The College’s Art Gallery will be featuring a retrospective exhibition of 46 works of art created by faculty member Ruane Miller between Wednesday, Jan. 22, and Thursday, Feb. 20.
The exhibition, “Through the Window of My Mind...Ruane Miller Paintings and Print,” will showcase her paintings and digital prints from the past 15 years, commemorating her retirement as the professor of digital art at the College, where she has taught since 1986.
Looking at Miller’s paintings, it is evident that she draws much of her inspiration from the lines, colors and flow of nature.
Much of Miller’s work is composed in series. The imagery found in her paintings and prints represent different places she has traveled to, including Maui, northwestern Ontario, the Northern Plains and the Four Corner Region of the Southwest, according to an article posted on the College’s website.
In her most recent series, the Grand Canyon series, Miller created a cohesive set of artwork that utilized similar colors but arranged them into different shapes and sequences.
These gouache styled paintings held rich deep-blue skies and red, brown and white striped rock sides of the canyon. She completed this series from an artist residency along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.
Her unique and vivid perspective on the environment transcends atypical concepts and morphs them into abstract emotions.
Miller’s digital work incorporates shadow-like figures, gouache paintings and her own photography of western landscapes and ancient art.
This complex laying of methods creates a surreal depth that grabs hold of onlookers and drags them through the many doors and windows portrayed in her work. The effortless blend of digital and traditional is especially remarkable in pieces found in her Desert Light & Shadow series.
Along with Miller being awarded numerous prestigious artist residency fellowships, her work has also been featured in both national and international art exhibits.
Some of her collection can be seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Cultural Institute of Rome and the National Park Service Fine Art Collection, just to name a few.
Aside from her personal success in redefining the line between digital and traditional art, Miller has also helped expand the College’s curriculum in the subject.
During her time at the College, Miller was the chairperson of the Art Department and coordinator for the fine arts and digital arts programs. Miller created and enacted a computer graphics curriculum for the Art Department, and developed a BFA major for the digital arts.
