Cyndy Ross is a multi-faceted artist and native Oregonian. After 2 ½ years working on a degree in graphic design, she left university and spent the next 30 years dipping her toes into everything artsy and craftsy while raising four children in the woods of the Pacific Northwest amongst a menagerie of animals. Her greatest passion now is mixed media portraits. She is fascinated by faces and the expressions they make, by the souls inside those faces. They tell stories without words. One of her favorite parts of finishing a painting is coming up with a title. When she’s not painting, you can find her walking in the woods, knitting dishcloths, gardening, and reading. For her last meal on earth she would choose vegetable pizza and blueberry pie.

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Cyndy's workshop on Art is Magic: Chromatic Portraits

What does Art is Magic mean to you?
In more literal terms, the magic of art is that it transports and transforms the viewer. Art elicits emotions in us. It can broaden our minds, help us see from a different perspective. Art can change how we view ourselves, others, and the world. It can make us laugh, make us cry, make us uncomfortable. In more personal terms, creating art at times takes me to a place out of time and space. There is a magical experience that takes place when I am working on a piece. I forget everything around me. I feel as if something is working through me. Like I am no longer in charge. I will look at the finished piece and be dumbfounded as to how it came to be. It truly feels like magic.

Why do you create art?
I create art because I have to. There were times in my life when I tried not to create because I was too busy, or I thought it was a frivolous luxury, but I would feel myself start to wither inside. I feel compelled to create. It is a necessity for my being. I am a very emotional person, so art also helps me to channel those emotions in a constructive way.

Tell us about your journey to become an artist.
I was a creative, artistic child. I loved to draw my feelings. I loved to act and sing. I loved to write poetry. I spent 2 1/2 years in college working on an art degree. After leaving college my creativity took on different forms because raising four children kept me very busy. Our home is small so there was no room for me to have a fine art practice space. So instead I taught myself to knit and crochet, bake wild yeast bread, cook complex meals, sew dolls, make art quilts, paper mache, needle and wet felt wool, create art projects for my children, make handmade books, greeting cards, sculpt with clay, watercolor tiny plants around my yard in my journal when time allowed, and play with photography. All those years I knew that one day when my kids were older I would get back into fine art. So about 5 years ago I started with art journaling, which led to online classes in mixed media and acrylic painting. I had wanted to paint expressive, colorful portraits since I was 24 years old, so that has been my focus.

What sort of creative walls do you hit?
I really struggle with confidence. I am consistently having to squelch voices in my head telling me I'm not good enough, that ask me what do I think I'm doing, and that my art is pointless. I have to persevere past these gremlins.

What do you do to move through them?
The way I get past it is to just keep working. One step at a time. I pick up a brush or pencil and start to make marks. One foot in front of the other. I know I must create, so I have to keep going. And even if it were pointless, what better way to spend my personal time than making art? Ultimately I love to share my art, but if I could never share it again I would still make it.