Melissa Miller, Resident Artist Lecture 1990

Artist Melissa Miller gives a lecture talking about her painting practice. For Miller, her training as a painter in many ways was self taught. Miller learned painting from studying books and looking at the work of many different artists who have inspired her. Miller talks about being guided by abstract considerations when doing representational work: specifically painting animals. Miller has also been guided by the idea that all living things have a spirit, a mandate that Miller lives by which was inspired by her grandfather. For Miller, painting allows her to live a multiplicity of life without hierarchy. Themes of observation, wonder, temptation, exploring light sources, and mythology are also personal concepts that Miller is interested in. Creating a space that holds many sources of inspiration allows Miller to develop her own mythology and own symbols.