"I knew that I wanted to be an educator before I understood that I was an artist as well.”
Longtime educator and respected Pacific Northwest abstract painter Michelle Ross discovered Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) at 18 years of age. Working fulltime in a restaurant, she decided to, “do something to expand my mind besides baking pies.” That something was enrolling for a drawing course at OCAC.
Head of OCAC's Drawing + Painting Department since 2015, Michelle is living proof of the value of an art education. “I was a high school drop–out here in the Beaverton District. But that only lasted for about 5 minutes.” After quickly signing up for classes at PCC Sylvania, she completed her high school degree—with college credits accrued.
And then, for a couple terms at the age of 18, Michelle studied with Georgiana (Geo) Nehl, Drawing + Foundations Department Professor Emerita. The principles she learned from Geo were “the basis for what became OCAC’s intensive Foundations curriculum.”
Michelle, who began teaching at OCAC in the mid 90s, sums up the evolution of her “really satisfying career” as both educator and artist like this: “Here’s a kid that dropped out of high school and, through this series of events, this tight–knit community…” found art.
“And it saved me. Really, the arts education that I received…gave me direction, gave me focus & also inspired my interest in education & being an educator.”
Michelle is passionate about providing as many students as possible, from ages 17 to 70, the chance to “actually see something happen from their brains and their hands—it’s an agency that I don’t know how else people get at."
Through decades of mentorship, she’s helped a range of creative thinkers and makers find their paths. “It’s these individual lives that might otherwise be misdirected...” she says.
