Kathy Ross grew up on an apple farm east of Toronto in a monocultural art desert. No art supplies, but a fierce mother, who shocked The County by leaving her dangerous father in 1960. Thus she survived to become the Product-of-a-Broken-Home, with a big interest in inventing secret worlds and staying out from underfoot.

She discovered the 3-d world at age 18, carving a bar of ivory soap with a nail file. Ever since, she has loved to make sculpture using cloth, maps, bronze, clay, tin, found objects.

Now she uses found materials, usually tin, and will never be a less-is-more type. Themes are political, hilarious, narrative, eccentric, psychological. Always a backstory. Relentlessly detailed and over the top.
To Kathy, art is personal. It’s all blood and guts underneath. She makes art out of what worries her, what makes her laugh, what scares her, what pisses her off. Nothing is off limits. If it’s there, it can be art.

Kathy is a self-taught, self-employed, full time studio artist since 1978. A balancing act, making a living while keeping that commercial pressure from poisoning the creative centre of her life. She has exhibited in shops, art festivals, solo and group shows in galleries, art museums. Including 25-plus solo shows from Stonington, (Seattle 1988) thru Serious Fun (BIMA 2024), Shut Up (Corvallis Art Centre 2025), Shadowlight (Fogue gallery 2026). And awards from 1978 (BAM juried show) thru 2025 (Best in show, Arts at the Port), and 2022, (Best in Show CVG, Bremerton)