February, 2004

So its been a few months and I haven't worked on this site. It's about time too. I have been working slowly but surely all this time and I have plenty of work to show for it. I got caught up in not working with my things digitally for a few months and so I felt like I had to catch up. I scanned in and added 20 new images to the artwork page. The best part is that's only some of it. There are plenty more images that I didn't feel like scanning in. Also, none of these images are from The Book Of Grids which is probably one o the more important gridworks of our time. The second vollume is being drawn as we speak and promises to be more intense than the first. Eventually I would like to do something with them... have them printed or animated or something.

Anyway... I applied to the University of Minnesota for their graduate program in painting and drawing. I am awaiting news on that which is not very fun at all. I would really like to continue to study art in an academic setting and their facilities are amazing. Enough about that.

Yeah, so I'm going to keep drawing grids and a few odds and ends here and there. I also have a new 12" x 12" lino cut print that could be your bands next album cover. Or it can just be a funny picture of a demon with 6 heads. I like sci-fi books and recently bought 3 books and a specialty bookstore. I listen to the radio all the time even though I have a bunch of records. After work I sit on the couch or my bed and read sci-fi or draw grids while the radio is on. Occasionaly I watch movies or Mr. Show episdoes. Soon I am going on trips to South Caroline and to the Pacific NorthWest. Feel free to send me postcards (thtats right: snail mail postcards) at: 2123 13th Ave S, MPLS MN, 55404. If you do I would be inclined to send you a Grid By Post at no charge to you. So kids, remember to wash your ears and don't forget about that tabasco.

thank you very much, goodnight.

November, 2003

Hot damn its been a long time since I've updated this site. Well, there is a good reason I assure you. First and foremost - I have moved to the wonderful Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. I moved because I finally got a kind-of real job. I work for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity through AmeriCorps. That means that I help address affordable housing issues by going to work everyday and building affordable houses. Its not glamorous and I am a stipended volunteer which means that I am still broke. Other than that I have met and live with a new group of people and none of them make art, let alone draw grids. I think this is a good thing. Another reason why I haven't updated is because I don't have access to computers the way I did in Menomonie. That means this and future updates will be very sporadic and probably not contain too many changes. Sorry.

Officially, Down and Out Studios exists on the corner of our kitchen table. I have a part of a wall where I can hang things up that I am working on. One benefit from my new job is the materials. I have already begun making small paintings from scraps of wood I got out of the dumpster at work. I can't oil paint right now so the work is all done with drawing media and acrylics. I am really excited about it as I have begun to limit my color pallette so that I can focus more on line quality and develop each grid without having to make a million different decisions. Hopefully I will be able to add new images to the artwork page sometime in the next month or so.

Currently I am working on an application for the graduate program at the Unniversity of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I really like living in Minneapolis and the new art building at the U seems to be fantastic. I don't really know any of the faculty and I'm not sure of what they thing of grids, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Speaking of grids, The Book of Grids is completed and I have begun work on a second volume. The more I work on these books the more I think that they will be a part of my work forever. Side Note: a new self interview has been completed and will be added when it is typed.

July, 2003

Not too much has happened in the last month. My situation is relatively the same. I have added a new page to the artwork section with some more recent work. Eventually I will fill that page with some older work that I will have to scan in from slides. If anyone knows of a way for me to transfer digital images to slide, please e-mail me. I also have a small page on the site Vlad Art Galleries with some of the images from this site. In addition I have been working on some drawings that will possibly be used for the band Deathfirst who will be putting out a 7" later this year. That's about it. Cheers.

Currently I am working in Menomonie, WI. Down and Out Studios is in the garage of the house that I live at. At the end of summer I will be moving to Minnapolis/St. Paul area where I will have a job for a year. Right now I am researching art co-ops in the Twin Cities area to see if one of them will fit my needs. Hopefully I will be applying to graduate school again next winter.

 

June, 2003

self interview 06:15:03

Q: What is it that you want to do?

A: I want to create things. Mostly I want to have the time and resources to pursue my creative interests and appreciate fully my human interactions.

Q: What is it that you wish to create?

A: Lately I have been interested in the absurdity of it all... creating are especially. I ahve become more aware recently of how amusing the process of making/selling art has become in our society. If you work a certain way, unless the people are familiar with what you have done in the past, they tend to say things like: "I don't get it" or "what does it mean." While these are interesting things to say it is difficult to tell them that finding meaning is subjective and that I do not want to tell them what to think. I am more interested in the materials and the formal elements that go in to making art. In some works meaning is irrelevant as far as I am concerned. What I wish to create has started to take more of these things into account. I do not want to create in a way that leaves the viewer confused and feeling ignorant about art. I certainly can not be around always to tell them what I think, so my work should reflect that I believe art is absurd and that the viewer should not feel threatened by it. Recently I have been drawing more, on a smaller scale - in the areas between illustration and comics/cartoons.

Q: Don't you think this is a denial of what you have learned about art? Isn't the way you draw or paint remiscent of children's/outsider art, when in fact you have studied art in an academic setting for years?

A: Ahhh... the question I've been dying to ask myself. Really, it is besides the point. I subscribe to an aesthetic that emphasizes the immediate and the materials/processes that are used in art making. As I understand it, an outsider is motivated by the internal drive to create and does so with out much knowledge of the history and trends of the artworld. In some ways I wish that was possible for me. I believe that with a heavy-handed approach that is focused on immediacy, I am allowed greater freedom to pursue my changing interests. Instead of worrying so much about the outcome, I can turn my attention to the more formal elements and be present in the moment of making. I find it to be all the more relevent when you take into consideration that I grew up watching cartoons and that I have a relatively short attention span. To not utilize these things would be to deny my own personal history.

Q: Do you ever feel discouraged about your future as an artist?

A: Everytime that I pick up my pen or my brush or even some clay, I am discouraged.

Q: Is that counter-productive? How do you work at all when you have those feelings.

A: The answer is not all that difficult. YOu have to work through those feeling of discouragement. Even though I am discouraged often I can't very well stop making things. If I did stop, all I would think about is how much I wish I was still making things. Ofcourse things have happened in the past that have made me feel like my artmaking was completely pointless. Instead of stopping I decided to use that as my main motivation for creating. Often times I do not feel normal unless I have been working on something. I also feel that being discouraged is a natural thing

Q: What do you think about your future?

A: Generally, I try not to think about my future all that much. Things happen beyond my control and I have to adapt. I am much more interested in livingmy life in the present. I have come to believe things will work out one way or another and I should be adaptable to what happens. I do have aspirations but I don't think it is productive or creative to have only one or two goals and not allow for other things to happen. Life, after all, is about being alive, living etc. Art is no different than life.

 

 

All images and work on this website are the propertie of A. Bill Miller and Down and Out Studios. Use of any of the information or images can be arranged through A. Bill Miller through the contact page.