We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colette Miller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colette Miller below.

Hi Colette, thanks for joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I was creative and trying to survive as an artist where ever I lived. As a child I skipped recess outside to paint and draw in the Art room. As an adult the passion didn’t die I’d sacrifice for my art because I felt lost if I didn’t.

Early years-at art school, VCU I also pursued bands in Richmond VA where I was in the formative years of GWAR a growing experience where we lived in an old ware house that had corners shaped like giant milk bottles. When I moved to South Africa early 90s I wrote a rock concert based on the chakras and lit the stage in the corresponding colors. I had a few art exhibits there and back in NYC acted in a 16 millimeter feature, a film basically shot on the streets . This was before the World Trade Center fell .One day during this time I had flown over the city with friends in a Cessna (we had been filming a “Rock Video” for my then band Dayglow Aborigines )The premise was ,we would bomb the commercialized art world of Soho.We had made these paper mache red bombs we were throwing out the window for the scene (after marking the Soho area on the Subway map with a big red X) The “bombs ” just flew skyward to the winds. In the footage you see the World Trade Center. I was always painting throughout this time and my art is a journal of my eras and where my mind was.

When I finally moved to LA I embraced street art .LA is probably the best city for street art in the world-and came up with the concept of the Global Angel Wings Project. It is a reflection on humanity and our higher natures. Inviting people to become part of the mural and hopefully meditate on our higher selves for a moment. Take flight.Later, a couple years after I started and it had become a bit known, through social media and press, I noticed lots of interactive wings popping up. Some with huge hashtags,advertising campaigns or other things like instagram handles .What I didn’t want was the Global Angel Wings to be confused with other artists or to become ‘basic’, just Wings without the organic history-become too commercial. GlobalAngelWingsProject was in a way, a response AGAINST advertising. With my wings I’d like the original intent ,idea and where it came from understood.”The streets of the City of Angels To remind humanity we are the Angels of this Earth”.

I’ve seen AMAZING self portraits, breathtaking poses. I’d love to make a coffee table book with them.

I’ve done them in impoverished areas , orphanages in China ,Juarez , for street kids in Kenya and War Refugees camps, some on my own funds -without pay. Nonetheless however it IS interpreted- a moment of joy ,memory of a location, (not trying to steer its rorschach ) I just hope the founding idea is not lost of the Global Angel Wings Project.

Colette, 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?

Colette Miller artist best known for Global Angel Wings project

“My art is inspired by my heart, dreams, philosophies, memories, psychic or intuitive forces and color and movement. I never consider a painting finished until I reach a point of love for the piece,

I presented at TEDx TALK Culver City on GlobalAngelWingsProject.

My mother grew up in Holland and Indonesia and my father in America, My mother was a war refugee from the Dutch East Indies, my father was born in the South of the USA at the height of the American depression. I have four other siblings, My big family was unique ,difficult at times but my parents gave us sound principals of honesty and self reliance . We built our own house my father designed in Virginia,passive solar . I feel globally connected. Having traveled extensively, I’ve sold and shown work internationally and been influenced by many cultures including Middle East, Europe, Japan, China, Tibet, Africa (where I painted a mural for an orphanage in Tanzania and Kenya) and the Americas. I find one’s environment to be very influential, emotionally, physically and mentally on what one is inspired to paint.

The philosophies of nature and mankind are universal. Humanity craves beauty, love, acceptance, enlightenment and faith in the human race. We all desire it and can attain it if we believe in ourselves. Every soul in this universe is a star. Find your inner light. It’s a lifelong quest that’s actually worth it.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m not sure you choose to be an artist but some of us are more prone and passionate about living a creative side of things. In my early years I didn’t have a lot of resources or money. I had graduated from art school and had broken up with my first real boyfriend the lead singer of GWAR (Dave Brockie) and kicked out of the bands formative years (long story), a big disappointment at the time but as an artist I had my own path. I continued painting ,travelled. I travelled with almost nothing. I worked my way across Europe part of the middle east , picked oranges, flowers, olives, worked at restaurants and bars. Slept in tents. Sold paintings occasionally. When I got back to the USA I moved to NYC and ,as we all know can be a financial struggle but I maintained my spirit and found like minded friends and we lived hand to mouth ,sometimes subletting, sleeping on couches and still trying to do bands and painting.

I didn’t need a lot of money or a nice place to live if I lived on the spirit of Art .It kept me alive. We filmed a movie on 16 millimeter called “For the Longest Time” The director was a friend I had met in South Africa that moved to NYC. It’s interesting because most of it was filmed on the streets of NYC in the 1990s. A glorious time with the streets wild and rich in eccentricity and creatives.

I performed in my own band Dayglo Aborigines ,lived in an Art gallery on the Lower East Side until we couldnt affor delectricity n the dead of winter and painted.

Eventually NYC priced even my punk out so as a struggling artist I decided to try LA , Americas next biggest world city and that is where I joined the IATSE 729 union working on film sets and I came up with the Global Angel Wings idea and acted on it. I had literally had some type of vision where I would imagine huge divine type wings on the rustic industrial walls around the City of Angels.

I paint many other paintings and sell some of those also, nature, animals a bit mystical at times, quirky . I believe I would paint with or with out recognition because its ,makes me feel grounded.

The other day I was outside in Harlem working on my wings under the bridge by 111th street /Park ave and even though I can be stressed ,angry and so many other human emotions like we all are ,I realized I was really happy and at peace at that moment, PAINTING- for free even. So as the old saying goes, do what makes you happy.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Specifically the Global Angel Wings Project has its mission which I share below in full:

GLOBAL ANGEL WINGS MISSION STATEMENT

Colette Miller created the Global Angels Wings Project in 2012, in the streets of Los Angeles, the CIty of Angels. They were painted to remind humanity that We are the Angels of this Earth. They are human sized interactive public art, wings that people take photos with and thus become part of the artwork. The first pair was just street art but the response was natural, immediate, and spontaneous – from people of all sorts and backgrounds. Colette has painted wings globally – Kenya, Moscow, Australia, Europe, England, Dubai, World Trade Center ,Japan, Cuba, Juarez Mexico, China and more, and many in the USA. Though some are commissioned and others gifted, the wings themselves are free to the world. Never owned by anyone, not even Colette, though they are of her provenance and her work.

My personal mission is to leave something good ,from the heart and I hope truthful in the world. No one knows how long we live, who we will love or who will loves us. I am as mixed up as the next human. I think I try to get in touch with my confusions and ‘demons’ as best I can. Meditate on my flaws. I think greed, deviousness has been rewarded materially in the world. Sometimes I found out the back story of some ways people became wealthy and its not something I respect.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.colettemiller.com
• Instagram: @colettemillerwings
• Facebook: colettemillerartist
• Linkedin: colette miller
• Twitter: colettemiller
• Youtube: colettemiller
• Other: www.globalangelwingsproject.com

Image Credits
colette miller