“Art isn’t a result; it’s a journey.” A quote made famous by author Seth Godin in “The Icarus Deception,” but is embodied by Mike Ross, CAS ’03.

Ross graduated from high school in 1993 and enrolled at Western Michigan University. After a semester or two, he realized it wasn’t for him. “I have no idea why I dropped out of Western, but I decided I wasn’t going to return until I was sure what I wanted to do,” says Ross.

He would take several years off, including a quick, couple-year stop in New Mexico, before he felt compelled to return, landing at Oakland University. He was drawn to the creative arts but took time to find his true calling.

“I always thought about myself as more of a photographer; I’d never really thought about painting much,” says Ross. “I took some classes in photography, art history and eventually art. Those classes got my synapses firing, and I really enjoyed them.”

When Ross was at OU, the university didn’t have an art degree program. Instead, he graduated with an anthropology degree and a minor in studio art. Post-graduation, he stopped painting entirely for seven years but remained creative: he played in bands, worked at a record shop, became an art teacher, built skateboards from scratch, and created what he described as “weird assemblages” that could fall into the category of abstract collages. When he picked painting back up, he noticed that his style had mutated.

Ross now prefers oil on canvas, which he builds himself. His art is abstract chaos accentuated by a smattering of strict lines and geometric patterns. He’ll occasionally sprinkle in fauna or humanoids.

For some time, Ross was doing a majority of his painting at his house, but eventually landed a studio space at 333 Midland. “Suddenly, I went from a tiny back bedroom to a huge warehouse where I could paint whatever I wanted,” explains Ross. “I immediately knew I wanted to paint huge canvases.”

The larger work got the attention of an old bandmate who’s now a restaurateur. “He saw my work on the larger canvases and wanted to know if I was interested in painting the side of his bar.”

From there, word spread quickly, and opportunities to paint large-scale murals were flowing. Ross has painted murals across Michigan: Ferndale, West Bloomfield, Highland Park, Ann Arbor, Pleasant Ridge, Detroit and Lansing. He also found himself out in Chile at the request of a friend he met while teaching art at Garage Cultural in Southwest Detroit.

Between painting murals, you can find Ross tucked away in his studio amongst cascading collections of CDs and records, being watched by a photo of his 18-month-old son and the paintings of his wife and a late friend. He’ll likely have a Grateful Dead record playing while he works on his favorite piece of art: the next one.

See more of Ross' work or learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences.