Erin Miller’s art often starts with an obsession. In “Lucky Charm Casino,” her exhibition of print-based work showcased last summer at the Galveston Arts Center, she dived into the maximalist patterns of casino carpeting, exploring both the stimulative effects and the sinister intentions behind the markings that are intended to keep patrons drinking, eating and playing.
Miller doesn’t gamble, but in the carpet patterns and casino layouts she found connections with her own experiences with SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They are antidepressants used to treat depression and anxiety.
“I’m always curious about what’s going on in my brain,” Miller says. “Even the way the casinos were laid out is very purposeful, and looking at them from a bird’s-eye view reminded me of these medical drawings of SSRI pathways. From there, I was like, that was a really specific thing, and I want to make it broader or a little bit more abstracted.”
In addition to creating her own art, Miller is a print lab manager and studio art lecturer. She manages all print spaces in the College of Fine Arts, including the lithography lab, the papermaking studio and the mostly analog print department’s computer room that also houses her small office — although she prefers to work out in the bustling print lab.
“This room is just magical,” Miller says. “All of the presses in a row, all of the lighting.”
I hate that stereotype of the starving artist. There are ways that this is fruitful.
Miller says she loves that she gets to do something new every day, whether that’s fixing equipment that needs some love or holding demonstrations for students on certain techniques. She teaches everything from papermaking to Risograph printing, a form of digital screen-printing known for vivid colors. She’s always working on something different, but the repetitive process of printmaking is a comfort.
“It’s quite soothing,” Miller says. “It feels almost like yoga practice, the pulling of the press, the rolling up of a stone or a plate. It all feels, for me, therapeutic.”
Miller says she wanted to make art from the very beginning, recalling that she would often cope with difficult experiences as a kid by drawing.
“I always thought I was bad at art because I couldn’t draw something hyperrealistic,” Miller says. “It took growing up to be like, ‘Oh, that’s not art. That’s just one tiny part.’”
She had a hard time deciding what she wanted to do in college, spending her first year at UT with an undeclared major. After a year, Miller craved community and knew she wanted to enter a smaller program. Art was the only thing she could think of that she wanted to do, and she ended up on the print track, which she calls a “built-in community.”
“It’s kind of a scary decision because (an art career) still has that stigma of, ‘How are you going to make money?’” Miller says. “I hate that stereotype of the starving artist. There are ways that this is fruitful.”
After she graduated, Miller joined a community print shop in Houston before going to graduate school for print at Cornell University. She was teaching in Ithaca, New York, when she got a call from one of her undergraduate teaching assistants letting her know there was an opening for a print tech at UT. Miller moved back to Texas before she even got the job.
“I was worried coming back to a place where I was a student,” Miller says. “Am I still going to be perceived as a student? … But it feels nice to come back to a place and now be a peer with some of my mentors from 10 years ago.”
Miller says she sees print as very different from other art media due to its collaborative nature. At the University print labs, Miller can help students with their projects while creating her own work, seeking feedback from students and faculty alike.
“In print, there’s so many people around all the time,” Miller says. “Without knowing, you’re always influenced by the people around you making things.”
Miller teaches one class a semester, with her spring class covering monotype, a technique that creates a singular print and doesn’t allow for replicates.
“I love monotypes because in the language of monotype we have a thing called a ghost print,” Miller says. “I’m interested in all the pseudoscience and thinking about the ghost and the memory of the print that came before it. I’m always interested in how you can work with that memory.”
Though printmaking often involves paper, Miller incorporates different materials and disciplines into her art. Structure in particular is important to her, as is how people interact with the art, but sometimes paper doesn’t cut it.
“I’m very interested in letting the materials do their thing,” Miller says. “I feel like they’re performing, and I’m invited onto the stage as one of those participatory audience members.”
Miller had brain surgery last year, a life-altering experience requiring a lot of recovery time. Printmaking typically requires plates or stones, and Miller had to think of ways to make prints from home that weren’t so physically demanding. She started doing repetitive mark making pieces that she could bring in to print when she felt better.
“I was thinking of the body while also finding a way to embrace the limitations of the body,” Miller says. “It was a lot of preparation, which was a different way of working because usually I’m very impulsive. I do a lot of physical, actual printmaking, and then I’ll add to it, and it’s very immediate. This literally forced me to slow down, and I think that’s been really rewarding.”
Miller says she was thinking about what was happening in her brain as she worked, incorporating ideas about perception, brain chemistry, neural pathways and the ways that our brains alter our states.
“I’m interested in making work that could be perceived as a lot of different things,” Miller says.
Miller says it’s rare to have a job where she gets to make her own work, and although she would love to teach full time someday, she appreciates every moment she can spend in the print lab.
“Everyone looks out for each other here,” Miller says. “It just felt right. It’s the only thing I want to do. … I can’t stray away from it.”
