{"id":40366,"date":"2016-07-20T03:47:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T07:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=40366"},"modified":"2016-07-18T16:55:43","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T20:55:43","slug":"events-coordinator-zooms-in-for-art-on-the-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/07_20_2016\/events-coordinator-zooms-in-for-art-on-the-mall","title":{"rendered":"Events coordinator zooms in for Art on the Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not unusual for Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross to hop in her car, Canon XSi riding shotgun, and go for a drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how she found a small, dilapidated dwelling and gas pump one snowy day in Sylvania. And on a fall jaunt through Oak Openings Preserve Metropark in Whitehouse, she spotted horseback riders on a leaf-covered trail.<\/p>\n

\"Michele<\/a>

Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross displayed some of her photography that she will have in frames, on coasters and notecards, and as prints at Art on the Mall Sunday, July 31.<\/p><\/div>\u201cI just happened to be in the right spot at the right time,\u201d the events coordinator in the Special Events Office said. \u201cA lot of photography is patience and sometimes luck. You have to be willing to just sit and observe \u2014 especially with nature. You can see so much more that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed with her camera, Ross captures places many area residents are familiar with and frames them in a new way.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go to the same park every day and see something different each time; it\u2019s just how you\u2019re looking at things, whether it\u2019s a bird or a turtle or a frog or flowers,\u201d she said. \u201cNature changes so rapidly that there\u2019s always something different to look at \u2014\u00a0always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michele<\/a>

Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross took this photo titled \u201cIce Tree\u201d at Olander Park in Sylvania.<\/p><\/div>Her favorite locales to wander and shoot include area parks, gardens and the Toledo Zoo.<\/p>\n

At the zoo, she caught a cormorant careening its neck to preen with an orange autumnal sky reflected in the water, as well as a regal eagle perched by evergreen sprigs. After an ice storm, she ventured carefully to Olander Park in Sylvania and clicked in the cold; the result was a stunning image of a tree encased in a shimmering frozen glaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost cathartic. I get lost when I go out and photograph. I can be out for hours and not even know it because there\u2019s so much to look at and so much to see,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s had an artful eye for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved taking photos,\u201d Ross recalled. \u201cBut I think I was getting frustrated because it seemed like I was in a rut.\u201d<\/p>\n

So four years ago, she joined the Toledo Camera Club and the Photo Arts Club of Toledo. That\u2019s when she got serious about her passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clubs have challenges and assignments, and it makes you get out there and think,\u201d Ross said. \u201cMembers critique the shots each time, and I think that\u2019s helped me grow and progress as a photographer because it\u2019s given me things I never would have thought of to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBald<\/a>

\u201cBald Eagle\u201d was photographed by Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross at the Toledo Zoo.<\/p><\/div>And she\u2019s had the chance to work with some surreal subjects, including a fairy statue submerged in an aquarium filled with a carbonated drink \u2014\u00a0a sprite in Sprite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won a few awards at the photo clubs, and I thought, you know, maybe I can try to sell the photos and see what happens,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd my family encouraged me, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, the UT graduate who received a bachelor\u2019s degree in 1976 returned to her alma mater and made her debut at Art on the Mall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool because I actually did pretty well, and I was surprised,\u201d she said. \u201cI had never done an art show before, it was my first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Ross introduced a new item to showcase her photography: coasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to come up with something that was a little more cost-effective for the normal person to buy,\u201d\u00a0she said. \u201cI got online, looked around, and I saw coasters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cA<\/a>

\u201cA Day at the Park\u201d was taken by Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross at Oak Openings Preserve Metropark in Whitehouse.<\/p><\/div>Pretty and practical, but finding a process to produce the coasters took some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough my own process, I finally found a way to get it to work so that it wouldn\u2019t be tacky and it wouldn\u2019t look tacky,\u201d Ross said and laughed. \u201cAnd it would be water-resistant so it could be used as a coaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

No surprise, her coasters featuring UT photos proved popular her second year at Art on the Mall and sold quickly.<\/p>\n

Ross does take requests. Folks who stop by her booth have asked for shots of Toledo landmarks, including Tony Packo\u2019s, the Rosary Cathedral, and Fifth Third Field and all things Mud Hens, as well as lighthouses, trains and various animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things here in the area to focus on that people look at and say, \u2018Oh yeah, I know where that is.\u2019 In fact, when people come up at the art fairs and shows, they have fun looking at things and saying, \u2018Now where\u2019s that?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Ross will be at Art on the Mall Sunday, July 31, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free juried art show will be held on Centennial Mall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they try to have alumni or people affiliated with UT at the event, and I think that adds to the flavor of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In her office, Ross has a few photos that she has taken, as well as several shots that she is in alongside celebrities who appeared in Centennial Hall\/Savage Arena, where she worked for 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there is quote from one of her favorite photographers, Ansel Adams: \u201cYou don\u2019t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of equipment; it\u2019s expensive. And like they say, it\u2019s not the camera, it\u2019s the shooter. You can make beautiful photographs with anything, even a point and shoot,\u201d Ross said. \u201cI\u2019d like my photos to make people feel good, and I hope that they realize they are not random shots, that some thought was actually put into them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UT employee and alumna Michele \u201cMickey\u201d Ross is focused for this year’s Art on the Mall, which will take place Sunday, July 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,4,5,6,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40480,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40366\/revisions\/40480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}