Tony Kenneth Miller is a visual artist who was born in Owen
Sound in 1956. T.K. Miller was introduced to art at a young age by his mother
(artist) Pricilla Gertrude Miller. He received his formal training from
H.B.Beal, Fanshawe College, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and
Ontario College of Art.
Upon graduating from O.C.A., T.K. worked as a
professional photographer, lithographer and graphic designer. In 1999 he and
his partner Lorraine Thomson decided to escape the corporate world and follow
their love for art and nature. They moved to a small village on the shore of
Lake Huron called Port Franks. Here they opened their Gallery/Studio in a
historical, former fish processing plant and named it Bliss Studio.
T.K. Miller is a multi-disciplinary artist. He works in
acrylics, oils, watercolours, pastels, graphite, etching, lino and wood cuts. He
is also an accomplished sculptor whose favourite medium is concrete
incorporated with found objects.
A recurring theme in T.K.'s work is his cultural roots. His
ancestors on both sides of his family were escaped slaves from the U.S.A. and
were some of the founding, pioneering families of Owen Sound. This knowledge
has inspired him to record the stories of his family for present and future
generations so that this rich personal history will not be lost.
Living in a Carolinian forest and adjacent to a provincial
park, a First Nation reserve, and a great lake has also reawakened a love for
exploring nature, recording it with his cameras, sketch books and landscape paintings.
Tony recently completed a wordless novel published by
Porcupine Press, called Daddy Hall, consisting of eighty
lino cuts. The Forward was written by Canada’s Poet laureate George Elliot
Clark. The biography was written by
Professor George Walker, and the conclusion by Tom Smart, curator and supervisor
of education for Peel Art Gallery.
"The Note" was
created using multi-media that includes plywood, plaster compound, eggshells
and acrylic and enamel paint. The shapes represent the vibrations of a musical
note. The vibration representation is something that occurs in all nature at different
frequencies: hence the relationship to “all things bright and beautiful”.
