Joan Stuart Ross

Joan Stuart Ross was born in Boston and was introduced to the ‘handmade’ by her Swedish and Scottish relatives. The brilliant colors at Whitehorse Beach were big influences. Joan graduated from Connecticut College and studied at Yale with Josef Albers, an ongoing inspiration. She earned an MA and MFA in Painting and Printmaking at the University of Iowa, and in 1968, moved to Seattle. She taught, painted, printed, volunteered, and become immersed in Seattle’s arts community. Joan mentored hundreds of artists and continues to mentor others. She has co-managed and subsidized BallardWorks since 2004, offering below-market-rate studios to Seattle artists.

Joan won the Betty Bowen Award from SAM, the Kathe Kollwitz Award for advocacy of women artists, a Rome Fellowship from the Civita Institute, and a Fulbright-Hays Grant to Vietnam. Joan has been a resident at Centrum, Pilchuck, Balestrand, Espy, Playa, and Rancho Linda Vista. Her art is in SAM, TAM, MoNA, National Nordic, and many other collections.

Joan served on the boards of Seattle Print Arts, Bumbershoot, Seattle Art Commission, Civita Institute, and the Ballard High Art Committee. She taught Art for 40 years, at Pratt, at the UW, in her own studio, and as a tenured professor at North Seattle College.

Color dynamics and a celebratory, questioning attitude are among Joan’s themes. Trial, error and risk are hypotheses that explore the unknown. She draws, paints, prints, develops collage and encaustic in her Seattle and Nahcotta, WA studios. The poplar tree, shell, text ,and knot suggest a symbolic undercurrent.