The Festival of Subterranean Delight

(6" x 9" cotton canvas sheet glued to latex paper. Acrylic paint, india ink and gesso)

"The Festival of Subterranean Delight"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

The Aboriginal University of Uncivilized Storytelling

 
                                                                                             SOLD
(approx. 8" x 7 " - acrylic paint, india ink and gesso on cotton rag paper glued to a 3/16" thick wood panel)

I've been thinking about stories lately and the ways we are so used to reading them and relating them to other people. We've developed conventions about storytelling but I believe some of the best stories come to us in the language of dreams where the beginning is at the center and the end is in the middle of the beginning...

"The Aboriginal University of Uncivilized Storytelling"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

Gloria in the Sky with Imogene

Acrylic paint on cotton rag paper glued to wood. approx. 8 1/8" x 8 1/8"

"Gloria in the Sky with Imogene"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

The Servants of Salome

I painted "The Servants of Salome" with acrylic paint, india ink and gesso onto a cotton canvas sheet glued to a piece of (approximately 6" x 6") watercolor paper. This painting features rich copper colors with hints of gold.

The Substitute Daughters of Wilhemina

                                                                                                                          SOLD

(Acrylic Paint and gesso on a 6" x 9" unstretched acrylic canvas sheet glued to latex paper)

This painting explores how grief and desire torment us with their doppelgangers, substitutes and mirages for something or someone no longer apparently there.


"The Substitute Daughters of Wilhemina"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rigths reserved.

Oh, When You Leave This Earth

Acrylic paint, india ink and gesso on approximately 6" x 9" unstretched cotton canvas attached to board.

The afterlife I’ve learned about and wondered about as a young black girl growing up in the church is sometimes overshadowed by the afterlife I believe I visit in my dreams. A place populated with familiar yet unfamiliar landscapes, departed ancestors and strangely shaped beings. Where do reality, history, heritage, belief, truth and imagination converge?

"Oh, When You Leave This Earth"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

The Rebirth of Sunday

Acrylic paint and india ink on 6" x 9" latex paper

The Show (Creative Process)

(Acrylic paint, india ink and gesso on 6" x 9" latex paper)

This painting combines my 1980’s childhood and teenage memories of a violent, gritty, gaudy and decadent Times Square in New York with my “grown-up” reflections on the so-called underworld of sex, outcasts, masquerade, stereotypes and exploitation.

Process:

I started this painting with no set intention and and completed a draft of it which you can see below. I left it in this state for awhile thinking I had finished it, though I felt unsatisfied. I contemplated this painting for a few days and wrote about it until, to my surprise, the New York Times Square imagery opened up and I began to weave it into the overall work. As with most of my work, I created this painting with acrylic paint and india ink.



On writing about a painting I've created:

A lot of the writing I do for a painting, in order to understand it more deeply, comes in the form of stream of consciousness and poetry. This approach works very well for me because much of my work comes out of dreams and visions I've had or are currently experiencing. A lot of what I write seems very disconnected from what I've actually created but after ahwile it begins to come together and feel more meaningful to me. It is not always easy to create something from an unconscious place and then try to make sense of it. I've wrestled with this for awhile and decided that it's best to experience what I've created, enter into it and then try to integrate it into a framework that eventually I can accept.

On writing about this particular painting, "The Show"

There is a particular kind of corrupt innocence with which I look at the world which makes paintings like this one fairly cathartic to me. I am facinated by masks, puppets and puppeteers and look back on those waning days of the "real" Times Square with a disturbing nostalgia for the overwhelming presence of peep shows, drug dealers, addicts, arcades, homeless people, filthy movie theaters and prostitutes. Who wasn't a puppet back then? Who's not a puppet right now? And why would anyone actually miss those days in New York and long for them again? What's so wonderful about prostitution, poverty, sex addiction and drug addiction? I guess that depends on who you ask. In truth, although this city took great strides to hide these "undesirables" they still exist - in us and among us. That's why so many people come from around the world to catch just one whiff of what Times Square was before Disney did to it what it did to Grimm's Fairy Tales. Well, for me those days in New York haven't gone away they've simply been driven deeper underground. Times Square was to many people what the internet is now. But to think that the Times Square of today as merely just a wonderful, safe and clean place for tourists with their children to visit and enjoy amuses me because the notion is merely another affectation and mask. [Whew! There goes my native New Yorker cynicism again. At least I'm smiling :) ]

Power of Attorney

Gesso, acrylic inks and paints on 4.25" x 4.25" ceramic tile

The internal and external battle for freedom, power and control.

The Dissent of Sorena Sodby #1 - A Surrealable

oil pastels, acrylic and india ink on 8.5 x 11 vellum paper

A Surrealable: Comic Surrealism (Bassa Bassa Arts Style)- Where stories are streetcars as much as they are baskets of overripe fruit.

Now just who, or what is Sorena Sodby?

Stay tuned for "The Dissent of Sorena Sodby #2"

"The Dissent of Sorena Sodby"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

More Surreal Comics...

Website

Promise

Pencil, ink, acrylc paint and gesso on approximately 10" x 6 and 3/4" paper.

"Promise"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

I'mprettyamIpretty?

pencil, ink, acrylic paint and gesso on approximately 10" by 6 and 3/4" paper.

"I'm pretty am I pretty?"
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

Cabin in the Sky

Lena Horne was laid to rest yesterday. I drew this while ruminating on her life and legacy.

"Cabin in the Sky"
pencil, ink and gesso on paper
by Tiffany Osedra Miller
Copyright 2010
all rights reserved.

Sugarhill and Gemini

Forget 'Bonnie and Clyde,' but beware 'Sugarhill and Gemini' they'll take your dolls, then steal your dreams.


Acrylic ink, paint and gesso on 14" x 17" vellum paper

Recollection

"Recollection" is my piece exploring what carnival culture means to me as a child of Caribbean immigrants to the U.S.

Acrylic paint and ink on 6" x 9" latex paper.

Check out my new Website

Bassagirl in Sao Paolo -"This Woman is Not Called Jasmine"

Eric Marechal of the wonderful, Street Art Without Borders wheatpasted another one of my paintings on paper - this time in Sao Paolo, Brazil! More to come.

Check out some more of my work pasted by Eric, here: