Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Ross
Hi Michelle, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Michelle Ross. I’m a multidisciplinary artist in Midwest America. Like many Midwestern kids, I grew up conservative and homeschooled. My brother and I had hours to ourselves to paint, read, draw and run around the neighborhood once we had our lessons done. I created obsessively through my childhood years. I painted murals for baby nurseries and at my high school, caricatures at parties, designed T-shirts. I was in the Post-Dispatch as a feature piece. Columbus College of Art and Design offered me a scholarship equivalent to an entire year of tuition. We couldn’t have afforded a private school without it. I called my mom to tell her the news but had to hand the phone to my brother James to finish because I was crying so hard.
That said, art college was equal parts thrilling and a blow to the ego. I was no longer a big fish in a little pond. I wasn’t even a little fish, I was a shrimp. Freshman year was a gauntlet. The sheer amount of work was overwhelming. My average time out into a painting could stretch into 30-40 hours in order to keep up with the natural skill of the top dogs in my class.
In the meantime, the photography industry had a brand new fad. Fast-food drive up type windows were now also for dropping/picking up your film/prints in little paper packages. I got a job at one of them because I needed the discount when I took pictures for reference for my paintings. Google images wasn’t a viable option in 1996.
When I graduated, I couldn’t find a job in my degree field. I moved in back with my parents and took in a job at another chain photo lab. I was mortified. It seemed like a step back in my life’s trajectory and I was stuck. Then, people began asking me to photograph events and portraits. I started to become booked so solid that it was impossible to keep both jobs. I was being led into this creative trajectory that I found out I loved! It hit all my sweet spots. I was energetic, adaptable, and outgoing. I had a wealth of knowledge with the degree I carried. Before I knew it I’d been almost twenty years into my own business booked with events in portraits with loyal clients sticking with me for the entire duration of my career.
Then I hit 40. As I traveled into this midlife season I started healing some childhood wounds and my creativity began to starburst in a million directions. I rediscovered dance. Became a teacher. I found a new sense of purpose in creative physical expression and community.
At 47 I began taking painting commissions again. I began going to events and doing guest sketches and caricatures with my outgoing and energetic self. The whole time never abandoning my photography but using it to be my own patron.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has absolutely NOT been easy. At the beginning of my Senior year I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder II. I had a manic episode which led to a hospitalization, and if you’ve ever had an episode that impactful you understand the loss of dignity that comes with it. It was hard. Medication was thrown at me like a ton of bricks. I like to blame the forty pound weight gain on Depakote, but the Taco Bell Chalupa emerged at the same time. I ingested both religiously.
A few years later my younger brother would have a similar path. He withdrew from college just as I did. He was back at home going back and forth to doctors trying to give his brain some refuge. He was not as lucky. His side effect was a psychotic break and he did not survive it.
Both my diagnosis and his death was the catalyst to break my spirit and I did not paint again for over twenty years.
I job hunted not for artistic fulfillment but for personal safety. I needed health insurance, and a job that would give me plenty of it. I found it in another photo lab. Back into the whirring machines, the click of the negative holder snapping into place one by one, the slip of the slick prints sliding back to back as they shuffled out.
When I finally felt safe enough to open up those scars twenty four years later, I took out my paints and began to work on the canvas. Many times I just sobbed. I remembered myself as in the psych ward. I remembered myself as a sister holding my brother’s hand in the hospital bed. And I wept for the little girl I had been and her dream that she would please everyone.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I do event and portrait photography, live painting, live guest sketches and caricatures, and lead Artist’s Way groups and think tanks. Basically anything social and creative at the same time. I get very excited seeing people grow and succeed in creativity. I love talking conceptually.
I am most proud of my journey and that I’ve been able to succeed in my own way despite having Bipolar II disorder. It doesn’t exactly disable me, and it doesn’t allow me to create a global franchise but I’m proud with what I’ve done and love the people I serve.
I’d venture to say I am overwhelmingly good at Artsplaining. I teach people while I work alongside them. I can explain very quickly and easily the reasons behind the color and composition choices I make while I’m making them. I point out tidbits of technique and intentional choices while I’m with a friend at the museum. I’ve lost count of the people that told me fifteen years ago I was the person who taught them how to work a camera- and they are more successful than me now!
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Today I’m learning to trust my gut. When I was young and in conservative circles I aspired to be society’s ideal woman, and that trickled into wanting to be a traditional conservative photorealistic painter. It’s a constant journey to break free from that. I could live 200 years and never be either.
I’m also finding that my work itself is only a small part of success. people want to identify and connect with me. They want community too. Something to make them feel powerful, happy, or nostalgic. We professional wedding photographers can get insulted with our clients posting cell phone photos over our professional photos, but on close inspection the ones they favor are full of abandon, passion and joy. Not technicality. Embrace imperfection. Those are the true ingredients of beauty.
Pricing:
- Wedding Photography $2999
- Wedding Painting $1299
- Guest Sketches $400 per hour
- Caricatures $300 per hour
- Pet Portraits $75
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.michellerosscreative.com
- Instagram: @michellerosscreative
- Facebook: @michellerosscreative
- Other: https://Instagram.com/live.painting.weddings
