Artist bio

Biography Cody F. Miller is a mixed media artist who resides in Columbus, Ohio. He works with magazine collage, acrylic paint, and charcoal. The patterns and odd configurations he stumbles upon are an integral part of conveying the endless layers of humanity. An old 1885 second grade reader or letters from a father to his son during World War II are collected and stored for the next piece. The Scriptures, the writings of Thomas Merton and the music of Tom Waits are all important influences in Cody’s work. They are ingredients in creating, as Ben Myers says, a “horizon of this dark world where we glimpse the startling first glow of dawn, the surprising appearance of grace ‘out of the depths’ (Psalm 130:1).” Metaphors, analogies, and other related devices are used to convey beauty that often comes disguised as a loss, failure, or unwelcome change. Cody F. Miller’s work has been shown in numerous exhibits, such as “Havana/ConnectArt” in Matanzas, Cuba, “The Best of 2019” at the Ohio Craft Museum and the Springfield Museum, Solo Exhibition, “Sojourners,” at the Hayley Gallery in New Albany, Ohio, “In Close Proximity” at the Cultural Arts Center, “From the Familiar to the Unfamiliar” at the Ohio Art League, “Glory Be” at the Johnson Humrickhouse Museum and “Annual Acquisitions” at the Viewpoint Gallery in Schenectady, New York. He is represented by the Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, Ohio and the Sharon Weiss Gallery in Columbus, Ohio Miller received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2002 and 2018, the Collector’s Award for Excellence at the Ohio Craft Museum’s “The Best of 2019,” Juror’s Choice 2D Award at the 2018 Columbus Arts Festival, Best of Show in 2001 and 2012 at the Westerville Arts Festival. Cody was the art instructor at United Cerebral Palsy for 16 years and is currently a resident artist at the Goodwill Art Studio.

Title

"8:41"

Medium/Genre

Mixed Media

Artist Statement

I think grace is a tricky word. I’ve read about it, experienced it, and heard the testimonials. It is a
deep transforming kindness that is given often when I least deserve it. There’s always this
tension between the way I think it should look and the way it actually comes to me. Kathleen
Norris said, “grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or
unwelcome change.” Whether it be through a passage from scripture or observations in everyday
life, I seek to see the beauty in this leaky apparatus called life.
Often I show people on a journey. Sometimes my subjects’ hands are open, offering something of
themselves to the world. This is what keeps me coming back to the studio, capturing these small
acts of kindness that quietly begin to illuminate everything.
I work with cut paper and paint because I enjoy the interplay of the known and unknown. For the
known, I work out many variations of a sketch until the design I'm looking for is finally realized.
The unknown comes from my files full of patterns and objects waiting to find a new home. I am
repeatedly fascinated when I find that some odd cut-out works better than my original intention.

How it fits into contest

8:41
Isaiah 58:6-7

Miss Havisham, from Dickens’ novel, “Great Expectations,” receives a letter at 8:40 am on her wedding day saying her soon-to-be husband decided to cancel the marriage. At that point she stopped all the clocks at the very moment the letter arrived. She spent the rest of her life in her wedding gown, wearing only one shoe because she hadn't put the other one on when the news came. That moment defined the rest of her life; everything in her universe stood still.
I’m thankful for the village of people who have helped me walk through painful moments in my past and present in a healthy manner. They were instrumental in my journey from 8:40 to 8:41. My heart still has areas where I have yet to move forward though. Years go by when I might only move a second closer to my goal; but as painstakingly slow as it is, I’ll take it.
On a global scale it’s easy to think that everything is stuck at 8:40. Where are we on the timeline of racial, gender, and economic equality? How about climate change, poverty, the refugee crisis, mental health and a thousand other examples?
I am grateful for the millions of people who have moved the clock seconds closer to 8:41: from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, to those behind the scenes serving their communities in a myriad of ways through their grass roots grace. May our lives thirst for making all things right.

“8:41” gives a glimpse of how God’s grace can strengthen us to see “the powers of this dark world” more clearly and stand against them. That clarity enables us to respond with a tangible hope that is, as Robert Hayden says, “Not frightened or cajoled into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. We must go on struggling to be human, though monsters of abstraction police and threaten us.”

How to Purchase this Artwork

$2200 Contact through my website.

Other Goods & Services Available from this Artist

Prints and licensing of work through my website

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