Jaqci Miller

  “Glitter”

Film 

I heard this song about two years after my mom died. I was taken by Patrick Droney’s beautiful depiction of grief. It felt as if the song was made for me hearing it at that moment. This sort of thing tends to happen a lot around grief and loss. Something happens; a magical sort of message that can only be meant for you in an unexplainable way. This was one of those moments. I felt inspired to reach out to the artist and ask to make a video to his song. He said yes and here we are. Glitter has won six different awards at an array of music festivals. Although I am grateful for its recognition, I am more grateful to create this for myself. It feels like when I share my grief it becomes less dark and heavy. So, thank you for sharing my grief with me. 

  “A Cup of Tea with Mother” 

Oil on Canvas

A teapot, a tarot deck and crescent moon necklace. All of these objects are conversing with each other. They hold the energy in one of the many ways I converse through the veil with my mom. 

  “Breathe”

Collage

This was created out of need for surrender to the flow of life. When things seems out of control and the noise all around is overpowering and all consuming, it seems like you need to get to work and fix it all. You cannot stop the unknown, the mysterious music of the universe. The need to fix the chaos has brought me into pits of despair and disappointment. 

Instead, I call in the stillness, the breath. 

After experiencing loss when grief engulfs you, you can't fix your way out of it. You can only surrender to the flow of all that is. 

  “Beneath Your Feet Series” 

“Lichen Portal”

Living Art

A portal into the magical realm of Earth. This is constructed from foraged lichen in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This lichen lies dormant. Not fully alive but not dead either. It exists in an in-between state, dancing in the face of the harsh lines we draw about life. To me it seems that things don't really die, but dance, sing and explore beyond the veil. Because if they die, how do I see them in the sky, feel their touch in poetry, and hear their laugh in songs? 

“To Live”

Living Art

This is wild moss foraged from the Pacific North West. This moss remains alive and its liveliness depends upon its ability and consistency to be taken care of. It is a reminder to water the ones around us and what is usually harder, 

to allow others to water you. 

This is not to feel “good” or “better” this is to survive. 

  “Bare”

Pencil Drawings

When you draw the lines that make up the shape and curves of a person, you think about the life they live. Drawing people from life made me fall in love with imperfect bodies. I never thought one body was ugly as I drew it. Whether it be fat or bony, old or wrinkly. I loved them all. It cured something in me about growing old. I do believe that a lot of the thoughts of death, dying and growing old or being imperfect are all conditioning from society. Maybe I should look at aging and dying as an artist looks at its subject.

 Artist Bio

Jaqci Miller has always been a very creative person and has always considered herself an artist. After high school she took her car and few belongings and went to Los Angeles where she longed to be seen. Although she had some success in acting under the name Jacqi Vené, to her, pursuing that career oftentimes felt like an uphill climb while creating art felt like rain falling from the sky. She has moved all over and done many things since LA including exploring Lake Tahoe basin, training polo horses while living on a bus on a ranch, being a farmhand in Texas, drawing naked people in Paris and most recently becoming a birth doula. She isn't anything in particular except maybe an artist. She naturally brings art to every life she currently lives and brings her life into her art.