BIO

Artist’s Bio

Jason Miller is a native of Memphis, TN where he obtained his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Memphis. Miller currently works predominantly in large format digital imagery that is often accompanied by unique soundtracks that he also makes. Miller makes everything from start to finish and never uses mediated images or pre-made material. He is an artist that creates using many different mediums simultaneously. For instance, Miller sings and creates phonetically derived poetry while at the same time building philosophically and visually complex murals using hundreds of single photographs that he makes throughout his daily life. In Miller’s own words, “Each photograph is a word and when combined the photographs form visual sentences. “

Miller is foremost known as a poet that uses both words and images to speak his spiritual voice. He manifests his ideologies and emotions in many different mediums, which include both photographic and lyrical formats. He travels domestically within the U.S. to uniquely sacred places ranging from the Smokey Mountains to Mesa Verde, as well as internationally to diverse locations including Costa Rica, Prague, Vienna, Paris, Bruges, and Greece. Miller’s intent is always to make new discoveries while gathering experimental images and philosophical material. In addition, to collecting personal images through his photography, Miller further enhances his conceptual growth by obtaining new cultural experiences throughout the course of his travels.

Nearly, all of Miller’s artwork is based on the idea of energy changing form in an arbitrary and surreal visual manner. This idea is best demonstrated in his Energy String and Energy Fortress Series, and is also particularly embodied in his written poetry. As a whole, spirituality and imagination is key to Jason Miller’s artwork.

Artist's Statement

A Note On the Process and Intent of Imagery by Jason Miller

The Energy Fortress deals conceptually with the basis of energy changing form in an arbitrary and surreal visual manner. Just as our bodies are animated and brought to life by our souls that dwell within, so too must we all one day move on from the dust-laden sails of our bodies that our spirits now fill. We Humans are spiritual and materialized at the same time, and being both biological and spiritual is a sacred mystery that words seldom describe.

Similar to the childhood game Memory, I lay the straight photographs I have made before me, and then in my own type of Chess play, I draw from and take away until all that is left is what is needed from my ever-growing image pool. Each arrangement of photographs completes a complex image phrase or poem. Each single photograph becomes a word that is derived from my mental dialect and when placed together the separate photographic words form visual sentences. Whereas some think only phonetically, I think not merely words, but more often in images, dreams, and visions.

There is a slight similarity between my Energy Fortress and the Buddhist Mandala. The Mandala is built with spiritualism in mind and often works as a form of spiritual map of the human soul. Because spiritualism is an important guiding force in my own work, this must be the reason for a strange unplanned parallel between the two different ways of making images. Also, both my images and Mandalas are made to be aids to deepen thought and increase mental activity. Concerning this connection, both image styles are, in a way, soulfully utilitarian.

My work is derived from images photographed from many diverse aspects of my everyday life and is not necessarily made to be viewed in one set sequence. But rather my work is to be understood as one would devour a secret poem, that one happened to stumble upon, in a brief tripping upon an obscure discovery from amidst the blinding noise. There is not always an inclination to read left to right when viewing an Energy String, nor is there a formulaic pattern one must follow in order to understand, but instead Energy Strings and Fortresses are made to be ever changing in a way similar to how our lives are constantly in flux.

Energy Strings, Energy Fortresses, and Image Poems are not designed to stimulate one beyond his or her own mental baggage. The viewer is key to the interpretation of the art I make. My work is not built with the expectation of some great happening, but rather is carved from the idea of solitary meditation and the art of listening very carefully for the gentle voice within the deafening gale. The imagination of a child is key to enjoying my imagery. It is the viewer’s vision that completes my work within his mind as new thoughts begin to spring forth as she ponders the significance or unusual complimentary pallet of the combination of the everyday simple parts of life merged with strikingly rare moments.