ARTIST CV
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
With a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Creative Arts: Experimental and Interdisciplinary Studies, my work has always tapped into the roots of art and medicine, where imagery, creativity, and health intertwine. I taught at the university level for fifteen years in the Art Department: Sculpture (San Francisco State), Arts & Consciousness, and Professional Psychology Departments (John K Kennedy University), Art Therapy (Southwestern College, The George Washington University), and Expressive Arts Therapy (California Institute of Integral Studies, Lesley College). Ultimately, regardless of the “art field” titles of the universities, my work focused on the creative process of integration, and the integrative process of creativity. I have always been guided by my own artworks and writings, which have taken me into the arenas of poetry, jewelry design, public art installation and commission, and individual artworks. A decade ago, I completed my doctorate from The Union Institute. This required a change from the parallel paths of my artist life and my educator life. I refocused my artistic energies to support my commitment to the vocation and practice of expressive arts therapy. I co-founded Create Therapy Institute, which houses my private work as a clinician with individuals and families, and it also houses my training programs, where I teach and supervise others in the use of experiential processes of imagery and sand tray and their relationships to creativity, therapy, and health. Currently, the institute and my art studio are in the same building, allowing more time and space to engage in my own artwork and its connections with integration and healing. I am deeply informed by the cycle of seasons, by developmental processes in time, by my own cultural heritage, and by the power of arrangement and ritual.
Iona Gallery, "Layers of Time: Seven Women Across America," (invitational), Dunsmuir
Exhibitions:
Ceramic stele with fused glass inserts, photo transfers and mixed media works on paper and ceramic plaques. These works are records of relationship and remembrance.
PRAYER STONES: MOTHER, DAUGHTER, MOTHER, 2001- present
EXHIBITIONS - SOLO WORKS
California, 2002
Create Arts Center, Bethesda, MD, 2002
PRAYER BOOKS AND PRAYER PAGES, 1995 – 1999
Works on paper made up of photo transfers and mixed media (pastel, oil bars, powdered pigments) and poetic text. These artist books question mortality. They are memorials to loved ones.
Exhibition:
Create Therapy Institute, “Art as Meditation,” Bethesda, Maryland, 1998
SOUL CARRIERS, 1993 -1996
An installation of works made up of cell/egg drawings and ceramic boat/carriers reflecting the process of medical technology and fertility. Soul Carriers both awaits and carries life as a transportive process, aligning the literal with the imaginal in a relationship of awe and mystery.
Exhibition:
Art Department Gallery, The George Washington University, "Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Show", (juried), 1996.
Sangho, Installation and book reading, Portrait of the Artist as Poet, 2006.
PORTRAIT OF AN ILLNESS, 1990 - 1996
Visual and poetic journey through the land of imagery, art, and health based on individual experience with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and clinical experience with medically ill patients; drawings, paintings, sculptures, and a slide and
poetry performance piece of the same title.
Presentations:
Association of Humanistic Psychology, National Association of Artist-Therapists, American Art Therapy Association, International Expressive Arts Therapy Association, American Group Psychotherapy Association, many colleges, universities and community programs throughout the country.
BAROUKEL DESIGNS WEARABLE ART, 1983 - 1993
Bedouin-inspired necklaces (One of A Kind Series) created to reveal the story of jewelry not as passive adornment, but as a continued story of everything it has gathered to be created and everything it will gather to be worn. Jewelry as tales of grace, tales of quiet playfulness, tales of memory, and tales of intuitive hope.
Commissioned Pieces and Retail Shops
SEARCHING FOR THE GROUND OF MEMORY: SHALOM, SALAM, 1985
Sculptural environment as a peace ritual based on a) personal roots as a place of reflection; b) the exploration of commonality through Hebrew and Arabic language; and c) the image of a scroll as evoking lost remains of history
Exhibitions:
Art Department Gallery, San Francisco State University, "Faculty Show", San Francisco, California,
Invitational show, 1985
Studio 1290, SF, CA, Open Studio, 1985
Articles:
Mindport, "Sculptures Show Art as Artifact", Adele Kramer, Fall 1985
FACING THE MIDDLE EAST, 1983 - 1987
Based on exploration and observations in the Arab World and contradictions with western culture, this work includes:
I. OVERLAY
A sculptural installation of layered slide projections as a visual book of image/text collages, MacLaren Park Outdoor Theater, 1987
II. WOMAN OF NORTH AFRICA - A VISUAL ODYSSEY
An audio-visual slide piece layering lifestyle and landscape imagery, created with artist Andrea Hassiba, 1984
(also in video format)
III. FACING THE CONTRADICTIONS: A PERSONAL JOURNEY INTO THE ARAB/JEWISH LANDSCAPE
A written text performed in SF 1983 - 1986.
Articles:
Waterville Morning Sentinel, Maine, "An Algerian Odyssey: Wendy Miller takes a look behind the veil", Ernie Clark, 7/31/83.
SOUL STICKS, 1980
A sculptural environment as a passage/network of integration, recalling the ancestral landscape.
Exhibitions:
Indoor Installation as Hallway, Caravan Arts, San Francisco, California, 1980
Outdoor Installation as Wooded Path, Fort Miley, San Francisco, California, 1980
WOMAN -BUILDING, 1979 - 1982
A series of sculptural environments and enactments exploring the relationship between our human gestural stance and the structures which oppress or empower that stance; the emotional still-life of space as either isolation or participation depending on the juxtaposition of human posturing and built environment; a narrative social history in visual and written terms, in which woman/man as we have known her/him is disappearing or undergoing transformation. This work includes the following pieces:
I. EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE
Performance of a woman searching through her suitcase which is filled with small clay figures as emotional gestures
Performance:
Greyhound Bus Station, SF, CA., Nov. 1979
II. CROSSOVER WOMAN
An outdoor sculpture and ritual where physical space is patterned for personal revelation and group gathering
Performance:
Yelapa, Mexico, Jan 1980
III. HARSH BIRTHING
A sculptural piece reflecting woman/man as body/container raw, vulnerable and fragile to the awakening of the nuclear age and its relationship to procreation.
Exhibitions:
Postcard Mail Art Across the Country, 1980 - 82
Double Rocking G Gallery, "An Invitational Art Exhibit Opposing Nuclear Proliferation and Militarism", Los Angeles, California, 1982
Vida Gallery, SF, CA., "Fabric Of Our Lives", 1981 (juried exhibition).
Articles:
Description included in Chellis Glendenning's chapter in "An Approach to Health in the Nuclear Age", compiled by Ken Porter.
IV. UP AGAINST THE STRUCTURE OF OUR LIVES
A sculptural installation of charred gestural clay figures showing woman/man as nature in relation to the linear structure, "the biological to the industrial, the charred crumbling psyche built up, just as that around her."
Exhibitions: installation in
Vida Gallery, "Fabric of Our Lives", San Francisco, California, (juried), 1981
South of Market Outdoor Space, San Francisco, California, site specificparking lot, June 1981
V. RANDOM FLAT, ARCH TOWERS
An outdoor sculptural installation working with natural materials as earth and natural time processes; the idea of separation and fragmentation as commonground in natural structuring.
Installation:
Bodega Mud-Flats, Bodega, California., July/Aug. 1981
VI. STRATEGIES FOR STANDING
A sculptural installation as between two forms of survival: a) linear strategy with concomitant encrustment of personal meaning, and b) communal support with its fragile balance of continuance. Installation includes sound, text , and rocks with clay figures.confrontation
Exhibitions:
The University of Maryland at College Park, "Art and Art Therapy", 1990
Art Department Gallery, San Francisco State University, "New Faculty Exhibition", 1986
The Clocktower, Benicia, CA., "An Intuitive Surrealistic Art Exhibition, curated by Michael Bell, 1985
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California. One Person Show, July 1982
Create therapy Institute healing Garden, permanent installation, 2000 - present
Articles:
Southern Exposure Newsletter, SF, CA., "People in Their Environments", Melody Burns, July/Aug. 1982
Nob Hill Gazette, SF, CA., "Stand Up and Get Going to Strategies For Standing", Jul;y 1982
City Arts Monthly, SF, CA., July 1982
Woman Artist News, New York, Review by Marsha Ercegovic, Fall 1982
Waterville Morning Sentinel, "Wendy Miller's Clay Sculpture On Exhibit in San Francisco", Maine, June 24, 1982
San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, vol iii, no. iii, text portion frompoetry of Wendy Miller, 1982
Mindport, SF, CA. "Sculptures Show Art as Artifact." Adele Framer, Fall 1985
EXHIBITIONS - COLLABORATIVE WORKS
CHILD STUDY AND TREATMENT CENTER SCULPTURAL ENVIRONMENT:
Washington State Arts Commission, Art In Public Places Program, 1986-87, Olympia, Washington
Collaborated on a design team with sculptor Wayne Zebzda and landscape architect/artist Martha Schwartz. We designed a courtyard and outdoor environment for The Child Study and Treatment Center at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom Washington - a series of six participatory earth mounds, 90 ft. in diameter, including a dream theater, a covered passageway, a spiral play mound, a labyrinthian courtyard for games and theater and a reflection sitting mound for staff, students and visitors. Models available
AGES OLD YET YOUNG AND WISE (25 min, 1/2 " video) and PORTRAIT OF PLEASURE ENDEAVORS: A REASON WHY (16 MIN 1/2" VIDEO), Beyond Boundaries Productions, 1985, San Francisco, CA.
Collaborated with media artist Ellison Horne and artist/educator Elisa Gittings in two creative exposes on artist development with elder artists in a convalescing setting, Laguna Honda Hospital.
ART IN THE DARK: A CRITICAL PIECE, Vida Gallery, 1985, San Francisco, CA.
Performed and co-created a performance based on the issues of women in the art world; played the persona of "Summer Lopez", a feminist artist in dialog with the art gallery and the art business worlds.
El Dia, Mexico City
Daily Californian, Berkeley, CA., "Mission District Artist Mix Politics with Optimism" 9/84
North Mission News, SF, CA., "New Murals" 4/85
El Tecolote, SF, CA., "Murals Portray U.S. Intervention in Central America" July 1984
People's World, Berkeley, CA., "New Murals Bloom in Balmy Alley" 9/8/84
Articles:
Casa Gallery, SF, CA., "Placa, " 1984 installation and image/text documentation
Vida Gallery, SF, CA., "Celebrando Nuestras Hermanas, " 1985, juried installation.
Additional Exhibitions:
Collaborated with La Cinca Artists in response to San Francisco Artists' Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America; co-created a multi-media clothesline installation to (a) act as a visual inducement to the violation and vulnerability in Central America, and (b) reflect the imagery and significance of details in the daily lives of others, washing out bloodstained clothes, despite it all.
NEW UNIMPROVED WASH N' WAR, Placa's Balmy Street Mural Environment, 1984, San Francisco, CA.
"Vida Closes" (Randy Turoff) in Coming Up,, San Francisco, CA., Aug. 1985
Articles: intervencion de Estados Unidos en America Centrale" 8/24/84
Bernal Journal, SF, CA., "Balmy Alley Murals" 9/84
San Francisco Examiner, SF, CA., "Art that is Right Up Your Alley" 6/16/85
Bay Guardian, SF, CA., "Best Mural Showcase" 7/24/85
Videos:
"Balmy Alley", Celeste, local channel 6, 10/84
"Partners in Crime", Barcar Productions, national channel, 11/84
"Fortune Dane", Barcar Productions, national channel, 11/84
"Santana Says It Again", Bill Graham Presents, National MTV, 2/85
"T.G.I.4.", MargaritaLandazery & Stephanie Neonau, local channel 4, 9/18/85
"Balmy Alley", Vicente Franco, local channel 14, 9/84 & 8/85
"Placa Presents Balmy Alley", KO, 85
Film:
"From a Woman in El Salvador Speaks", A.M.E.S., Sara Halprin, 1/85
News Clip:
"Murals," CBS Terry Scott, Carmel, CA., 1/85
Calendar:
Street Murals USA - 1986, Off the Wall Calendar Co., Jamaica Plains, MA.
New Unimproved Wash N'War : month of Sept.
International Invitation:
Ministry of Culture, Managua, Nicaragua, a project to create an environment as a cross-cultural exchange
based on the Balmy Alley Project
VOTE PEACE SPEAKERS' RALLY:
GenwichMoscone Center at SF Democratic Convention, 1984, San Francisco, CA.,"Denuncian en murales la
Conceived a sculptural enactment with Vote Peace Coalition; collaborated with Bay Area muralist Brian Thiele and other artists painting a visual/cultural banner as (a) a ritual event enacting each speaker's vision for peace and (b) a way to name the relationship of peace to the ills of society.
IMAGES FROM OUR LIVES:
Vida Gallery of The San Francisco Women's Center, 1982, San Francisco, CA.
Collaborated with poet Bonnie Shand and women artists from a psychiatric institution to create a sculptural environment based on (a) collective art images used for empowerment and (b) the creative process as a mythological/archetypal mode of thinking to rebalance the medical model emphasis.
Articles:
American Association of Artists-Therapists Newsletter, New York, Vol iv, 1982
El Tecolote, SF, CA., Aug 1982
City Arts Monthly, SF, CA July 1982
San Francisco Examiner, SF, CA. June 23, 1982
Video/Media:
"Artist in a Social Institution," audio-visual slide documentary (15 min), California Arts Council, 1980
"Images From Our Lives", audio-visual slide documentary (1 hr), 1985
Award:
San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, San Francisco, CA., 1982.
Award of Honor by Mayor Dianne Feinstein as San Francisco Woman for "outstanding service in the continuing effort to improve the status of women in all aspects of their personal and professional lives."
COUNTING BACKWARDS: Studio Theater at San Francisco State University, 1982, San Francisco, CA.
Collaborated with artist/director Helen Richardson to (a) edit and arrange script from the poetry of Bay Area writer Evelyn Posamentier, (b) design and build theater set of interchangeable sculptural elements with which actors formed physical space to visually image emotional space. This work is based on the theme of death and regeneration as a psychic process. The environment layers the past and present experiences of a woman writer, child of a survivor from Auschwitz and survivor herself of a psychiatric asylum.
SAND RITUAL: Baker's Beach, 1982, San Francisco, CA.
Participation-Collaboration with Juliet Batten, director of Auckland, New Zealand “Feminists for the Environment “ to create a sculptural environment of "woman as nature" based on the theme that womens’ survival and the survival of the environment are parallel concerns for our harmonious future.
EXTENDED PATHS: El Descanso, 1981, Baja, Mexico
Collaborated with Bay Area sculptor Andrea Hassiba on a sculptural environment based on the exploration of extension -- sculptural materials and ideas inside a studio extended/envisioned in outside space. This piece is a site specific examination of elements and time transported.
REVERENCE TO HER: Baker's Beach, 1980, San Francisco, CA.
Participation-Collaboration with Donna Henes, New York artist/performer in a summer solstice ritual performance based on (a) a reconnection to cycles of time and community, and (b) the reclaiming of reverence to the earth as an image of nurturance.
DEATH RITE: Fort Miley Bunkers, 1978, San Francisco, CA.
Collaborated with Bay Area artists Loren Partridge, Helen Richardson, and Barbara Wein on a site specific interdisciplinary sculptural environment and ritual enactment in five rooms of a World War II military bunker. The piece is based on (a) the use of that physical space in a rite of passage to reconnect with the idea of death as cyclical, and (b) personal memory with the physical finality of the site.
Additional Exhibitions:
"The Egyptian Show" (invitational show), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, SF, CA,
1979
"A Show of Masks" (invitational show), Concourse Gallery, SF, CA., 1979
"Of Recognition and Praise" (juried show), Vida Gallery, 1979
"What's New in Clay" (juried show), Lawndale Art Annex Gallery, Houston, Texas, 1982.
Studio 1290, SF, CA. 1984
Articles:
Artweek, SF, CA., 11/7/1978
"Death Rite Ritual in Four Voices", Womanspirit, Oregon, winter 1978
EXHIBITIONS - CURATED WORKS
CREATE THERAPY INSTITUTE: “Imagery, Movement, Art and Health,” 1999, Bethesda, Maryland
Curated and installed group art show with Rebecca Milliken: artworks and writings of clients with medical illnesses and Alzheimer’s
CREATE THERAPY INSTITUTE: “Metaphors of Identity: Love, Loss and Safety in Adoption” 1999, Bethesda, Maryland
Curated and installed group art show: sand trays, artworks and narrative stories of internationally adopted children
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY GALLERY: “The Artist in Each of Us: The Work of Art Therapists and their Clients, 1997, Washington, D.C.
Curated and installed group art show with Steve Schulman
CREATE THERAPY INSTITUTE: “Life with Death,” 1996, Bethesda, Maryland
Installed works of Tamar Hendel, drawings and paintings of child survivors of the holocaust.
NINTH ANNUAL COMMON BOUNDARY CONFERENCE: “Open Eye; A Visual Meditation,” 1989 Crystal City, VA
Curated and installed group art show with Celia Coates, David Lewis, and Michelle Taverniti
EIGHTH ANNUAL COMMON BOUNDARY CONFERENCE: “Releasing the Creative Spirit,” 1988 Washington, DC
Curated and installed group art show with Celia Coates and David Lewis
EDUCATION
Ph. D. THE UNION INSTITUTE
1992 Cincinnati, Ohio
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with Specializations in Expressive Arts Therapy and Health Psychology: Dissertation on Expressive Arts Therapy and Medical Illness (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).
M.A. SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
1978 San Francisco, California
Creative Arts Interdisciplinary Studies: Master's Project: Death Rite
B.A. SIMMONS COLLEGE
1972 Boston, Massachusetts
Psychology: Field Work with adolescents and Vietnam Veterans.
1971 CITY OF LONDON UNIVERSITY
London, England
Psychology and Art
GRANTS/AWARDS
2000 CREATIVITY AND AGING CONFERENCE
The George Washington University, Best Practice Honorable Mention
1991 HEALING THROUGH THE ARTS
Wayland, Mass -- Research Grant: Imagery of women with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
1986-87 WASHINGTON STATE ARTS COMMISSION
Olympia, Washington -- Art in Public Places Arts Program
1985-1986 CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL MULTI-RESIDENCY ARTIST GRANT San Francisco, California -- video "Pleasure Endeavors: A Reason Why."
1983 WILLIAM LEVINE & SONS
Waterville, Maine -- Research and Travel Fellowship
1982 MONEY FOR WOMEN FUND
Miami, Florida -- Art Exhibition of Institutionalized Women "Images From Our Lives"
1982 SAN FRANCISCO COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
San Francisco, CA. -- Award of Honor at San Francisco Woman for "outstanding service in the continuing effort to improve the status of women in all aspects of their personal and professional lives." Awarded by Mayor Diane Feinstein, San Francisco, California, for exhibition with psychiatric women clients, see "Images From Our Lives."
1979-82 CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL ARTIST-IN-SOCIAL-INSTITUTIONS RESIDENCY GRANT
San Francisco, Ca --.Artist in Residence, Thunderseed After care, District V Community Mental Health
1979-80 SAN FRANCISCO C.E.T.A. GRANT
San Francisco, Ca -- Fort Mason Transitional Center
1978 CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS GRANT
San Francisco, Ca --Art exhibition, "Death Rite"
PUBLICATIONS
Miller, “Metaphors of Identity and Motifs of Expression: Clinical observations on adoption and the use of the sand tray process in art therapy with internationally adopted children, in Betts, D, (Ed.) (2003). Creative Arts Therapies Approaches in Adoption and Foster Care. Charles C Thomas Publ.
Miller, W., Milliken, R., (2002). "Pushing the Experiential Edge in Therapy, Training and Supervsion,” Poeisis, Journal of the European Graduate School, Leuk, Switzerland, June 2002.
Miller, W., (1999), Review of “The Arts in Health Care; A Palette of Possibilities,” Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, Vol 16, no. 1.
Miller, W., (1999), Review of “Tending the Fire,” The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol 27, No. 4.
Miller, W., (1997), “Imagery, Art and Health: Excerpts from a series of presentations on art as complementary medicine,” CREATE Journal, Vol 6.
Miller, W., (1996) “ Imagery, Art and Health: Excerpts from a series of presentations on art as complementary medicine, “Healing Thru Art” educational video on painter Darcy Lynn.
Miller, W., (1992), "The experience of nine women living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, as demonstrated through mental imagery, drawings, and verbal descriptions," The Union Institute. University Microfilms International: Order number 9219128.
Miller, W., (1991), "Art as a therapeutic element in the healing process with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," The Rose Window: Newsletter of Healing Through Arts, Inc.
Miller, W., (1990), "Reclaiming the goddess," Common Boundary, 3/4.
Miller, W., (1989), "Imagery, art and health: workshop to explore the healing process," St. Francis Center Newsletter, XII(5).
Miller, W.,(1989), "Women healers among us," Snakepower, 1(1).
Miller, W., (1988), "Living with illness," Pathways, Spring.
Glendinning, C., Miller, W., Ulman, D., (1988), "Living homeopathically on the planet," The Elmwood Newsletter, 4(4).
Miller, W.,(1986), "Mining the group mind," Mindport: Journal of San Francisco State University School of Creative Arts, Fall.
Miller, W., Partridge, L., (1978), "Death rite," Womanspirit, 5(18).
Miller, P. (1992), "My healing journey through Chronic Fatigue," Yoga Journal, (insert on work of Wendy Miller), 11/12.
Brancheau, D., (1990), "Some ideas on the interface between art and therapy,"(based on the class material of the work of Wendy Miller) Potomac Art Therapy Association Newsletter, 2(1).
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND REGISTRATION/CERTIFICATIONS
2004 - present WASHINGTON SCULPTOR'S GROUP
Washington DC
Artist member
LPC WASHINGTON DC PROFESSIONAL COUNSELORS ASSOCIATION
1997 - present Washington DC
Professional Member and Licensed Professional Counselor
R.E.A.T. INTERNATIONAL EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY ASSOCIATION
1997 - present San Francisco, CA.
Founding Professional Member and Past Executive Co-Chair (1996-1998)
Registered Expressive Arts Therapist
A.T.R. THE AMERICAN ART THERAPY ASSOCIATION
1994 - present Mundelein, Ill.
Registered Art Therapist and Professional Member
CET THE NATIONAL EXPRESSIVE THERAPY ASSOCIATION
1992 - 1997 New York, New York
Professional Member and Certified Expressive Therapist
A-TR AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ARTIST-THERAPISTS
1982 - 1992 New York, New York
Professional Member and Certified Artist-Therapist
1997 - present INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF SAND PLAY THERAPISTS
Professional Member
1992 - present POTOMAC ART THERAPY ASSOCIATION
Professional Member