Nic Annette Miller Artist Statement
As I study a specific species to carve details out of wood and craft a surrounding earthscape, I feel connected to the land. I am drawn to learn about animal behavior and instinct–which reflect my own human psychology and instinctual nature–and to review intercultural relations through installation-based display. Though I am trained as a printmaker, it wasn’t until I carved my first woodcut that I connected to the art of craftsmanship and the possibility of print. It was also the start of a more intimate relationship with wood as a natural material and a way to think differently about wood as a positive matrix in need of carving.
I create sculptural woodcut prints through mounting pressed paper onto cut-out wood, which gives depth to the subject. Using wood as a material (paper), an image-making source (block), and sculptural form (mounted print), I build installations and evoke experiences, often of nostalgia. The act of carving a block is also time to study the subject as natural science and as a medium for storytelling. The layered process in production becomes a field study of my subject’s ecological and cultural environment.
Creating an edition compliments my installation work of building a short term grouped display in various physical spaces to add more context and narrative. For example, the fish prints have been on public display at markets or festivals, blending in alongside similar stands. Additionally, they can be wall mounted as a trophy or as a mural, playing with the environmental landscape or architecture.
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