ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Natalie Miller
Natalie Miller is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. Known for her vibrant use of color on canvas, Natalie is a trained graphic designer who graduated from Oklahoma Christian University in 2007 with a BFA in Graphic Design. She draws inspiration from the bold geometry and vivid line work of traditional native art. Large-scale canvases explore linear abstractions and venturous color combinations, creating a flow from one canvas to the next. Her innate ability to combine tones, colors, and shapes stems from her background in graphic and textile design. Your eye immediately notices the tonal balance and elements of extreme contrast. She interprets and explores the surface of symbolic textures and imagery to a more contemporary renewal. Acrylic on canvas is her main medium with accents of multi-colored leafing.
Inspired by textiles, colors and textures of fashion and nature, and a love for saturated colors, Miller enjoys merging visual graphics and line work that reference her Chickasaw heritage. Inspired by her great grandpa’s tie and the overlapping of past and present history, she captures this in her Mahota Textiles Artist’s Collection blanket titled, Embraced.
“” I know the meaning behind my paintings, but it doesn’t necessarily scream what my inspiration is. You can like my pieces without knowing what inspired [them], because color evokes emotion and in all my art, that’s my goal: to have the person viewing it feel something.””
EMBRACED
This design is part of the "Embraced" series - Being embraced, like a blanket, overlapping your past and present history. The first painting to develop the embrace concept, and a nod to NatalieMiller’s Great Grandpa, Simon Killcrease, this design incorporates his signature polka dot tie. The tie represents the hard work and resilience he had. As an orphaned child he, like many, was forced to attend an Indian boarding school. As he got older, he worked for the Federal Bureau of Indian affairs, determined to help others like him. His years of working hard enabled him to acquire nicer things he never knew as a child. All to say… So dapper with that polka dot tie