{"id":62255,"date":"2024-08-08T09:50:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T13:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=62255"},"modified":"2024-08-08T09:50:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T13:50:24","slug":"celebrating-alumni-stories-ashley-sauder-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2024\/08\/celebrating-alumni-stories-ashley-sauder-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrando las historias de antiguos alumnos: Ashley Sauder '99 Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many parents have cracked open a window to broadcast one thing or another to their kids running across the yard or bouncing on the trampoline. For few parents, that has been from a window of their workplace. For even fewer, it\u2019s been from their own art studio. But what Ashley Sauder ’99 Miller has carved out at her Harrisonburg home is exactly this: a little black studio where professional and home life \u2013 much like the elements of her mixed media art \u2013 exist side-by-side, intertwined, or merged into one.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a space, then, that Miller \u2013 an independent professional artist and the primary caregiver for her four children \u2013 has carved out. It\u2019s also a way of being. Miller recalls having short windows of time when her children were young \u2013 three hours or less during naps \u2013 to find her practice. This meant using materials that were readily available, cutting and weaving them together until it felt like they fit. \u201cI was just going to my studio and almost frantically being like, \u2018What can I make today?\u2019 There was a lot of repetition in that\u2026which felt a lot like the work I was doing as a mother,\u201d Miller remembers. Piecing together bits of material, as well as small, repetitive, seemingly insignificant moments \u2013 as an artist and as a parent \u2013 eventually led Miller to see the bigger picture: all those tiny parts put together can create something novel and magnificent. This skill of seeing something new in the superficially worthless, mundane, or forgotten now guides Miller\u2019s work and vision as an established artist \u2013 as someone who has turned little snippets, chance moments, and overlooked scraps into a passion and career.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Building a Career<\/b><\/p>\n

After earning her Master of Fine Arts from James Madison University (JMU) in 2007, Miller built her now-flourishing career piece-by-piece. One of those pieces stands out from the rest: an old cane rocking chair that belonged to Miller\u2019s grandmother. Uncomfortable and so creaky it provided no help in soothing children to sleep, the chair held much more sentimental than practical value. Its inspiration for art, however, came when the caning got damaged and Miller leapt into action, teaching herself to cane. Miller says, \u201cWe want to think we don\u2019t care about <\/span>stuff<\/span><\/i>, but when you\u2019re holding onto something that reminds you of somebody, it becomes really important \u2013 especially when it gets destroyed or lost or ruined.\u201d This restoration project took on a life of its own, with bits of weaving joining her canvases, then leading to over a thousand chair paintings that, through each piece\u2019s particularity, represent people, remembering, or connection. Miller\u2019s collection of chair pieces earned her an endearing nickname at festivals: The Chair Lady.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Miller and her art have stretched beyond the simple label of The Chair Lady. For one, her subject has shifted. Her mixed media work, which often includes bits of fabric, quilts, or other found materials, now features floral images, while maintaining the layering and abstractness of her style. Secondly, Miller\u2019s work has garnered significant attention in the last decade. At festivals and art shows \u2013 Miller travels with her work 20 weekends each year, sometimes with her family \u2013 she has been named a finalist for the William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award in the Young Painters Competition at Miami University in 2016, Best in Show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Boardwalk Art Show in 2016 and 2023, and selected for a solo show at VaMOCA\u2019s Runnymede Gallery in 2017. Her work has been published in the magazine<\/span> Studio Visit<\/span><\/i>, the periodical <\/span>New American Paintings<\/span><\/i>, and the book <\/span>Wild Lands<\/span> by Jen Tough Gallery. Her work has homes in many art collections, both private and corporate, including the Capital One Art Bank private collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Influences<\/b><\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s successful career, however, has come long after her passion for art itself. Since the age of four, Miller has known she wanted to be an artist \u2013 and not just as a hobby. Early on, her parents provided her with the tools, and her uncle Allen Berkshire \u201870 taught watercolor classes from his home studio. Berkshire also served as an early example of someone who made art their life work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to her mother, Denise Berkshire 74\u2019 Sauder\u2019s, and other family members\u2019 strong connections to Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), Miller attended beginning in 7th grade, the earliest possible opportunity at that time. Barbara Gautcher, EMS art teacher for 32 years, became a special connection. Miller remembers Gautcher \u2013 whom she still considers a friend \u2013 as a welcoming, open person whose encouragement and steady presence has helped shape Miller\u2019s career, parenting, and even spirituality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller credits Gautcher, along with Lois Misegadis, her instructor at Hesston College, and the late Dr. Earlynn Miller, an art collector and former dance professor at JMU, as mentors who encouraged her to see art as a career path. She says, \u201cSome people think you have to be an art teacher or graphic designer to have a career in art, but [these mentors] never doubted me.\u201d As for those who held a different view, such as a high school teacher who told Miller to stop doodling during class because she would never use it in life, Miller says they kindled something of a fire in her.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finding the Work<\/b><\/p>\n

That fire is still burning. On the life of an artist, Miller says, \u201cYou have to find your work. You have to seek it out.\u201d Just as with the raw materials of her art, this work doesn\u2019t find itself. From the passion of a young child to an old piece of embroidered cloth, the things we come across may be infused with meaning. But if they\u2019re not given new life, they remain hidden or abandoned, no matter how many stories they hold. In both her personal and professional life, Miller is committed to doing this hard work of seeking and making new. She has made a life of noticing the little meaningful pieces, and meshing them together \u2013 little by little, with care and repetition \u2013 until she\u2019s found it.<\/span><\/p>\n

To view Ashley\u2019s work, go to:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instagram: <\/span>@ashleysaudermiller<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 | Facebook: <\/span>Ashley Sauder Miller Art<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/a>www.ashleysaudermiller.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muchos padres han abierto una ventana para transmitir una cosa u otra a sus hijos que corren por el jard\u00edn o saltan en la cama el\u00e1stica. En el caso de unos pocos padres, eso ha sido desde una ventana de su lugar de trabajo. Y para muchos menos, ha sido desde su propio estudio de arte. Pero lo que Ashley Sauder '99 Miller ha tallado\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":62274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[46,402,55,320],"class_list":["post-62255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-stories","tag-arts","tag-homecoming"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62255"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}