We recently connected with Bill Miller and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bill, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I studied commercial art at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PA. as well as Denver University and Colorado State University, concentrating on painting and printmaking. I returned to Pittsburgh to become art director for the local independent newspaper. I painted for many years and went on to be a founding member of an artist collective that sought to create a response to the devastating impact of decaying industrial infrastructure on surrounding communities near Pittsburgh by constructing immense sculptures inside abandoned industrial buildings from materials found on-site. While scavenging, I happened on scraps of vintage linoleum, and compulsively began collecting what was to become my new palette and principle medium. For me the material suggested impressionist paintings in the discarded colors and patterns that I found in the trash, and brought to mind artistic heroes such as Klimt and Matisse that created images that incorporated areas of flat patterns. My palette was limited by the scraps I had available, so my first mission was to accumulate as much material as possible by dumpster diving and scouring abandoned houses. Initially I created simple landscapes and tree images but the subject matters grew more ambitious and complex as I developed a feel for the medium and utilizing its found surface (I don’t add paint any paint so draw upon either the printed detail or its wear and tear.) I also needed to refine my construction technique allowing me to scale up and a wider range of images that drew on the natural world. collective memory, photos, pop culture, iconic news images and artistic references.

Bill, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Linoleum was the ultimate interior medium, present in all aspects of 20th century life from Grandma’s kitchen to the corner drug store and neighborhood school. My pictorial assemblages rely only on the flooring’s found surface, with no added paint, to render my subjects. I think my unexpected use of familiar patterns taps into the medium’s nostalgic qualities, imparting a sense of personal history and rediscovery within each piece.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’m most rewarded when I realize someone has a strong emotional response to my work. I have seen people with tears in their eyes as they look at my work at an exhibition. There could be many reasons for this but on occasions those moments were very profound and made me feel confident that I was on the right path as an artist. In particular, it can be very satisfying to see people first respond to the images only to then realize the medium, which often sparks a nostalgic layer to their response that amplifies the emotions.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the goal of “perfection” and surrender some of the creative end result to the medium’s inherent qualities. My process requires me to utilize the found surfaces on my material so, unlike painting, I cannot mix up an exact color or tone. And the roughness of the material means that details are are also rough and rendering works best when it harness gradations and details baked into the material. I learned over time that this roughness added to the universality of the images as the relative crudeness made faces into more of an “every” man or woman or place, for that matter.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.billmillerart.com
• Instagram: @billmillerart
• Facebook: Bill Miller-Vintage Linoleum Artwork
• Twitter: @bmillerart

Image Credits
Original artwork all made by me in 2022. 1. Childhood Dream, 60″ x 60″ 2. Every Day is Saturday, 60″ x 60″ 3. Return to Horsetooth, 54″ x 60″ 4. Maria and the Naked Tree, 72″ x 96″ 5. Midnight Forest, 60″ x 60″ 6. Paulette, 68″ x 48″ 7. T. V. Dinner, 60″ x 60″ 8. Self Portrait, 14″ x 11″