Joan Stuart Ross, a Seattle artist originally from Boston, works in encaustic and mixed media. Joan graduated from Connecticut College, earned an MA and MFA from the University of Iowa, and studied at Yale Divinity School, Yale School of Art, and the University of Washington. Joan won the Bowen Award from the Seattle Art Museum, the Kathe Kollwitz Award for her advocacy of women artists, a Rome Fellowship, and a Fulbright-Hays Travel Grant to Vietnam. Joan has had residencies at the Espy Foundation, Pilchuck, Centrum, Playa, Balestrand, and Rancho Linda Vista. Her work is in the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Northwest Art, and several other public and private collections.

Joan served on the boards of Seattle Print Arts, the Bumbershoot and Seattle Arts Commissions, and the Civita Institute. She taught at Pratt Fine Arts, in her own studio, and was a tenured professor at North Seattle College from 1996-2009. She is a partner of BallardWorks and maintains her studios there and in Nahcotta, Washington.