Michelle L Miller
Rochester, NY, US
Social Media
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How would you describe your work?
I am an analog vintage paper collage artist. My current work involves two-dimensional and mixed media collage, assemblage, and figural clay work. Using a curated stack of sources, I frequently produce short series, which I then revisit. This work is a form of self-care, conversation, and processing in response to my position as an inpatient behavioral health art psychotherapist. I include subtle reflections of daily struggles, my own and my Patients.
Often there are buried social activist messages in my titles and subject matter choices. My palettes are subtle, evoking moods meant for deeper consideration. Themes arise organically: isolation, loss, grief, and fracture. This process for me becomes a quest, a search for pathways to satisfy my thematic voids—the vacuum of isolation, the desire to connect—and to communicate with “my tribe.”
What inspires you?
The passion of my fellow collage artists, and the vast/near infinite manners collage is articulated is inspiring. Conversations, collaborations, and thematic open calls challenge my artistic vision, propelling my expressions in facets outside my tried and true. I have an extensive collection of vintage anatomy books, including French, German, and Japanese, the oldest dating to 1857.
The unfinished work or studies of master and contemporary artists attracts me. This work provides insight into their processes, which is absolutely fascinating. An example, “The Manchester Madonna” by Michelangelo (authorship is debated) at the National Gallery in London captivates me continually. I have seen this unfinished painting in person, it is unforgettable. Routinely, wings and fire (sometimes together as one) draw me in and appear in my artistic manifestations.
Can you speak about your process?
Rather than choose a measured substrate, the approach of traditional analog collage work, I piece my work together. This establishes a visual scheme, the imagery itself determines the finished size. The work is structured, built like optical architecture. I seek to find relationships in line and movement within the components, despite having intentional correlations between elements. In the past few years, I have limited myself to vintage/found/printed materials, seeking matte textures. The kinetic act of tearing paper is satisfying, but I also make cuts using my favorite scissors, often in complement with the rough torn edges.
How did you become interested in art?
The innate quality of creativity is in my DNA. I have several family members who work in creative or adjacent fields. I grew up as a “farm kid,” spending extensive time outside during all seasons, using what was at hand in inventive ways. Drawing, building, sculpting, collecting, preserving, discovering were among my first action words.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Inspiration comes from many sources—nature itself is inconceivable! An edited list of artists I admire include: Max Ernst, Firelei Báez, the recently discovered collage artist Aldwyth, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, installation work by Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois, Betye Saar, Joseph Cornell, Toshiko Okanoue, Helen Frankenthaler, and my contemporaries Bob Voigts, Allan Bealy, and Duane Toops.
I am determined to read all of Haruki Murakami’s work (and have read maybe 35%), who is a present-day Japanese author working in the style of “magical thinking,” which encourages an infinity of surrealistic ideation. The color palettes in the movies “Amélie” and “The Shape of Water” are luxurious. A few quotes: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” —Leonardo DaVinci. And, “Collage is an analogy to human life—in which destruction gives rise to something new.” —Jiří Kolář.
What advice do you have for younger artists?
Look around you, engage, lose the imposter syndrome, the joy is in the process not the product, remember “art as therapy.”
Any more thoughts about art, creativity, or anything else you would like to share?
My work has been in exhibitions and resides in permanent collections in several countries, appears in various publications, and was even printed in two card decks. I have two children, was married twice, as a military wife both times. First as an enlisted air force wife, and second as a commissioned army officer’s/medical personnel wife. We moved across the US and back twice. After multiple deployments, and coordinating life as a single mother during those times, my self reliance/independence (and often isolation) created community disconnects. I have continually searched for “my tribe.” The collage community has been that for me since I began my active participation as a collage artist in 2019, after completing my graduate degree. The nurturing aspect of this creative culture sustains me daily.
