Maria Miller on the monumental power of murals—and following your dreams
By hola | Published | No Comments
Artist Maria Miller never planned on painting murals until a friend asked her to get involved in 2013. Four years later, her artwork can be seen on the walls of restaurants, parking lots, alleyways, and houses all over Washington, D.C.
Miller, 24, began painting at the age of six when her father, a military contractor, moved her family to Belgium. “I would just start copying pictures I’d see of anyone: photographs, cartoons. I had to try to get them as accurate as possible,” she recalls.
Her talents in realism and portraiture are on display in one of her recent works located behind the Petworth Barbershop on Georgia Avenue NW at the corner with Decatur Street NW in Petworth. A memorial for the late street-artist Alex “Clowny” Garcia, Miller collaborated on this mural with the street-art advocacy and preservation organization, Art B.L.O.C. DC, and artists Ernesto Zelaya, Jason Phillip, and William Page.
The mural is on the side of a house inhabited by a family who knew of Garcia. They agreed to the mural as long as it incorporated a Christian cross somewhere in the work, a request the artists agreed to honor. A detailed streetscape, the tribute features two images of the late Garcia.
The most prominent is a two-story portrait of him at the entrance to the alley. The portrait can be seen from Georgia Avenue, providing both drivers and pedestrians with a grand presence. Its scale and expression are reminiscent of a contemporary tutelary deity simultaneously protecting and embodying the neighborhood with its gaze.
Miller says that this “larger than life” factor is what gives murals the power that traditional canvas paintings lack, because they use public spaces to enlarge, connect, and sometimes iconize members of the community.
“Alex Garcia’s birthday was two weeks after he passed away. The day we finished the mural, his family and friends came and the entire alley was packed with a birthday celebration for him. It was really touching,” she says. “I feel so honored to do stuff like this because it affects so many people and helps keep memories alive.”
When asked about the challenges of being both a working artist and a female artist of color, Miller cited discrimination, friendly competition with other muralists for funding, and her decision to go to art school as critical “commitment points” in her career.
She has an undergraduate degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design and did graduate work at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design in the District. But going to art school was not an easy choice for Miller. With her father’s military background and her mother’s experience as a former government employee, Miller says there was an unspoken expectation for what her profession “should” be.
“For a while I didn’t think I was going to go to art school. In a way it was ingrained in me that ‘government’ is the way I should go,” she says. “I was scared of the choice I wanted to make, but I’m still proud of myself for choosing art, because I have the opportunity to make something that’s going to be seen by so many people and send a message that—if not simply beautiful—is positive.”
By way of example, Miller points to a residential trash cage directly across from the portrait of Garcia. “I think someone lives there,” she says. “At least now when they wake up, they’re not looking at just another wall.”
As far as Miller’s future is concerned, she says she hopes to travel.
“I’ve always had this image of me traveling and painting murals all over the world. But it’s not a distant dream or a distant thought, because I know it can happen,” she says. “I know I can make it happen.”
—Jennifer Fowler
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