artist statement

Irene Miller discovered her passion for monotype printmaking after a career as a professional potter. Her background in pottery and the marks she made on her ceramics continue to influence the shape and design of her monotypes and mixed media works on paper.

Irene's prints and mixed media works are non-representational but straddle the line between realism and abstraction. Her works are a result of constant experimentation with textures, layers, and lines and how they interact with each other on paper. She incorporates family photos and documents and ideas that have long been a part of her life and surroundings. Using layers of similar colors and values, she slowly builds up each piece with various printing and transferring techniques. Mark-making is also important to her work. She is interested in how the mark in its abstract nature is able to communicate the excitement she feels in composing her work. The resulting surfaces are symphonies of complex hues and patterns that evoke both the strange and the familiar.

Irene prints on the presses at Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, Connecticut.