Metra Mitchell’s unique identity reflects the impact of her social, economic, and ethnic history. Her mother immigrated to America from Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Her father was born and raised in rural Kentucky, the American South. The diversity of her multicultural background influences her artwork where she explores themes of strength, vulnerability, and transformation within the magical theater of drawing, painting and printmaking.

Metra Mitchell earned her BFA in Painting & Minor in Art History from Western Kentucky University on a full art scholarship and MFA in Painting from Fontbonne University with a teaching assistantship. She has taught studio and art history courses at many institutions for nearly two decades such as Maryville University, St. Louis Community College, St. Charles Community College & Southwestern Illinois College. She has lead Museums and Galleries courses as well as Drawing courses in Florence, Italy through the Missouri Study Abroad Intercollegiate Consortium (MOSAIC) via the Global Studies Department at Maryville University. Through the consortium, she has also taught courses in Madrid, Spain and Lugano, Switzerland assisting students in broadening their own cultural experiences through excursions visiting museums and major monuments abroad. She retired from teaching in 2023 and currently works as a full-time traveling artist.

Exhibiting regionally, nationally & internationally with wide acclaim, her works have been included in Juxtapoz Magazine, St. Louis Riverfront Times, All She Makes Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine, All the Arts Magazine, Create! Magazine & LUXE Interior + Design Magazine. Special collaborative projects include her work in collections at the Angad Arts Hotel & Metro Theater Company in St. Louis, MO. Commercial galleries who have showcased her work include Houska Gallery in St. Louis, MO, Sager Reeves Gallery in Columbia, MO, Phoenix Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas and La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angele