Erika Senft Miller
Erika Senft Miller

Erika Senft Miller

  • Vermont
  • Mixed Media

My work tells stories. In my visual work the medium picks me, so you’ll find these stories in a variety of media. Once the medium has found me, I open a dialogue with the materials. This conversation is always kinesthetic; it’s about breath, movement and...Read More

ABOUT THE ARTIST

STATEMENT

My work tells stories. In my visual work the medium picks me, so you’ll find these stories in a variety of media. Once the medium has found me, I open a dialogue with the materials. This conversation is always kinesthetic; it’s about breath, movement and the story held in the fiber of the material. The emotional core of the narrative that emerges includes both my direct experience and the stories of ancestors that live in our collective unconscious.

When I create visual work, I get out of my way, slip into the zone and let what arrives work through me. I find it helpful to draw and paint with my non-dominant hand. Working with my left hand gives me direct access to something deeper and older. It’s a direct conduit to my youngest self, and to my really old self - which are fundamentally the same. When I work this way, my movement and expression become freer, more vital, less edited.

As a result, my two dimensional art has layers. When a painting of mine is on your wall, you can feel the depth and layering of the piece. These strata invite you to enter the story, and make it possible for you to do so on many different levels. You can take different paths with your eyes each time you encounter the painting, and you can go as deep as you like. I fashion my work this way, so that it will continue to live as it stays with you, with your family and your visitors becoming part of the painting’s story.

BIO

Erika Senft Miller is a multimedia and multisensory artist actively exploring and embracing the power of movement, perception, site and the human body, through rigorous academic research, a careful pattern of creative productivity, and in-depth multimedia integration and documentation of her art. She has performed in the United States and Europe, and has spent over twenty years teaching in universities, theaters, businesses, and community centers.

Senft Miller trained in dance theater with Fe Reichelt, and holds a doctorate in Dance Education, a masters in Physical Therapy as well as a bachelors in communication. She is also a certified teacher of The Alexander Technique and a certified color consultant.

For Miller, art is both physical and site specific. Her two dimensional work never is only two dimensional, inviting questions and open to layers of interpretation/collaboration.

EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS

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Multisensory Care Package​, immersive experience, Burlington City Arts, VT, 2020 Seeking Balance,​ perfume x art collaboration with St. Claire Scents, Orwell, VT, 2020 OffSiteOnTime on Instagram,​ site specific performance, Instagram, 2020
Exploring Water​, group exhibition, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe, VT, 2019 OffSiteOnTime​ series, 8 performances, various locations, VT, 2017-2019
AutoBiography: Short Term Parking,​ installation, Karma Bird House Gallery, Burlington, VT, May 2019
Exploring Air​, group exhibition, Edgewater Gallery, Stowe, VT, 2018
AutoBiography: A Car Opera in Five Acts,​ performance, Marketplace Garage, Burlington VT,
November 2018
White Noise Now: Heat​, performance, Blodgett Oven Factory, Burlington, VT, November 2018
Output / Input, installation​, Burlington, VT, Karma Bird House Gallery, Burlington, VT, May-June 2018
Maybe Less​, group exhibition, Karma Bird House Gallery, Burlington, VT, December 2017 Baby Monitors at Maven,​ exhibition, Maven, Burlington, VT, November 2017
Baby Monitors​, installation, Karma Bird House Gallery, Burlington, VT, September 2017 Sleeping Babies / Social Sculptures,​ performance, secret location, Burlington, VT, July 2017 WhiteNoiseNow: Salt,​ performance, VT Railway rail yard, Burlington, VT, October 2016
Of Land & Local: Watershed,​ group exhibition, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT, September 2016
Between Land and Water,​ performance, Community Sailing Center, Burlington, VT, September 2016
Make Moran,​ group exhibit, Karma Bird House Gallery, Burlington, VT, September 2015
Powered by Moran​, performance, Moran Plant, Burlington, VT, June 2015
Gametheory at Art Hop​, with Gametheory, Karma Birdhouse, Burlington, VT, September 2014
Panoptikum Movement Theater performance series, movement artist & collaborator, Berlin, Germany, 1988-1990
Residencies
Manship Artist Residencies + Studios, Cape Anne, ME, 2020 Epica Foundation, Barcelona, Spain, 2018

EDUCATION

Doctor of Dance Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Master of Science in Physical Therapy, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA
Master of Dance Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Economics Engineering Degree in Communications and Advertising, Fachhochschule Fuer Druck, Stuttgart, Germany

AWARDS

Press;
Perfumer Diane St. Claire and Artist Erika Senft Miller Collaborate on a New Scent, ​Seven Days, 2021
‘AutoBiography’: A Performance About Car Culture,​ Seven Days, 2018 Artists to Watch,​ Vermont Art Guide, 2018
Tuning In to ‘White Noise Now’​, Adobe Create, 2017
Our Favorite Exhibitions of 2016​, Seven Days, 2016
For Art Hop, A Dancer Explores Liminality At The Edge Of Lake Champlain​, Seven Days, 2016

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Physical Therapist, SORC, Colchester, VT
Public Relations SEAT/Volkswagen, Frankfurt, Germany
Advertising project manager, Bonn, Germany
Advertising, graphic design, Gothenburg, Sweden; Bolzano, Italy; Berlin, Germany
Heidelberg Historic City Tour guide for Swedish speaking tourist groups, Heidelberg, Germany Printing internship at Weber Druck, Sandhausen (Baden Württemberg) Germany

Mentor/Advisor Consultant for Graduate Research and Creative Projects;
Physical Therapy Consultant and Guest Teacher for Vermont Conservatory of Ballet, Essex, VT, 2005- 2010
Advisory Committee Member for Masters’ thesis: Student of Masters in Education, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 2000
Advisory Committee Member, Gloucester County Institute of Technology, Department of Dance and Drama, Sewell, NJ, 1993-1995

Professional Presentations;
Reclamation Talks​, TedX style presentation, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center with Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT, 2018
Pechakucha Night Burlington: 20 Ways of Seeing,​ FlynnSpace, Burlington, VT, 2019
Teaching to Play – Playful Teaching: The Relevance of Improvisation in Teaching​, The Vermont
Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference, Stowe, VT, 2002
Alexander Technique​ at New Jersey Speech, Language, and Hearing Association, Atlantic City, NJ, 1996
Arts in Education and Movement as a Teaching Tool,​ International Children’s Theater Festival Annenberg Center, PA, 1993
Children’s Experience in Children’s Dance Performances​, Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Annual Conference, Seven Springs, PA, 1992
Multicultural Issues in Dance and Movement Education​, Eastern District of Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Annual Conference, Newport, RI, 1991

TAGS

multi-sensory art, art in vermont, vermont artist, design collaborations, vermont painters, artists from vermont