Tasha C. Miller

Artist Biography

Tasha C. Miller is a self-taught, self-represented artist living and working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She began creating visual and literary art as a child. Her art work lined the walls of her schools from elementary to high school where she was voted Class Artist. She returned to Brooklyn to attend Pratt Institute, where she studied architecture and participated in numerous student exhibitions. Miller holds a BA in Literature and Creative Writing from Harvard University. Her study of the non o...

Artist Biography

Tasha C. Miller is a self-taught, self-represented artist living and working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She began creating visual and literary art as a child. Her art work lined the walls of her schools from elementary to high school where she was voted Class Artist. She returned to Brooklyn to attend Pratt Institute, where she studied architecture and participated in numerous student exhibitions. Miller holds a BA in Literature and Creative Writing from Harvard University. Her study of the non objective abstract painting technique includes workshops with Cambridge based abstract artist Sheila Rice. Miller's work can be found in many private collections and offices in New York City, Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ohio and France.

Artist Statement

Since childhood, when I was obsessed with staying between the lines of a tattered Scooby Doo coloring book, to the Architecture program at Pratt Institute, to the Literature and Creative Writing program at Harvard University clean lines, perfection and structure have ruled my existence.

As an Independent artist and writer, art is my air. I work on several paintings at a time to maintain focus, energy and to avoid falling in love with a lone effort. Over time I've learned to relinquish control and to approach the canvas without intentions or expectations. This allows me to be totally present in the process.

I attempt to neither pose nor answer questions in my work, rather I strive to evoke a strong feeling within the viewer. Love it or hate it, but feel it deeply. As Magritte aptly said, "People who look for symbolic meanings fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the image." Art need not say anything, it just needs to work. At its best, the raw image alone can be enough to ignite the imagination of the viewer.

I paint out of necessity; out of respect for a talent that has been given to me and the longing to grow as a new artist. I paint in an attempt to escape the boundaries of the line and structure. In painting, I have chosen my path to peace. Each painting represents the connection between me, the paint and the canvas at a precise moment; a connection I sever with the signing of my name.

I believe true art comes through surrender. When the eyes marvel at the movement of one's body from the shoulders, to the elbow, to the wrist, down to the fingertips as if it were an alien appendage. When one creates in this way the unpredictable, and impulsive emerge, and the shackled and mechanical dissipates. To live the artist's life the greatest struggle is not poverty, it is to paint one's soul to put on display.