Artist’s Statement
Kathy Miller’s work has increasingly become a reflection of her personal journeys, evoking a thread of time and connections. A language of symbols and codes along with discrete items of interest, bric-a-brac and vintage objects and collectibles are repurposed and juxtaposed, forming layers of surface and texture on both two- and three-dimensional pieces. It is this visual vocabulary that initiates contemplation and perhaps reveals new contexts that stimulate emotion, memory and transformation.

Recent General Background
Kathy has been involved with art her entire life. She is currently working in a San Diego Book Arts educational program designed to teach and inspire book arts to children of all ages. Recently she has taught book arts to teachers at the San Diego Museum of Art and to children at the Athenaeum Music and Art Library in La Jolla. She has also been an Artist in Residence at SDMA. Kathy can often be found volunteering in special bookmaking projects to serve disadvantaged children.

Explanation and Inspiration Behind Her Work
While hand setting type for her editioned artists’ books, Kathy found herself enamored with type as a three dimensional form and ventured forward to explore sculpture using mixed media.
The richly layered surfaces of these sculptures incorporate visual elements of mark making, writing, charts, patterns, letters and symbols. Beeswax is used to represent the nature of humanity. Shifu spun text, black thread, and wire represent words and their poetic flow. Architectural symbols denote patterns in or of life and vintage objects are repurposed, blending the old with a contemporary flare. A limited color palette alludes to nature as it avoids conflict with the underlying message of the work. Each piece is one-of-a-kind and makes its own statement.

Kathy has been influenced by: Leonardo da Vinci’s expressive use of line in his drawings and studies found in his notebooks; Cy Twombly and his writing of graffiti-like marks or scribbles; the work of Paul Klee as well as the automatic writing of the Surrealists; Robert Rauschenberg’s free style and his daring exploration of painting and printmaking techniques; and Eva Hesse, an innovative artist who introduced new textures presenting her highly original personal vision with integrity and intensity.

TEACHING and COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• Taking Art to the Neighborhoods, library project funded by San Diego Book Arts and The San Diego Foundation, 2004-2005
• Every Child Has a Voice, volunteer bookmaking project to serve all the Deaf and Hard of Hearing children in the San Diego City Schools. Funded by San Diego Book Arts and Thomas C. Ackerman Grant, 2003-2005
• Artist in Residence for the San Diego Museum of Art
• Animal Diorama, special volunteer project funded by the San Diego Book Arts with Bay Park Elementary School and the third grade classes, 2003
• SDCOE/Arts Network, bookmaking workshop for school administrators, 2003
• La Jolla Elementary School, bookmaking/art classes for students, grades second through six, 2002-2003
• Mission Valley Library River Book Project, special project funded by the San Diego Book Arts with Taft Middle School and John Paul Jones Elementary School, 2002
• Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, California: “Creating Handmade Books,” a one-week summer camp for students, 2002
• San Diego Museum of Art, consultant, Young Art Biennial, “The Art of the Book,” 2002
• San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego California, Book Arts Workshops for teachers:
  Book Arts, Enhancing Literacy with Collaborative Book Arts Projects, Make a Book in a Day, Book Arts: A Multitude of Ways to Make a Book, Books Throughout the Ages, Book Arts and Printmaking, Text + Structure=Visual Books with Flaps, Secrets, Pockets and More, 2000-2002
• 6 to 6, Book Arts Workshop for Teachers, City of San Diego after school program, 2000
• World.Press
  Board member, Mission Bay High School Publication Company

AFFILIATIONS

• San Diego Book Arts
  Present: Educational outreach program
  Past: Served on the board for nine years. Membership Chair , Coeditor of End Papers, the quarterly newsletter and the monthly Hot Sheet and Development Chair
• National Amateur Printing Association
  Treasurer for Western Division

FEATURED IN

• Hemmings, Jessica, “Telephone: Artists Connect to Artists, ” The visual artist speaks in a visual vocabulary, Surface Design Journal, Winter, 2004
• Kuhl, Candy, “Structuring a Collaboration: The Telephone Project,” FIBERARTS, Jan/Feb 2004 issue
• Hemmings, Jessica, “Chinese Whispers,” Textile Forum, March, 2003
• Bratten, Dawna, “Library opens artists’ books,” La Jolla Village News, Wednesday, October 23, 2002
• Weintraub, Diane, “Miniature Books,” Dog Eared Magazine, a journal of book arts, Issue VI, 2002
• Weintraub, Diane, “Pop-ups and Sculptural Books,” Dog Eared Magazine, a journal of book arts, Issue VII, 2002
• Bradbury, Robert C., Twentieth Century United States Miniature Books, 2000
• Mayo, John, The Microbibliophile, 2000
• Morton, Julia, “Book Arts,” The Publication, San Diego’s Arts Magazine, May/June 2000
• Mesa Visions, student literary magazine, Mesa College, San Diego, 1997

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
One-of-a-kind sculptural and editioned books, Kathy Miler/Iron Bear Press

• Museum of Modern Art, Franklin Furnace Collection, New York,
  New York
• National Museum for Women in the Arts, Library and Research Center, Washington D.C.
• Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, Permanent Collections, La Jolla, California
• Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, Special Collections, La Jolla
• Brown University, Rockefeller Library, Providence, Rhode Island
• Cerritos Public Library, Cerritos, California
• Cincinnati Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cincinnati Public Library, Cincinnati
• Duke University, Perkins Library, Durham, North Carolina
• Emory University Library, Atlanta Georgia
• Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington, Indiana
• Lilly Library, Fine Arts Library, MBS Archives, Bloomington
• Occidental College Library, Rounce and Coffin Club, Los Angeles, California
• Otis College of Art and Design Library, Los Angeles
• San Diego State University, Malcolm Love Library, San Diego, California
• Tufts University Library, Boston, Massachusetts
• University of Arizona Library, Tucson, Arizona
• University of California Library, Los Angeles
• University of California Library, Santa Barbara, California
• University of California, Mandeville Special Collections, San Diego
• University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa
• University of North Texas Library, Denton, Texas
• University of San Diego, Helen K. and James S. Copley Library, San Diego
• University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Tulsa, Oklahoma

EXHIBITIONS

2005

• Fourteenth Annual Juried Exhibition, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, California
• Bay Park Press, Prints and Artists’s Books, invitational
• Recent Acquisitions from the Athenaeum’s Artists’ Books and Artworks Collection, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, California
• Fifth Biennial Artists’ Books Juried Exhibition, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, California, honorable mention

2004

• Hot Wax & Women, five women encaustic show, Boehm Gallery, San Marcos, California
• Imagine That, La Jolla Fiber Arts, La Jolla, national juried book arts exhibition
• Books Prints Paper, Bay Park Press, San Diego, California, curated invitational

2003

• Under Cover, Saint Louis Missouri Artists’ Guild, juried national book arts exhibition
• The Telephone Project, Artists Connect to Artists, La Jolla Fiber Arts, La Jolla, curated invitational
• San Diego Book Arts Show, Durango Arts Center, Durango, Colorado
• San Diego Book Arts Seventh Member’s Fall Exhibition, San Diego State University, Love Library, San Diego, California

2002

• Featured in 2nd Biennial Artists’ Book Competition, University of North Texas Libraries, juried national book arts exhibition

  Simple Words—Simple Questions?, site specific installation, a collaboration with Judy Christensen, Sally Hagy-Boyer and Lisa Olson, Art Produce Building, San Diego, California
• 4th Annual Juried Exhibition, Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, California
• Fourth Biennial Artists’ Books Juried Exhibition, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, California, Honorable Mention
• Eleventh Annual Juried Exhibition, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, Honorable Mention
• The Art of the Book, San Diego Museum of Art, curated invitational
• Books: Beyond the Binding, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, curated invitational
• Art of the Book, University of Indianapolis, Cristel Dehaan Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana, curated invitational
• Books with a Japanese Theme, Japanese Friendship Garden, San Diego
• Book Arts, The Next Door Gallery, San Diego
• San Diego Book Arts Sixth Member’s Fall Exhibition, San Diego State University, Love Library, San Diego, California
• San Diego Book Arts, River Book Show, Mission Valley Library, San Diego

2001

• San Diego Book Arts Fifth Member’s Fall Exhibition, SDSU, Love Library
• The Art of Books, The Next Door Gallery, San Diego
• Miniature Book Society Traveling Exhibition, juried exhibition
• Book Arts, Oceanside Library (solo exhibit), Oceanside, California
• Artists Books, Oceanside Public Library, Oceanside

2000

• text and texture, the art of the book, University of San Diego, Founders Gallery, San Diego
• The Days of the Handmade Book, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, Indiana, juried exhibition
• Miniature Book Society Traveling Exhibition, juried exhibition

1999

• Bound & UnBound, Small Presses of California, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, curated invitational
• Book Arts, Exploring the Diverse Spectrum of Book Arts, The Next Door Gallery, San Diego
• A Decade of Printmaking, Earl & Birdie Taylor Library, San Diego
• Book Arts, Kettner Studio Arts Building, San Diego

1998

• San Diego Book Arts Second Annual Exhibition of Artists Books, SDSU, Love Library
• Valdosta Works on Paper X, Valdosta State University, Georgia, juried exhibition
• Coos Museum of Art, Coos Island, Washington, juried exhibition

1997

• San Diego Book Arts Inaugural Exhibition, SDSU, Love Library
• Spring Student Exhibition, Mesa College, San Diego
• Western Books Exhibition, Rounce and Coffin Club, Occidental College Library, Los Angeles, juried exhibition
• Print Fair, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego

1996

• Miniature Book Society Traveling Exhibition, juried exhibition
• Artists’ Books, Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, juried exhibition
• Spring Exhibition, Mesa College, San Diego