahoo and AltaVista and ask all the early search engines before Google, then people found it and we had message boards. And so it just kept growing and growing and growing. And I was like, maybe I should register the domain name.

And it was early enough that I actually got the domain name babynames.com. And after that, it just blew up. And what I did was I was still working full time. So I recruited the smartest women I knew to help me with that. And that was my sisters and my mom. And so we all kind of went in on the business and it's still a family business. I'm getting choked up now. No, but it's still, yeah, it's,

kind of crazy how big it is. It's like if I meet a stranger and tell them about babynames.com, they'll be like, I've been to that site. So yeah, it's really amazing.

Shannon Grissom (09:42)
Well, and how cool to be able to pull your family in and work together.

Jennifer Moss (09:47)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's good and bad because it's family, you know, and there's a lot, there's a lot of contention sometimes. But ⁓ yeah, but it also brought us closer together in a way that I wouldn't necessarily have to pick up the phone and call my sister. But now we're talking almost daily about the site and the operations. And so, you know, and since I've lost my one of my sisters and I've lost my mom, ⁓

But then the next generation has been contributing. Like my daughter, who is a social media influencer and YouTuber, she helps with our social media and she helps with our content creation. So it really, really is a family business.

Shannon Grissom (10:32)
That's awesome. you had the database. Did you write the book about baby names first or how did that? ⁓

Jennifer Moss (10:38)
Well, the

site came first. And then we were contacted by a New York literary agent and she's like, we want to do a baby names book. You seem to be the authority on it. And so we want to work with you. And so our first book came about by working with this agent. She got us a deal with Penguin. The second book we self-published and that's

a baby names workbook. So it's kind of brainstorming and how you find inspiration to come up with baby names because we had worked with so many parents throughout the years, you know, ⁓ we knew the process. And so I put together this little workbook on, know, from beginning to end, how do you narrow down the name choices and come to an agreement with your partner on finding the perfect baby name?

Shannon Grissom (11:37)
God, that sounds great. I think it would really help a lot of people.

Jennifer Moss (11:41)
I hope so.

Shannon Grissom (11:43)
You've ⁓ written across genres from nonfiction to metaphysical mystery and how do you switch gears?

Jennifer Moss (11:52)
So, very early on in the internet industry, when I was one of the first web developers, I wrote several articles for some major magazines. And it was about the industry, because everybody was just feeling their own way through it and things that I observed from being in the industry from the very beginning. And I was like, you know, I took some writing courses in college.

I'm pretty good because these are getting published and I'm getting paid for them. And so I thought, well, maybe I should try my hand at writing a novel because that's always like in my head. It's another creative outlet. And so I had this story in my head where it was because I love detective fiction, both television shows and reading them. So was like, it has to be a detective novel, but I want to work in some of the woo woo too. So.

I had been thinking about this book for a long time and I finally got it down. I sent it to that same agent in New York because she did fiction as well. And it was funny because she was like, ⁓ honey, you know, like, I wasn't trained. I wasn't trained. I got the story down, but it wasn't good. It wasn't written well. And she said, ⁓ I want you to take some writing classes and join a writer's critique group.

and come back to me in a couple of years, rewrite this, come back to me. And ⁓ I kind of lost that opportunity because once they rejected, they rejected. But I did find, I did do what she told me to. I trained myself in actual fiction writing because it's so much different than nonfiction. They're two completely separate animals. And I joined a critique group and I did find a publisher for my first novel. And then, ⁓

after I wrote it and the gist of it is it's like a new Irish Chicago detective, but one of his main suspects he falls in love with and she's a psychic empath. So they're two opposite type personalities trying to solve the same crime. ⁓ So at the end of that, I get the first book published. like, well, I don't want to see these characters go. Like I miss them.

And so I wrote a series and all in all, it's four books right now. And ⁓ I mean, they did pretty well. I eventually took my rights back from the publisher because in this day and age, it's just so different. as authors have to do all the promotion anyway. Yes. We have to build our following, ⁓ you know, from publishing.

And so I didn't really see a lot of the value add that this indie publisher was giving me. So we eventually just dissolved the contract and I took back my rights and self published them on my own. ⁓ But that's kind of how I got into the writing phase. And it's funny that you asked me about all these different creative things. It's like, I never do them all at the same time. I have to like concentrate and do like tunnel vision on one thing.

So if I'm working on a book, I can't be doing my photography. I can't be, you know, like singing and writing music. It's like, I really need the head space to be doing one thing at a time. But I do enjoy doing a lot of different things, you know.

Shannon Grissom (15:23)
I do too. And it was funny. I was telling my husband, ⁓ because there was, I wanted to, so I painted and then I wanted to do some guitar work, but I had, but I also needed to get to the video editing and, and, I go, ⁓ man, Dwight, I can only have one dessert today. I can't be, I, you know, I've got to choose and, and, and, ⁓ because otherwise I only have for me, creativity is,

The creative output is emotional. only have so much energy that I can put into that. And then I've got to back off and do more left brain things. so, so yeah, I love that that is how it flows for you too. I mean, we have all these interests, but somebody's got to be alpha dog.

Jennifer Moss (16:11)
Right. also, you know, there's been studies now, contemporary studies showing that multitasking is not efficient anymore, that you need your brain flow time on one interrupted thing, even in work environment. So I'm glad that that came out because I was like, yes, that's exactly how I work. You need to get into that creative flow, you know, that four to five hours doing one thing. So it's really interesting. But

You know, and as for doing a bunch of different things, I think right around my 40s, I realized that I was putting like a lot of restraints on myself thinking, well, I can't be a writer because I'm a programmer. can't be a, I can't, you know, I can't do sound healing because that's not me. Because you kind of create this image of who you are and what you do.

And then I realized that's so silly. I can try whatever I want to try. If I suck at it, it didn't work out. So what? Like who cares? At least I tried and I had fun doing it, you know? So it's like right around my midlife, I started tearing down those barriers and that self-talk that you can't do something because it's not part of your identity. I'm like, just do it, you know? And I don't believe in the word

Shannon Grissom (17:16)
Ha ha ha!

Jennifer Moss (17:36)
failure because I don't, I just feel like if something doesn't work, it doesn't work. Then you move on and you learn from it. And that's just made me such a free individual expressively and creatively.

Shannon Grissom (17:52)
It has so what flowed next after the writing?

Jennifer Moss (17:57)
you know, I did get into photography like right around the year 2000. ⁓ if you remember the internet bubble burst, which means that, ⁓ the investors pulled all their money from the industry. They're like, this isn't making money. This is never going to happen. This is a fad. And so I lost all my work because I was working for myself at the time and I couldn't get a job because that's all I knew. I'd been

in that industry for five plus years. And so I was doing photography as a hobby, but I was in Los Angeles. And I was a single mother. So I was like, I need to feed my daughter and keep a roof over our heads. So I put an ad out in the UCLA newspaper for headshots. And I became a professional photographer for two years, two and a half years.

until the internet industry came back and was a viable source of work again. So during that time, I kind of honed my photography skills. It was more on the commercial end. So it was headshots, modeling portfolios, which brought me to some fashion designers. So I did some magazine spreads. So I had this whole mini career.

in the span of like two to three years of just photography. And I loved it. And it did keep us in our apartment. And I was able to pay the rent ⁓ and then got back into the industry when it opened up again, the internet industry. So, but that kind of sparked my love for the visual arts again and doing photography.

And so, ⁓ you know, that kind of leads up to where I am now in photography is ⁓ when my daughter went away to college, she stayed in town, I moved, I realized I could move anywhere and I realized my dream of moving to the mountains of California. And I realized there was such a vibrant arts community up here and that's where you and I met.

And ⁓ that's where I switched from being a commercial photographer to like, want to pursue this as an art. And so it's a different, you know, process. It's a different thought process and technically, but that's kind of how my photography art grew out of.

Shannon Grissom (20:38)
You know, it just struck me as you were talking about your journey. So you were classically trained with your voice. Yeah. And when I look at your fine art photography, it's it's classic. I think of your still lives. you know, just totally classic. I'm it's I'm getting the chills for the tie in for your early training that the

Jennifer Moss (21:05)
That's interesting.

Shannon Grissom (21:06)
carried

over into the visual arts. How cool is that?

Jennifer Moss (21:10)
Yeah, and my dad also encouraged the love of ⁓ classical painting and art. He saw me, in fact, I brought these little cards. I had this ⁓ game called Masterpiece. I don't know if you remember it, but it was like a Milt Bradley game. I had that. Yeah. And I became fascinated with the cards. I still have a set of them. And I would study them.

Shannon Grissom (21:30)
I had that.

Jennifer Moss (21:37)
and look at them, I was fascinated with them. And what they did with Masterpiece is the games that came out in your region reflected the art pieces that were in your local museum. So all the art pieces that I got were in the Chicago Art Institute. And at one point my dad saw that I was so fascinated with these. He's like, would you like to see all these paintings in person? And I was like, my God.

Yes. And so he took me to the art and I'll never forget this. It was an outing with just him and me. And we went to the art institute and he's like, I want you to identify every one of the cards that are in your deck, all the paintings and let me know, you know, who the painter is and what the title is. And we made a game of it. And so that kind of gave me the appreciation and the love for classical art because my dad fostered that part of me.

Shannon Grissom (22:31)
Is there a particular painting that struck you during that experience?

Jennifer Moss (22:37)
Absolutely, I don't know if it's in this. ⁓ It was a painting by Pieter Claesz and that's what I did, my still life. patterned, here it is. I patterned my still life after this. I was just amazed at the detail of this still life. Look at that pie and the cookies and just like every single detail.

And I was like, that one is my favorite. I mean, it was food, of course. I'm a foodie. But just the detail of it and that it was so photorealistic that that's what I patterned my still life when I had to do that for photo group as an assignment. I patterned it after that painting.

Shannon Grissom (23:23)
So now in your fine art photography, is there types of subjects that you focus on? What are you shooting now?

Jennifer Moss (23:33)
Well, I'm part of the Yosemite Sierra Artists Photo Group. And what I love about that is that we get assignments every month. So I look forward to the assignments and how we can be creative with those. This upcoming assignment is to choose an iconic photographer whom you admire and emulate their style, which I think is so fascinating.

⁓ So it's kind of learning by example and the still life was one of the assignments. And so I'm kind of just using that to spark my creativity and to, and some of my best work is from those photo assignments.

Shannon Grissom (24:18)
What a great way to get your ⁓ juices going. I know. So what do you find most inspiring about living and creating in that area in the mountains?

Jennifer Moss (24:28)
I think I just love living here overall. I love trees always have in my life. My daughter ⁓ teases me about that. Just having the greenery around and the fresh air and just the majesty of the National Park just is so inspiring and it could be from the smallest little flower with a bee on it to Half Dome, which is like the iconic

vista that all painters and photographers kind of go towards. I think it's just very inspiring living up here. ⁓ in addition to the other artists that are here as inspiration, ⁓ the landscape is so beautiful, but it's interesting in there's a shift in, in photography in particular, because we've got AI because

anybody with Photoshop can take a great picture, right? Because it's not really, the technical ability has shifted from taking of the picture to processing the picture afterwards. Then having a beautiful landscape photo doesn't really mean anything anymore. It's like you have to put more of your personality and your emotions into an image.

rather than just taking a pretty picture because now everyone can do that, you know, with their phone, with what they have in their pocket. It's very, you know, democratized. Is that the word that, with the technology that we have nowadays, we can, we can all take a pretty picture of Yosemite. So now it's a matter of infusing your own self as an artist into that work.

And I think that's a great challenge. think it's really exciting.

Shannon Grissom (26:25)
It is adding the painterly to photography. Do you have a personal photo that you have?

just a deep significance with, mean, deep feeling toward, do you have one of your pieces that just really still resonates?

Jennifer Moss (26:48)
think so. ⁓ We'll be talking about Metta Gallery but ⁓ one of the shows that we do for Yosemite Sierra Artists every year is called Visions of Self. And it's a show for female artists to express themselves through either self-portraiture or just an image, a painting or a photograph of ⁓ yourself, your emotions, your state of being.

One of the pieces that I did for that was an homage to Frida Kahlo and I put all my cats and my puppies in the picture with me and worked really hard to make it in the style of Frida. And so I had to do my self portraiture and then I took pictures of all my animals and composited it and it was hard, but the outcome is just so beautiful.

and I have it hanging on my.

Shannon Grissom (27:49)
so is that one that you have up for sale? That's just a very personal.

Jennifer Moss (27:54)
No, I don't.

Yeah. And, ⁓ I identified with her both because she had a strong love of animals, which I do. And also she was suffering with chronic pain all her life, specifically spinal pain. And I have spinal arthritis. So I identify with that as well. So, ⁓ when I read some books about her life, I was like, wow, she's kind of my hero in terms of.

the artist and kind of pushing through the negativity to create beauty. And so that was really important to me and I just love that image.

Shannon Grissom (28:35)
Wow. ⁓ I'm thinking that we're getting toward the end of this first segment. And that's all, you know, all the time we have for now. Where can people go to find out about you? Where can they get more information?

Jennifer Moss (28:41)
Okay.

Well, it's really easy. ⁓ registered jennifermoss.com way back in the day. And that's kind of where I put all my artistic endeavors. You'll see information about my photography, my writing, my sound bowls, and my jewelry making.

Shannon Grissom (29:09)
Well, thank you for joining us for this episode. Thank you, Jennifer. So next episode is gonna be part two of Jennifer's journey. And we're gonna talk about her jewelry, sound healing, Meta Gallery and more. So please be sure to tune in. We will see you next time. That's a wrap.