Michelle C Ross

Michelle Ross makes paintings out of a variety of materials in order to conjure a physical record of being in the world. She seeks fitting arrangements that reflect the physical and emotional intelligence harbored in our bodies. Working out ways to reimagine modernist legacies, she uses decorative, geometric and material-based languages of color and form to interrupt the overt visibility of bodies and the assumptions often lodged in depiction, including the resultant biases around gender and sexuality. Modes of abstraction provide her a method for generating alternative forms of visualizing embodiment. Notions of queer abstraction provide a model for presence, resistance and nuance within the familiar visual tropes of modernist abstraction. As an educator she is dedicated to student development of goals and creating accessibility to educational resources and professional opportunities in creative communities. She values collaboration, mutual respect and the fostering of imagination and careful attention.