Artist Adam Miller Uses His Talent for Good
By Jillian Locke

The holiday season is almost upon us, and with the holidays comes need. The greatest exercise of talent is to use your personal gifts for those in said need. Enter illustrator/fine artist Adam Miller, who happened to be looking for a gallery show at precisely the right time. Miller will be showcasing three pieces at the Aurora Gallery on Main Street in Worcester for their Pop Euphoria, Charity Art Exhibition to benefit Toys for Tots show from 12/5/08-1/9/09.

At 30 years old, Miller has evolved from photographer to illustrator to fine artist, creating vibrant, almost fairytale-like images for the better part of the past decade. An alum of Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Miller’s path unfolded naturally for him. “Initially, I was a Photography major,” Miller explains. “I also took illustration classes because I enjoyed it. For my junior year review, I submitted a large body of photography and a smaller section of illustration pieces. The faculty said my photographs were too commercial for Fine Arts, but my illustrations were some of the strongest they had seen in the school. So, I switched majors.”

He may have switched majors, but he never completely strayed from his original passion for photography. “I incorporate photography into all of my illustrations. I use found images and my own photography, and then draw and paint on the images. Everything I do always has a photography element to it.” The three pieces Miller will be showing include an illustration of The Joker (Batman), a fine art piece entitled Boy with Cape, and a fresh piece of a Luchadore (masked Mexican wrestler).

Miller has done myriad gallery shows and has even set up shop at a few comic book conventions, most recently at the San Diego Comic-Con, where he had the privilege of setting up at the same convention as his ultimate art hero and greatest influence, Dave McKean, most notably known for his work on graphic novels with fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. But it was Miller’s time to shine. “People must not know what to think when they see me doing illustrations at conventions, dipping my brush into my cup of coffee and using white-out. I also use paint, scissors, tape, text, finger prints, sometimes rubber stamps, and lots of glue sticks…what I love the most, though, is when I see someone get really close to one of my pieces, like they’re trying to figure out how I did it.”

The question clearly begs an answer. “I call it ‘xerography,’” Miller explains. “It basically means I photocopy all of the images and then add to them. I don’t use a computer for any of it. I’m computer free,” laughs Miller. “It may become a tool eventually.”

In addition to gallery shows and conventions, Miller has been busy finishing a comic book cover for Murder Road in conjunction with Geoff Mosse, the writer behind the story. He’s also working on the illustrations for his first children’s book in collaboration with writer Renee Mallet, with the working title Too Many Queens for Queen City, through Schiffer Publishing. “I’m a working/showing artist, which means that I take it seriously, and am not just a weekend warrior.” In other words, Miller is fighting the good fight, for both art and kids in need.

Check out his work at www.myspace.com/adammillerart and exhibition info at www.moduslotus.com.