Chris Miller

Clay has always fascinated me. It was a lifetime goal of mine to learn how to throw clay on the wheel. Twenty years ago, I finally got my chance. The minute I felt the spin of the wheel and the clay in my hands, I knew I had found my medium of expression. Creating forms in clay is like writing secret things in your journal. Important aspects of your life make their way to find a life on written pages. After several years, animal forms seemed to surface. I have spent a lifetime with animals around me, so that was understandable — but there was more. Sometimes it’s more about the penmanship, the way the words are written, that tells more about what is being said than the words themselves. If you observe my work closely, you will find bits and pieces of an imaginary world working itself up to say “SURPRISE!” That may happen as a life-size stork looks you in the face, as a tiny mouse circles its way off the handle of a teacup, or when you find out that the pig is not only a sculpture, but a functional teapot. Behind the words, there is an invitation to take a breath. Observe. Laugh. Find the innocent part of yourself that can find itself lost. This is what the work does for me as I have the opportunity to create it, and why I think in its own way it is a Journal to save the world.