Conversation with Michelle Ross, Visual Artist

Untitled (Travelogues – Turquoise Symptom), 2010

The usual muted Northwest tones of downtown Portland were a stark contrast in November to the vermilion and yellow gold leaves lit up by the slanting sun. The display was captivating as I made my way to Stumptown Roasters on Stark Street to meet with visual artist, Michelle Ross, whose color palette is equally as beautiful, albeit more elegant and subtle.

Ross arrived dressed in blue jeans and a black leather jacket, hair casually pinned up. After our conversation she would be off to Oregon College of Art and Craft where she has been a professor of painting and drawing for 14 years. Teaching and building community are integral parts of Ross’ life. Teaching provides her with a different kind of satisfaction than painting. Building community is an essential element of her work and is reflected in the projects she has been involved with over the years.

When I first came across Ross’ abstract works at the Portland Art Museum as part of the Northwest Contemporary Art Awards in August, it was their subtle elegance rather than any flash that won me over. The beauty was not surface deep. The intelligence of Ross’ work makes it impossible to ignore. The work contains a quality of structure and a distinctive ethereal presence. The result is a quiet tension, as if someone is patiently waiting for important news. The rich and luminous layers of neutral grays, blues and greens appear suspended on the canvas. As I approached Untitled (Travelogues – Turquoise Symptom), 2010, the discovery of a piece of sheer fabric, suspended in a small drape, caught me by surprise. While this element provided a subtle three dimensionality to the work up close, stepping back it effectively became paint again. The shift reinforced the sense of instability and structure, a theme carried throughout Ross’ work.  

More recently, fabric construction has taken a more assertive role in Ross' work. Rather than incorporating a piece of fabric into an oil painting, a fabric construction is often draped over a painted surface, as with Prototype (see below). This piece and several others are currently included in a group show called Interior Margins at The Lumber Room, an alternative art space in Portland. While I have yet to see this exhibition, it has the potential to be of historical significance as it brings “together the work of an intergenerational group of Northwest women artists who are transforming the diverse legacies and practices for a ‘new era’ in the historic context of the Northwest.”

Prototype, 40"x40"

The exhibition was conceived of over a dinner table in May of 2010 at the Lumber Room with owner Sarah Miller Meigs, the eleven artists whose work is included the exhibition, (Judy Cooke, Léonie Guyer, Victoria Haven, Midori Hirose, Linda Hutchins, Kristan Kennedy, Michelle Ross, Blair Saxon-Hill, Lynne Woods Turner, Nell Warren, and Heather Watkins), along with Interior Margins curator, Stephanie Snyder (also a curator at Reed College). Ross believes that this exhibition, "is an amazing vision for living with and viewing art on a spectrum from the private to the public. The space is designed as a residence with an exhibition component for programming. At any given time the hybrid living/exhibition space may be occupied by the inhabitants only or guests of a private event, artists in residence, or public visitors to exhibitions." Interior Margins closes January 31 so there is still plenty of time to head south. 

Now that you have a little background, below are the highlights of my conversation with Michelle Ross:

What is the first thing you do when you arrive at your studio?

Make coffee and look.

 What is the last thing you do before you leave your studio?

Lately I try to leave something that will surprise me the next time I re-enter, leave some part of something I am working on that seems crazy or wrong or risky. Or create an improbable gesture that may or may not stand up to consideration when I return.

What is the most important aspect of your studio practice besides just being in the studio?

Taking risks visually and materially – and not second-guessing. Saying yes to everything in the moment with the understanding that reflection and editing will adjust the work. Realizing that any ideas I think the work is about will evolve and shift through this ethic. Being able to recognize what is authentic about what I am doing and when I‘m kidding myself. It’s a gut thing.

Please briefly describe your process.

Conceptual bricolage painting. I’m looking for an emotional result that is informed by ideas and that I connect with physically. Currently the ideas relate to the domestic, décor, fashion photography, art povera, abstract expressionism and minimalism. I work from a collage based or “piecing” mentality. Currently I’m covering up a lot of photographic / fashion and interior design kinds of images with materials like fabric, leather, wood, and paint.

In a review of your first show at Elizabeth Leach in 2007 on PORTland blog, your work was likened to Agnes Martin, Mary Heilman and Robert Mangold, along with Morandi in reference to your palette.  Are these painters from whom you’ve gained knowledge/inspiration? If so, can you speak briefly about those inspirations and/or other sources of inspiration?

Yes to Martin and Morandi. I have always been in the Twombly camp and have been helped tremendously by Tuttle. All of these artists are masters of balancing restraint with wild passion. It manifests in their work in very different ways – but all of them share an uncanny ability to simultaneously convey a gravity and lightness. 

Contemporary art has been described as a reinterpretation of Modern Art. Please speak to how this statement may apply to your work.

Painting can be everything - which is both a modern and post-studio idea.

My work vacillates between desire for restraint and destruction. I am consciously engaging the freedom that exists in the abstract and it’s relation to the absurd, the mystical and the unimagined. I’m looking for an emotional result that is informed by the domestic context, décor, fashion photography, Art Povera, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.

I am operating with the premise that certain arrangements of abstract formal elements and raw materials can evoke uncanny experiences beyond the logic of narrative. My work utilizes a language inherited from modernism that nevertheless seeks to transcend the limitations of its historical context. This language is a sieve through which desire and conflict is forced in an effort to achieve a sustained visual and intellectual pleasure. 

Is there a particular artist and/or painting that has caught your attention lately? If so, why?

Hilary Harnischfeger at Rachel Uffner Gallery for her materials and her conflation of 2-d and 3-d and John Zurrier for the purity of what he is doing. I wish I could be that pure. It’s ok that I’m not but I really respond to the translation of place and feeling into pure painterly-ness.

How does teaching impact your work?

Teaching requires that I stay nimble in my thinking and approach to people. It also keeps me current. Over the years it has also honed my formal abilities and technical knowledge because I have taught both beginning and advanced levels. Advising thesis students and MFA students keeps me honest and conceptually flexible.

Please talk about the importance of your collaborative curating projects and how they impact your own work.

These projects developed out of a concern for context and accessibility. Doubting the efficacy of artworks within the gallery or museum or nonprofit setting developed into projects, which allowed me to communicate more directly with an audience but also share ideas and methods with other makers. It also allowed me to focus on the reality of the domestic context in terms of how creative work has a life embedded in daily life.

After the intense kind of socialization required of projects like these I am often grateful for the solitude of my painting practice.