Ray Miller
USA (United States)
Kunstart: Malerei
Technik: Ölmalerei
Stil: Gegenständlich
Statement:
Artist’s Statement
I approach my work with a commitment to being accessible and evocative, while injecting a sense of joy, executed with exacting craftsmanship. Looking at my work brings a smile to the viewer or a sense of appreciation for the interpretation presented. To me art is fun and an expression of who I am, not a dire pursuit. I see art as a symbiosis between the artist and the patron, a conversation, a partnership. The patron should see a connection between themselves and the work, either as a participant in its design, or reflected in the images created.
Vita / Lebenslauf:
Ray was born to a US Air Force Sargent in Waco, Texas. From his birth to Kindergarten in Lakewood, New Jersey, Ray lived in Texas, Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey. This early experience establish Ray’s approach to everything as an outsider. He was always from “somewhere else”.
Although his entire public school experience was in Lakewood, Ray still never fit in to any of the established crowds. He excelled in school but all his high performing peers came from families with money, Dads who were doctors or lawyers. Ray’s Dad was a janitor at the post office for years, until he worked his way UP to being a mail carrier.
He lived in the wrong part of town as it slowly transformed from an old established neighborhood to the new working class ghetto. He had to walk to school until a job at the post office, yes the post office, required a car to get from school to work in under 20 minutes, Junior year.
Ray always looked for outlets to be creative and make things with his hands. In Boy Scouts Ray loved leather crafting, carving, and other hand worked crafts.
As far as a career, Ray was always pushed by his parents to be a professional of some sort. His Mother’s preference was medicine. That wasn’t on his radar. Early in high school the new field of Biomedical Engineering caught his attention and that was the path.
This brought Ray to Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio. The Case campus is right in the middle of Cleveland’s University Circle, the cultural center of Cleveland. Ray was found himself in the Cleveland Art Institute all the time between classes. He wondered what the students at the Cleveland Institute of Art were studying and felt again, like an outsider looking in on the “cool kids”.
He never wore his slide rule on his belt like the “real engineers” and would rather spend time at the art museum studying modern and contemporary art or at the Salvador Dali collection, which resided in a Cleveland suburb before being moved in its entirety to St. Petersburg, Florida.
He was enthralled by art and started to think of art as a career to pursue upon retirement from engineering. Or maybe as a hobby.
Coming from a family with little means Ray relied upon scholarships, loans and federal work study grants to pay the hefty cost of attending Case. He was given a student assistant job in the biomedical engineering department where he worked for a professor doing research on artificial muscle stimulation.
It was all very exciting and more than a little daunting from time to time. While working in the lab Ray pursued training in machining and welding to better support the professor’s needs and found that it really fed his desire to create with his hands. He LOVED welding and when his classes became tougher would occasionally entertain the notion that maybe he would be better of leaving engineering school and finding a career where he could weld exciting things.
The prospect of crushing debt from students loans kept him grinding out his BS, although a reality check of careers Junior year changed the degree from Biomedical Engineering to Fluid and Thermal Sciences in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
His first job out of college was with GE who brought him to Cincinnati. On his first day exploring Cincinnati he asked where was the art museum. He was directed to the Cincinnati Art Museum. As he explored gallery after and gallery and wing after wing of significant ancient art and period work through the early 1900’s Ray was mystified.
WHERE WAS THE CONTEMPORAY ART????
When he asked a docent, they told him he needed to go to the Contemporary Art Center downtown. Although he experienced a great traveling exhibition at the CAC that day, he was shocked to find that the CAC owned NO ART!
Where had he landed? A town devoid of contemporary art? His first few years in Cincinnati allowed little time to explore the arts more as he traveled extensively for GE. On the rare break back in town he would look for art openings and hunt for new galleries.
When his career changed and now had a job without travel Ray wanted to explore new opportunities. Gallery openings became a regular past time. He was also hired by the University of Cincinnati to teach welding. HOW COOL WAS THAT!?! Not only did he get to teach a topic he loved, but he also got access to welding facilities and equipment. He started making sculpture with scrap material he brought in and in one quarter had created over 30 pieces!
He entered an outdoor art fair and sold three pieces the first day. It inspired him. He started collecting tools and materials and started filling sketchbook after of sketchbook of ideas to realize in sculpture when he had the resources.
Within a year he entered his first juried exhibition. It was the Sixth Annual Exhibition at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. He was notified that he was juried in and they were going to use his piece for the opening notice postcard. It was a tremendous bright spot in a tough time in his life. His wife asked for a divorce and the day he moved out his mother died.
He ended up spending his mourning period totally alone, another reminder he was an outsider and didn’t belong. The ex’s family never bothered to send a card or call to express their condolences. None of the “friends” he shared with the ex bothered either.
With nothing else to do he drove up to Cleveland for the opening. It’s a good thing he did. He was awarded Grand Prize by the Juror, Marjorie Talaly, co-Founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. It was a truly life altering moment. That night Ray got it in his bones, he was a sculptor. Regardless of anything anyone else had to say, he now knew he was a sculptor.
In the years that followed Ray expanded into functional art, architectural ironwork and public art commissions. He moved from working at the weld shop on campus to his garage to his first studio, then a stand alone space and now owns an 8,600 SF building where he maintains his own 5400 SF studio.
In addition to his degree in fluid and thermal sciences Ray became a Certified Weld Inspector to sharpen his welding skills and has taken classes on copper enameling from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and sculpture foundry at UC’s College of Design Art Architecture and Planning.
As a sculptor Ray has been commissioned by businesses, churches and synagogues to create original works. He also commits time to the growth of the visual arts in the region through service on various boards and commissions and has expanded his teaching at UC to include welded sculpture.
Ray focuses his work in a few directions. Most of his work expresses his perspectives on every day objects that have been endowed with significance or power by society at large. Many of these pieces view these objects through a twist.
With well over 30 years of experience in fabrication there are few processes with which does not have familiarity. Much of his work is welded steel and stainless steel but he also creates investment cast pieces in silicon bronze and aluminum. He has completed series leveraging mixed media with his eye toward fabricated elements.
Ray has never pursued a commitment to realism, but more of a vision that makes pieces that are familiar.
In addition to creating art, fulfilling commissions and teaching sculpture Ray is also very engaged in the arts as a volunteer. Ray has served on the board of the Hamilton, Ohio City of Sculpture, Inc for 4 years. He has served as Chair of the Montgomery Arts Commission for 3 years’ been a member of the Kennedy Heights Arts Center Artist’s Guild for 4 years; maintains membership in the Fitton Arts Center, Pyramid Mill, Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum and the Clifton Cultural Arts Center’s Founder’s Circle.
Ray recently completed the Fine Arts Fund’s Business on Board Training program in preparation for serving on the board of a Fine Arts Fund funded organization.
Aktivitäten / Ausstellungen:
Selected Exhibitions
University of Cincinnati/College of Applied Science
Faculty Exhibition - June, 1994 and 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Mt. Adams Art Affair - September, 1995 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Intuitive - February, 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati Home and Garden Show - February, 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Sculptural Objects Functional Art Exhibition - March, 1996 - Miami, Florida
Joy Moos Gallery - March, 1996 through October, 1996 – Miami, Florida
Cincinnati Flower and Garden Show - April, 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Art on The Square - Independent Salon - May, 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
1996 Invitational - Center for Emerging Art - June, 1996 - Boca Raton, Florida
Echoes - Sixth Anniversary Exhibition- The Sculpture Center - June 1996 - Cleveland, Ohio
Grand Prize Winning Entry - Juried by Executive Director of the Cleveland C.A.C.
Art in the Hand Gallery - Holiday Exhibition - 1996
Intuitive - First Anniversary Exhibition - October, 1996 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Intuitive - Cincinnati Artists Exhibition - February, 1997 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Center for Emerging Artists - 1996 through 1998 - Boca Raton, Florida
Pump House Art gallery - A Man’s Perspective - March/April, 1999 - Chillicothe, Ohio
Homearama 1999 - Work exhibited and purchased for Horton, Hensley, and Daniels homes
Casa Bella De Luca - Lighthouse Youth Services exhibition - August, 1999 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Gallery Sculptura - Flights of Fancy exhibition - December, 1999 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Glendale Gallery – Again – April 15, 2000 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Works – Tackling Masculinity – August/September, 2000 – San Jose, California
Duvall Contemporary Art – Inaugural Exhibition – August, 2000 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Homearama 2000 - Work purchased for Horton, Daniels and Sanneman Homes
Homearama 2001 - Work exhibited in Horton Home
Morgan Kooshesh - Grand Opening - November, 2001 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Homearama 2002 - Work purchased for Daniels Homes, and exhibited in deStafano Homes
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Arboretum- Summer Art Program presenter - August 2002
Cincinnati Ballet – “Red” Ball – December 2002
Make A Wish – “Art from the Heart” – April 2003
Mac’s Farm and Sculpture Center – “Without Walls – ‘03” – Sep – Oct ’03 - Cincinnati, Ohio
International Sculpture Center – Inaugural Sculpture Cities program – Oct ’03 – Cincinnati
RSA Open House – December 2003 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Art 18 – Joint Exhibition – February 2004 – Loveland, Ohio
The Mockbee – 6th Massive Exhibition – Joint exhibition – June 2004 - Cincinnati, Ohio
International Sculpture Center – Online Exhibition – Fall 2004
Period Gallery – Online Exhibition – Summer 2004
Janice Charach Epstein Gallery – Tzedekah Exhibition – Winter 2005 - Detroit, Michigan
Make-A-Wish – Gala – February 2005 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Center – Holiday Exhibition – November 2005 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Center – Heart of Art Exhibition – February 2006 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Center – Holiday Exhibition – November 2006 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Marx Gallery – Inaugural Exhibition – February 2007 – Covington, Kentucky
Evendale Art Show – April 2007 – Evendale, Ohio
City of Sculpture – County Seat Project – Summer 2007 – Hamilton, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Center – Aqua – Summer 2007 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Greenwich Gallery – Monochrome – August 2007 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Artists in the Park – Hand Made Art – November 2007 – Montgomery, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Ctr – Heart of Art Exhibition – February 2008 – Cincinnati, Ohio
SOS Peace and Justice – May 2008 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Enjoy the Arts 20/20 – Sculpture Hunt - August 2008, Cincinnati, Ohio
Harriet Beecher Stowe House – Convergence of Sculpture – April 2009, Cincinnati, OH
Fitton Center for the Arts – GHAE 2009 - May/June 2009 – Hamilton, Ohio
SOS Peace and Justice – May/June – Cincinnati, Ohio
Kennedy Heights Arts Center – The Heat is On -June/July 2009 – Cincinnati, Ohio
Rosewood Arts Cetner – HWD – November/December 2009 – Kettering, Ohio
Roho Gallery - Perspectives - February - March 2010 - Cincinnati, Ohio
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