Linda Miller

My artwork has a whimsical quality that speak to the duality of degradation and beauty, which has been an overarching theme running through my work for the past 25 years. This ongoing aesthetic, with rich textual qualities beckon and entice, while repelling the senses. My work cannot be tabled or merely looked upon as if pedestaled, but rather it must be interacted with, as if to lure the viewer forcing them to be lost in this other worldly space of fantasy.

Although my work is constantly changing, there are repetitive themes that run through it. The scale of the work is essential to my voice and the intense colors persist in flooding the visual pallet. Playful, childlike elements also continue to be manifested in my art, while screaming of compulsion, beauty and affliction. My body’s physical proximity is critical to the art making, as it plays a vital role in the execution and the essence of my vision. My hands stimulate and disrupt the membrane across the surface with every nuance being recorded in the memory of my work. These memories are locked inside the moment of creation, as if stopping time and locking it into existence. Creating abstruse forms of reality where truth intertwines with lies.

The narrative within my work describes my life journey beginning from my earliest joyous memories of childhood and retelling the story of secrets and mysteries of youth and the slipping away of innocence. The materials I choose play an important role within my process. I use malleable yet hard martials like clay alongside of soft fibers and found objects. These materials add to the ripping away the layers, moments and sorrows depicted in images of erosion and decay. As breath and life escapes, silent screams of a shattered hope and love depart, still beauty can be found imbedded within the symbols of innocence and youth.

Many artists have influenced my work over the years. Antonio Gaudi and his curvilinear lines and undulated construction, along with its massive scale and whimsy. Kristen Morgan and her decay and angst found within the kitsch art of Mighty Mouse, Popeye and her vintage cars. The massive bright and intense colors and textures found within Chihuly’s blown glass instillations and forms that beg attention and demand respect from the risk and threat of the sharp piercing edges. This is not to leave out Susan Beiner and Linda Sormin’s instillations with complex structures and colorful twisted and mangled forms that can swallow up a space, all while luring the viewer. I find the abstract visual language of these artist’s vision appealing and am intrigued by their style as it has found its way into my aesthetic and speak to my sensibilities.

As a contemporary artist, I assemble spaces where angst and beauty collide and merge, while exploring body, time and space. I do this by manipulating a variety of traditional and nontraditional craft materials that speak of home, family and traditions. These materials encapsulate memories, dreams, and fears locking the mysteries rigid and pliable mater into and eternal structure of fantasy, whimsy and fear.