Bird Ross’ art practice revolves around an ongoing study of how divergent materials can be the perfect companions in resolving obstacles. Bird has sorted many problems she’s met on her way to creating costumes, props, sculptures, tabletop theatre, installations, puppet shows, fabric vessels, clothing, hats, paper and cloth jewelry, monoprints with embroidered constructions, and most recently abstract compositions using textiles. She is fluent on the sewing machine and calm in a conundrum.
She senses total euphoria in working collaboratively with many artists including Brenda Baker, Paige Davis, Spatula & Barcode, Derrick Buisch, and Tom Loeser. She also teaches courses encompassing a multitude of materials and open-ended solutions. Bird enjoys reading stories to kids and grownups as she did in "Lunch and Stories" in her back yard during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bird founded the Mending Project in 2016, as an initiative of the Sewing Machine Project. The Mending Project provides free mending to the public thrrough Madison's Central and Hawthorne Public Libraries.
Along with Brenda Baker, Bird founded the Women Artists Forward Fund and the Forward Art Prize in 2018. The fund supports two women visual artists in Dane County annually with cash awards to buoy their art practices in unrestricted ways. It is the third largest arts endowment for women artists in the country.
