News

May 22, 2023

Preciously repurposed

A Crestwood artist has been chosen for a summer residency that will have her painting at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx. Marcia Holloway Ross was selected to take part in the program, which is a

A Crestwood artist has been chosen for a summer residency that will have her painting at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx. Marcia Holloway Ross was selected to take part in the program, which is a partnership between Sisters of Loretto and the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW).

She grabbed the program’s attention with her visually stunning abstract watercolor and acrylic pieces, along with the fact that she often uses her kids’ discarded artworks as starting points.

“Every year, at the end of school, they come home with a stack of composition books half-used, and they need one for each subject but it’s so much paper …”

So Ross began applying gesso to them – a canvas primer that thickened the paper. “And yes, part of me was like ‘this is so precious.’ Then as time passes, it becomes a little less precious now and I had so much of it, I can’t save every piece.”

With the work Voss does on canvas, she began with a “drippy under painting,” so she began using her kids’ old scribbles and paintings as the jumping-off point. With some of the more thickened paper, she plans on eventually creating more sculptural aspects with her paintings, after cutting the paper with an industrial cutter and making strips she can lay on their sides.

“And the fact they started out as composition books – that imprint is still there and won’t be masked.”

Ross said using found items in her art is a nod to how much we lean on disposable products to raise our children.

Her 11-year-old daughter also has a drive to create art, she said. And her son, who’s 8, “has asked me if a piece sells, are you going to pay me …”

Ross came to live in Crestwood by way of Brooklyn. Originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to New York where she got her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute. She met her husband there, who is a Louisville native, and they moved to Kentucky in 2015 due to her husband’s job with the South Oldham school system.

And yes – after living almost two decades in New York, Crestwood was a bit of a change, Ross said. “I think my first initial shock was how much time we spend in a car here …” she said. But eventually, they found a home that’s near the school system and a park, “so that was big for us. We love it.”

Ross said it was a chaotic time for a while, with living in a new state and mothering two young children. But she’s happy that she’s finally carved out a little bit of dedicated space in their home to function as her studio, and has learned how to carve out time, too, for her creations.

Since moving to Kentucky, Ross has exhibited her work in the St. Francis School of Thought art auction and been a part of juried art fairs. She also does commissions, and will review the clients’ personal decors in order to create something to fit their space.

In 2022, she held her first solo exhibition in Louisville, called “Art is Meditation” that was a reflection on returning to painting after a hiatus.

Ross also curated a group show with several artist moms she’s connected with. “It’s been nice to meet other women who are juggling kids and creating art – both are time-consuming but parenting is all-consuming, and most have a job, too.” She said being able to share with this group about what that’s like, and sharing work to be critiqued by other like-minded artists is priceless.

Being a woman and a mother gives her plenty of inspiration to create, Ross said. Her piece called “Within” was a take on generational trauma. It’s part of her collection called “Circles,” where she uses stamped circles to explore the pattern of color.

“The piece is sort of a reflection on the gestation period of a baby – a female fetus at 22 weeks has all the eggs she’ll ever have, the reproduction system is developed, so they’re inside our grandmothers when our mothers are growing inside them.” Ross said that kind of made her think – “what does that mean, part of every child is kind of inside their mother when they’re learning and growing. So it’s a radiating circle.”

The Loretto Residency program was open to feminist, social change artists and writers, and is for “artists who have demonstrated achievement in creating work high in artistic merit that is based on social justice issues and concerns,” a KFW press release says.

In that release, Sharon LaRue – KFW’s executive director, said the program offers a chance for feminist artists “to create, contemplate and build community in a peaceful setting. The Sisters of Loretto share our vision of a more just world. Residents will share ideas, make connections and gain inspiration that will offer a new path toward a better world.”

Ross said getting this residency was a huge goal of hers. “I’d say the biggest hurdle is having the time to promote my art. So having to write about it to apply for the residency was good for me, because I had to focus so much on finding the words to talk about what the art actually means.”

She is excited to see what the residency will bring, in the way of inspiration. As for the future, “I’d love to have some gallery representation, show my work more frequently,” Ross said.

To check out more of her works, visit marciahollowayross.com.