Artist Jes Miller talks about some of her artwork. Her work will be exhibited for two months beginning this month at 411 Gallery in downtown Columbus.
Photo provided
Art formed Jes Miller’s playtime for as far back as she can remember in her Hope childhood. Let the record show that she can backtrack in her mind’s eye to her high chair days.
Mom would give her youngster paints and a brush and allow whimsical imagination to have its way, especially when hyperactivity beckoned.
“Painting really calmed me down,” Miller said.
These days, the 39-year-old Miller’s best work excites others. Her exhibition “If Morandi Painted My Knick Knacks” runs from Feb. 15 to April 12 at 411 Gallery at 411 Sixth St., otherwise known as the colorful Sixth Street Arts Alley in downtown Columbus. Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still-lifes. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting simple subjects.
She caught a Morandi exhibition in Rome that inspired her.
“I loved the way he took very boring objects and really made them beautiful,” Miller said. “I love the texture and the brush strokes that he had. And I really like small objects — knick knacks and things like that.”
Her oil painting exhibition “delves into the allure of nostalgic objects, capturing their essence in moments of pause and memory reflection,” according to her promotional material. Her seven larger, 4-foot-long canvases feature abstract scenery “inviting viewers to get lost in the intricate interplay of light, color, and texture, and to experience these cherished objects on a grand, human scale,” as she put it.
She loves to give viewers the chance to see the tiniest pieces of, say, jewelry, in a magnified way.
“My goal was to create a series that would fill the gallery and learn a bit about curating and creating a theme,” she said.
In part, in some of her pieces, she loaded her brush with multiple colors at the same time for thick, broad strokes.
Works in the display range in price from $165 for the 5-by-7 pieces to $2,190 for the largest oversized pieces. She spoke by phone recently from Oaxaca, Mexico, where she is part of a two-month study program connected with her final year of work in the local J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program.
She passed praise to T. Kelly Wilson, the program’s director, and Jennifer Riley, an associate professor in the program, for their encouragement and guidance. Both are accomplished artists exhibiting everywhere from New York City to Rome.
Miller finds fascination in what on the surface could seem mundane. And she wants others to find that, too.
“I always have found myself not being bored,” she said. “There are so very many things to lose yourself in. I would like these pieces to feel like a Midwest version of what a high-end art experience could be.
“Now, I am not at all saying that my art is high end, but it is trying to aspire to that.”
All the exhibition works will be adorned with cherry or walnut frames hand-made by her father, Ben Miller.
“I think,” the daughter said, “that they’re really going to make everything pop.”
About the exhibit
What: “If Morandi Painted My Knick Knacks” by artist Jes Miller.
When: Feb. 15-April 12.
Where: 411 Gallery at 411 Sixth St. in downtown Columbus. Gallery hours: Noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
Admission: Free.
