Those who say "lost time is never found again" haven't met Hazel Miller.
Like most people living on planet Earth nowadays, Miller thinks a lot about the impact humans have on the world, the vastness of time and the concept of impermanence.
She browses old art pieces in museums every chance she gets; small moments of time past that reflect what life was like when they were created. She researches mythology, learns about historical periods and ruminates on changing culture. And, to Miller, that time is well spent and certainly not lost like the old adage suggests.
What results are large canvases awash with a moody palette of acrylic and oil paints. Each feels like a portal to the past, future or somewhere in between, featuring mythical women, winged creatures and flourishing botanical gardens. Soft brush strokes lend an ethereal luminosity to each painting, but the rich jewel-toned palettes and high color contrast cement ideas and themes onto the canvas and into the viewer's mind.
At her exhibition "We Will Be Fossils Someday," which runs for just two days, Nov. 15-16, at Placeholder Studios in downtown Spokane, Miller explores the connections between the evolution of art and the evolution of nature. Viewers are invited to move through the artist's world with her, meeting otherworldly figures and ancient beings through her canvases.
"I think about evolutionary science and natural history alongside art history," she says. "It really makes you realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things and how new we are to the Earth."
If you've caught a show at The Chameleon since its opening in February, you've almost definitely seen Miller's art gracing the walls of the venue, a joint venture between her and husband Josh Lorenzen. The murals there are lush, overflowing with flora and fauna that reminds Miller of her hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
Citing the arts and crafts portion of Barney & Friends as her first introduction to art, Miller was always drawn to the creative side of life but didn't start taking painting seriously until she was in high school.
"I loved it because of the color," she says. "It's so tactile and it's all about sensation. There was something that was very addicting about it for me."
After deciding to pursue art in college, she started off at a liberal arts school taking courses in art history, environmental science and geology. Yet she felt like something in her education was missing, so she transferred to the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland.
It was the perfect decision, giving Miller access to open critiques and others who also wanted to "nerd out" about color and texture. It's where she solidified her interests and came to understand art more deeply.
"I just felt like I learned bits and pieces of history, but I didn't understand the chronology," she says. "I didn't grasp history until I studied art history and could see the gradual developments and big movements that correspond with changes in culture and the human species."
From then on, she became enamored with the evolution of art and nature.
"We Will Be Fossils Someday" features 30 paintings, most on large canvases, which Miller prefers to smaller-scale work.
"I think of my work almost like time travel," she says. "No matter how hard I fight to work smaller, because it would be more convenient in every way, there's just something about these larger figures that is more satisfying and comes more naturally to me."
"I do feel like they have a strong presence," she says. "They kind of consume your whole field of view. It's transportive and kind of transcendental."
One painting in the show titled "I Don't Need a Heaven" features a woman, seemingly made out of sinuous, verdant vines standing in front of a glowing, ancient city accompanied by two seabirds. The piece takes inspiration from Ferdinand van Kessel's "Four Parts of the World" (ca. 1689) and "Frôleuse" by Jane Graverol (1969).
Miller's piece merges two very different times in human history and art history. Van Kessel was a Baroque painter known for his detailed still-life paintings, while Graverol focused on surrealism, a popular art movement during her lifetime.
"I love taking different pieces and putting them together," Miller says. "I don't really work just from imagination. I'm always looking at something."
The process provides a result that can't quite be tied to an exact moment, giving off a slightly eerie feeling.
Miller not only pulls inspiration from other paintings, but is also inspired by topics that impact her emotionally. Take the painting "Thylacine Angel," for example, which features a winged thylacine, the wingless marsupial also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf that was hunted to extinction by 1936.
Lately, her work has featured more and more extinct and endangered animals as she researches and learns about them.
A portion of art proceeds from "We Will Be Fossils Someday" will benefit Amazon Watch, a nonprofit founded in 1996 that focuses on rainforest preservation and the rights of Indigenous people in the Amazon Basin.
"I'm getting all of this inspiration from a lot of these areas of the world," Miller says. "The lushness and the biodiversity is really what gets me. But, knowing that there's just this rapid rate of deforestation and extinction all over the world, but especially in the Amazon, is devastating."
Despite tackling emotionally charged topics and pouring herself into art history research, painting is a meditative act for Miller. She says her exploration into time, history and impermanence has altered the way she experiences life.
"It makes me more present," she says. "I really try to appreciate time. I don't believe in an afterlife so I want to make the most of this time because it is already inherently miraculous and heavenly." ♦
Hazel Miller: We Will Be Fossils Someday • Fri, Nov. 15 from 5-8 pm and Sat, Nov. 16 from 6-9 pm • Free • Placeholder Studios • 104 W. Third Ave. • instagram.com/hazelthepainter
