Ashley Sauder \u201999 Miller has carved out at her Harrisonburg home a little black studio. There, professional and home life \u2013 much like the elements of her mixed media art \u2013 exist side-by-side, intertwined, or merged into one.<\/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 to find her practice. This meant using materials that were readily available, cutting and weaving them together until it felt like they fit. Piecing together bits of material, as well as small, 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.<\/p>\n
This skill of seeing something new in the superficially worthless, mundane, or forgotten now guides Miller\u2019s work and vision as an established artist.<\/p>\n
BUILDING A CAREER<\/strong><\/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. When the caning got damaged, Miller leapt into action, teaching herself to cane. Miller says, \u201cWe want to think we don\u2019t care about stuff, but when you\u2019re holding onto something that reminds you of somebody, it becomes really important.\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 represent people, remembering, or connection. Miller\u2019s collection of chair pieces earned her an endearing nickname at festivals: The Chair Lady.<\/p>\n But Miller and her art have stretched beyond the simple label of The Chair Lady. 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. Miller 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 Studio Visit, the periodical New American Paintings, and the book Wild Lands by Jen Tough Gallery. Her work has homes in many art collections, both private and corporate, including the Capital One Art Bank private collection.<\/p>\n INFLUENCES<\/strong><\/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 \u201970 taught watercolor classes from his home studio.<\/p>\n Thanks to her mother, Denise Berkshire \u201974 Sauder\u2019s, and other family members\u2019 strong connections to Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), Miller attended beginning in 7th grade. 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.<\/p>\n Miller credits Gautcher, and Hesston College and JMU instructors, as mentors who encouraged her to see art as a career path.<\/p>\n FINDING THE WORK<\/strong><\/p>\n On the life of an artist, Miller says, \u201cYou have to find your work. You have to seek it out.\u201d In both her personal and professional life, Miller is committed to doing the 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ashley Sauder \u201999 Miller has carved out at her Harrisonburg home a little black studio. There, professional and home life \u2013 much like the elements of her mixed media art \u2013 exist side-by-side, intertwined, or merged into one. It\u2019s not just a space, then, that Miller \u2013 an independent professional artist and the primary caregiver…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":967,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[39],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-964","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-fall-2024"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":973,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/964\/revisions\/973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=964"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=964"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}