Marylyn Miller

acrylic, abstract landscape

Biography

It was the landscapes of northeastern Indiana which formed my early impressions of nature. The sun and moon peering at me over fields, through trees, and splintering across water conjured up mysterious inner visions. Summer crops faded into shadows of burnt sienna against the salmon hue of autumn’s sky issuing melancholy farewell. In November the limbs of naked deciduous trees left lacey patterns against the menacing promise of a great snowstorm. When spring pushed up fresh grass, its new mown fragrance mingled with pungent earthworm soil. We would watch the sky and wait for the violet horizon to bring wind with titanium rips announcing the horrifying sound of thunder and sometimes split a nearby tree. When I moved to the Northwest in 1970, mountains, seashore, and glorious flowers expanded my visual inventory.

In the early seventies, I became a student at Seattle’s Factory of Visual Art and followed up completion of a BFA at the University of Washington. These years of training enabled me to unlock visual memories, releasing them to canvas, and then to paper. I learned to interface paint with thin layers of various papers which I often paint with paint to produce a more complex surface. Ultimately I discovered a unique way to wave natural imagery into a strange context leaving the viewer mildly mystified but free to shape his/her own perception.

Samples of Marylyn's Work