Ruth Miller creates large narrative portraits and domestic scenes in vibrant hues. Her best-known work, Teacup Fishing—is nearly 5-foot-long, 3-foot-wide piece—where a black woman’s skin looks touchable and lustrous.
Miller studied painting at Cooper Union in the late 1960s, and her sister, Ohio-based choreographer Bebe Miller, was the model for the piece. Working on and off between a cross-country move and renovating a new home, it took Miller almost seven years to complete the grand embroidered tapestry.
Miller lives and works in an unincorporated town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but she was born and raised in Manhattan. The oldest of three siblings, she had a busy, city-kid childhood going to museums, plays, and dance and music lessons. Her mother was born in Mississippi and taught her to sew, while two of her aunts taught her the basics of needlework.
After graduating from the High School of Music & Art in Harlem (which eventually merged with LaGuardia Arts), Miller discovered, while enrolled at Cooper Union, that she really didn’t like painting. Instead, she took to the clean and quiet of textiles.
gazedtoo 