Michael Ross grew up in Norway and Finland, moved to Maryland as an adolescent, and graduated with a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Maryland in 2000. Before moving to Athens, Georgia, where he finished his MFA in painting at the University of Georgia in 2016, Ross attended artist residencies in Norway, Iceland, and West Africa, and lived for several years in San Francisco. He has shown his work in galleries around the country, and is featured in the permanent collections of the University of Georgia, the Washington, DC Department of Transportation, and in numerous private collections in the United States and in Europe. In his work, Ross explores the interplay of the human, natural, and mythical worlds in a manner that emphasizes emotional and sensory experience. Ross continues to work out of his studios in Athens, Georgia, and Bethesda, Maryland.