On a cold January evening, I ventured on my bike downtown to the David B Smith gallery to experience the artwork of one, Liz Miller. Miller was asked to make a site specific installation as part of a celebration of the opening of the Clifford Still Museum here in Denver. This major piece of work, Recalcitrant Memesis 2012, was a gallery installation consisting of intricately shaped large felt pieces, hung in a rhythmic order, overlapping and connecting at diagonal angles, and suspended from the ceiling along one wall of the gallery. The colors used in this piece were warm hues of mustard yellow, crimson red, soft cream and rich plum. This gave it a striking presence within the white walls and caramel wooden floors of the space. The size of the installation was thirty feet long, 4 to 6 feet wide, and stretched towards the ceiling at 10 feet in height. The specific shapes of the felt pieces that made up this work of art were forms inspired by Still’s paintings. Miller’s thoughts on Still’s work are that it is aggressive and unbalanced which contributes to the power his work expresses to the viewer.
A theme that Liz makes clear in her work is her use of low tech methodology. For example she hand cuts her designs rather than having them machine cut. The low tech ‘immediate sculpture’ creates three dimensional forms in a painterly style by layering colors and using a flat material. Her low tech method combined with the use of symmetrical shapes and organic repetition achieves striking art work that harmonizes energetically with the bright colors and hard edges of the silhouettes.
Liz speaks of the constant layering and editing needed for this installation as if she is painting. The way she works with the unique feeling of this space shows how space itself is paramount to her overall methodology. The feel of each gallery changes the artists’ process, in turn shaping the way the piece will communicate with the viewer. Liz emphasizes the importance of a structured and planned idea to then enable the freedom of abandoning that formal planning. This touches on her desire to balance order and chaos within an artistic work.
Common principles of design that inspires Liz Miller are symmetry and repetition because of the calming and positive feelings a person can infer from these qualities. She achieves balance by contrasting flatness and dimensionality, painting and sculpture, order and chaos, beauty and devastation. Another theme is mixing organic and inorganic shapes, creating a “fiction of narrative” as she puts it, within her work. An example of this is a past work, Repetitive Deception Scheme 2011, in which she has taken the shapes of weapons and abstracted them by mirroring their image, then repeating this new shape in colorful felt installations reminiscent of a psychedelic dinosaur ribcage. Liz expresses that her current artistic practice resonates through new projects and she communicates that this influence happens consciously and/or unconsciously in all artists’ work. A friend observed in her Memesis piece, that she had “made a weapon out of Stills work.” This suggests strongly to me that there is an inherent interconnectedness of context and content, and making art becomes, as Miller states, “a dialog with your own life.” It is made obvious that the artist is aware of the concept of abstract art by her playing with the viewers perceptions through these shapes in the arrangement and color.
It was really eye opening to see someone’s work and hear them talk about themselves, their process, the things they are drawn to and why. It really communicated to me the importance of context within artwork and I connected so much more to the art once I heard Liz’ statement. Her strong Minnesotan accent colored the lecture, drew me into the stories she was telling, and made her presentation that much more interesting. I asked her after the lecture if she had any advice for a young person who makes art but isn’t fully self aware of her motives in her process. She reassured me to keep making art, and that kind of understanding can come later. This statement inspires me to constantly become more aware of my choices within my artistic process, to not be afraid to change things, ask myself why am using certain elements and how those choices are effected by space and use of opposing principals.