Artist in Residence Spring 2009
Introducing Gary Miller
The Environmental Art Program is pleased to announce our Artist-in-Residence, Gary Miller. Gary has been creating sculpture in wood and other materials for more than thirty-five years, and is an active member of the Philadelphia art and education community. During his residency, Gary will be working in a studio in the Wiel house. He will present two projects this spring and summer:
Gary's Project with the Green Woods Charter School
A Meadow by the Green Woods will focus on a student-created meadow populated by strange and beautiful flowers, insects, birds, letters, numbers and words constructed from painted aluminum, wood, and found objects. The students' designs will be informed by the research they do on a particular plant or animal. Their research will then be used as the launching point for the creation of their own imaginative and colorful species.
A Meadow by the Green Woods will be unveiled at The Schuylkill Center's Earth Day Energy Festival on April 18, 2009.
Gary will also be developing a group of sculptures titled A Rake's Progress inspired by farming implements, as well as historic literature on agriculture. The sculptures, constructed primarily from tree limbs and branches collected from the center's 365 acres and supplied by local arbor services, will visually reference and celebrate wooden farming tools commonly in use during the 1800's. In keeping with the location and theme, the artist will rely mainly on woodworking tools similar to those used by the plowrights, wainwrights and blacksmiths from that period in Brolo Hill Farm's history and will construct much of the eight pieces on site. These sculptures will be installed in the Brolo Hill Farm barn and will open to the public in June.
Gary currently teaches three-dimensional design in the Upper School Art Department at Germantown Friends School and serves on the Board of Young Audiences of Eastern Pennsylvania and Woodmere Art Museum's Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee. He also chairs their Education and Collections Committees.
