Something Was Happening in the Sky

“Something Was Happening in the Sky,” 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas, 2004, (SOLD)

Dreams about momentous events happening in the sky have visited me all my life — a vast net descending upon the entire nation from space — or — many enormous futuristic air tankers falling out of the sky all at once into an urban landscape. In my dreams the people are electrified, thrilled and concerned, as they are in this painting. But the dogs — thank God for the dogs – are filled only with wonder and delight.  Six dogs live with me at Sawmill Run. They and the sky out here in the woods show me new revelations every day. 

Multiple Personality Self-Portrait

Multiple Personality Self-Portrait, image area 33″ x 42″ acrylic on 9 canvases

Self-Portrait, 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas

Kevin with his Multiple Personality Self-Portrait. The artist constructed and hand-marbled the frame, approximately 54″ x 66″ without “legs”

Here are a few quick thoughts on each face left to right and top to bottom, as I experience them. 1st row: Little Debbie Kay is a very sweet and feminine, white bearded lion-girl, who will seem young and innocent even when she is 75. She loves to groom herself meticulously and look pretty. I adore her because she makes me feel happy and warm. Noel Coward Lee Lion is one of the most mysterious faces and one of my very favorites. I “found” some of these faces by sea-sponging textured color onto the canvases and then peering intently into the random patterns until faces emerged. That was the case with Noel Coward Lee Lion. He materialized out of the chaos. The more I defined his face, the more compelling he became to me. I think of him as a lion-man who has lived most of his life in ignorance, misbehavior and doubt, albeit striving for understanding, stability and answers. We see him at the moment of Enlightenment, when all his suffering, anguish and hard-living suddenly and finally give way to Total Awareness, and the entire universe opens up before him. The Cowardly Lion becomes Leonardo. I find this portrait very absorbing. Next is Marg (short for Margarine) the unabashed drag queen who thinks of herself as a rich 1940′s Rosie the Riveter with power – all brash fun, irony and out-there self-expression with no apologies. She’s a Type A transvestite with a shitload of attitude and an agenda. Ouch! Watch out! She’ll seduce you, make love to you, eviscerate you and publicly trash you, all at the same time. That’s the top row.

 2nd row: The handsome young Latino man, let’s call him Antonio, is very idealistic and innocent, but intelligent and articulate. He believes in great possibilities for his own future and for humanity. Then there’s 60-year-old Kevin Miller in the mirror. What can I say? My attempt here was NOT to create an idealized self-portrait by any means, but to paint a somewhat abstracted composition that would see inside the mirror and reveal more of the truth than the glass does. I like the results. It is disturbing, colorful, and piercingly focused all at once. This face seems to look deeply into the viewer from inside the painting, and to know what is going on in the observer. That suits me. The Young Entrepreneur is next. He represents the internal attitude I always adopt when working with corporate groups. He’s appealing and likeable, but there is something that is more than a little plastic and insincere about him. I suspect he may be hiding something…

 

3rd row: Maybelline is my beautiful, if somewhat vacant, vulnerable and innocent inner woman. She’s a model. She does not show emotion, although she feels entirely at the mercy of the manipulations and attitudes of those around her. Her only defense is remaining silent and walking away with the aura of her intimidating beauty in tact around her. Next is Ooloo, the alien princess from another galaxy. She literally has a golden headdress and silver stars in her eyes, and, obviously, she can see twice as much as we can, because she has four eyes. Finally, there is Zulu, one of my favorites. He is a strong, virile, African warrior-prince — the next king. He knows Magic. He knows the Truth. He is profoundly powerful. He sucks all the oxygen out of every room he enters and commands total attention. People don’t cross him. I especially like the way all the lines on the top 2/3 of his face converge in one point between his eyes.

 

I tried to arrange these images around my “mirror portrait” in a way that simply provided some balance in color, style and impact for the entire piece. But, having written these descriptions, I realize that there are 3 distinct vertical columns with a completely different themes for each: Column 1 — Little Debbie Kay, Antonio and Maybelline — is about innocence, idealism and vulnerability. Column 2 — Noel Coward Lee Lion, Mirror Portrait of me, and Ooloo – is about deep vision and enlightenment — arriving. Column 3 — Marg, The Young Entrepreneur, and Zulu — is about a powerful public persona and the control that comes from projecting the right attitude. Hmmm… Interesting… Weakness and vulnerability on one side, enlightened vision in the center, and public power on the other side. I’ll have to think about this. Understanding art is like interpreting dreams, especially when it’s my own art, because I’m too close to it.

 

The Revelations of Eve and Adam

“The Revelations of Eve and Adam,” 20″ x 24″ acrylic on canvas

Sometimes art unfolds in mysterious ways. “The Revelations of Eve and Adam” started as sea sponged colors on canvas. As I peered into the sponged shapes, I could see vague misty outlines of the faces of Eve and Adam, so I drew them out and defined them. One by one the animals came to join the party. Near the very end of the process the purple wildcat appeared on Eve’s head and the eagle on Adam’s brow with the crown of stars above it. I have no idea where they came from, and I am still learning what all the elements of the painting “mean.”

Some people say that artists should only make art about things they know. I disagree. It is much more exciting to start with a question or a mystery or a joke. I’d rather get out of the way and let the art reveal itself on its own terms, according to its secret designs, because then it will have something to teach me. Art will provide answers to questions, surprising messages, and unexpected wit, if we leave it to its own devices, whereas, if we dictate the subject and control the process and all the forms from the beginning, we won’t learn a thing from what emerges. Discipline and mastery of technique are still essential, of course, but when those elements are in hand they become automatic, and the forms can come through effortlessly, like wonderful dreams, during a good sleep on a cool rainy night.

“Time and Money Dancing Together”

“Time and Money Dancing Together,” 20″ x 24″ acrylic with gold and silver paint  on canvas, by Kevin Miller, 2009

29″ x 32″ framed and ready to hang

After 10 days of intense corporate work and the inevitable sick-in-bed crash that follows, I am painting calla lilies and watching our koi leap into the air to restore the soul’s peace. This painting, “Time and Money Dancing Together,” is still something of a mystery to me, but I produced it a few months ago to explore the artist’s age old dilemma: If we have enough money to live, it means we are employed and don’t have any time to create. If we have enough time to create, it means we aren’t employed and don’t have any money to live. For ages we artists have been trying to find the right balance between time and money so that we can both create and live. I’m still searching for the answer. It’s a roller coaster at best.

In this painting the dilemma has been resolved. Time and Money are represented here by Krishna and Rada, dancing together in perfect harmony even though their demons and attendants would appear to be poised to destroy one another. Time is accompanied by his laughing wolf of temporal destiny in the upper left corner, who mocks all human pursuits and cuts them short at his whim, as does the skull woman of death in the lower left corner. The wolf is under attack by the brightly colored, seductive but poisonous snake of materialism at Rada’s upper right. And Krishna’s skull woman of death waits for the old man who attempts to hide and camouflage himself in Rada’s lovely shoulder.

Perhaps this particular balance is not so perfect after all. It may be little  better than a standoff. But it is clear that at least for the Avatar Krishna and His ecstatic lover Rada, Time and Money can exist in dynamic union, and their lower natures are held at bay. As they dance, embrace and kiss, their two profiles become one whole face — the balanced blending of Time and Money every artist craves.

It may be that such a dream can only come true in the rarified atmospheres in which the gods dance and love. However, a painting of this fantasy brings it one step closer to physical manifestation, and helps me to hope it may yet be possible.