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A Colorful Career: Cathy VanVoorhis Reflects on her Time at the Stamps School

May 27, 2026
Photograph of Cathy Van Voorhis

Cathy VanVoorhis is reflecting on her decades of work at the Stamps School of Art & Design and in the community as she prepares to retire at the end of the 2025 – 2026 academic year.

Cathy’s life in art and education has unfolded as a long, steady commitment to both making and teaching. She began teaching in 1980, immediately after graduating from Albion College, starting her career at Montcalm Community College. From those early days in the classroom, she built a path that would span more than four decades, shaping students across Michigan with a thoughtful and deeply rooted approach to art.

Cathy completed an MA in art history at Michigan State University in 1984. She continued her education when she entered the MFA program at the University of Michigan in 1984. Even during her graduate studies, she continued teaching, blending her roles as artist and educator in a way that would define her career.

Over the years, Cathy shared her knowledge at a wide range of institutions. She taught part time at Kendall College, Grand Valley State University, Olivet College, and Albion College, while also dedicating twenty years to Washtenaw Community College (WCC). She also completed the certificate program in Graphic Design while teaching at WCC.

The setting sun is reflected in a lake, lighting up the surrounding water, sky, and landscape with beautiful shades of orange and yellow
Cathy VanVoorhis, Sunset Over the Lake, oil/​linen

In 2008, she joined the Stamps School of Art and Design as a Lecturer. In the classroom, Cathy became especially known for her foundation courses. She taught color for many years, along with drawing, and occasionally painting. Her approach often wove art history into studio practice, giving students both technical skills and a broader cultural understanding of their work.

“Color has been a wonderful class to teach, and I’ve developed my approach to teaching color for years and I am delighted to pass on what I have learned,” said Cathy. ​“There is a science to understanding color, and I love to discuss that with my students. There is a lot to know about how humans process color, and how our brain changes color that we see and how it is connected to our survival needs.”

Outside of teaching, Cathy’s artistic practice has been deeply connected to the natural world. Her oil landscape paintings are rooted in her experience of nature as a place of restoration and healing. She travels throughout Michigan to lakes, rivers, and streams, observing the delicate balance of ecosystems and translating those moments into her work.

Painting of a Michigan beach: a sandy path leads to the blue waters of the great lakes. Fluffy clouds float in the blue sky overhead
Cathy Van Voorhis, Sailboat on Horizon, Oil.

One of her most memorable experiences at the university was an opportunity where her art practice coincided with her love of nature. Cathy was invited to be the 2019 Artist in Residence at the U‑M Biological Station (UMBS). It is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations, located about 20 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge with laboratories, classrooms and cabins nestled along Douglas Lake’s South Fishtail Bay, making up a small portion of the more than 10,000 forested acres that UMBS stewards.

“I spent the whole summer there with students and professors, visiting the stream lab and other areas of the station,” said Cathy. ​“It was a wonderful community, everyone just talked about their work and what they were studying, and how they set up their experiments. It was a beautiful environment for inspiring creative work.”

Oil painting showing a green meadow surrounded by trees under a blue sky
Cathy VanVoorhis, Greenstar Meadow

Her paintings have been exhibited widely, including group exhibitions at the Muskegon Museum of Art, the Saginaw Art Museum, the Dennos Art Museum in Traverse City, and the Alden B. Dow Museum of Art and Science in Midland. Her solo exhibitions have included the Rogel Cancer Center Gifts of Art Program at the University of Michigan, the Center Gallery in Glen Arbor, and Hillsdale College.

Cathy’s work has also appeared in publications such as Art of the Sleeping Bear Dunes: Transforming Nature into Art and The Saugatuck Dunes: Artists Respond to a Freshwater Landscape, a project that helped raise public awareness for the preservation of the dunes.

Her connection to place extends beyond painting.

Cathy has been an artist in residence at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, the Glen Arbor Art Association, the Golden Apple Residency in Maine, and Glen Oaks Community College. She has also worked as a curator, organizing the exhibition A Northern Refuge: Cherish, Protect at the University of Michigan Work Gallery in collaboration with the Legacy Land Conservancy of Southeast Michigan. In addition, she has contributed to exhibitions supporting organizations such as the Huron River Watershed Council and the Leslie Science and Nature Center.

Cathy VanVoorhis stands on a Michigan sand dune, painting the beach scenery on a large canvas

In her personal time, Cathy focuses on environmental restoration. She is currently focused on the removal of invasive plant species and rebuilding native habitats, supporting birds, insects, and other wildlife. As a volunteer with the Washtenaw County Conservation District, she plans to continue this work into her retirement, carrying forward the same care for the natural world that has shaped both her art and her life.