TRANSFORMED ART SPACE INSIDE THE ARTIST’S HOUSE

Ana’s BIO

Ana Miller’s artworks speak from inspiration to the past, to more present. It’s a culmination of contemporary sculpture, adding real and faux foliage, as well as other found objects, in the real world, for instance, to mannequin ‘Magenta’. Or, like other works, adding snippets photographed from her set design, portraits taken, into other photographs. This is Ana’s way.

Ana is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’, to illustrations of Audrey Beardsley. However, the work of artist Edward Keinholz resonates with her the most. The final thought provoking source, due to both the look and sound, is ‘The McKittrick Hotel’ in New York. It’s backstory, a 6-story pub, never opened to the public due to the onset of World War 11, converted into theatrical experience, basically a haunted house for grown-ups is ‘Sleep No More’. Ana studied Fine Arts and Visual Communications at both Tafe and uni and worked professionally in the fields related, however a short course in millinery, changed Ana’s path with a Marie Antoinette twist. Making attire from scratch to reworking vintage clothes and found objects into something new. Ana’s love of styling and photography, become a daily ritual when pregnant, as severe nerve pain took hold. Ana’s drug was dressing up one of her mannequins ‘Magenta’ with a dark aesthetic, drawing on architecture and clothing, to all that nature presents.

An alternative parallel reality is what the artist Edward Keinholz showed the onlooker with his artworks. This is Ana’s aim and on from here. Ana’s nostalgia to the past, is engrained within her works, embodied in each vintage find, fractures of living in a dystopian society, with as much beauty as decay. All is undefined. As per one of Ana’s artworks ‘Intermission, Fly with Me’ via it’s description, ‘The future is most accurate on a fortune cookie.’

In Ana’s studio space, Ana draws on and has reinvented her own wonderland. Artworks, such as ‘The Dolls House’ with real choko vines, miniature chandeliers, as well as sharing the space with beheaded vintage Barbie’s throughout, is sprawling with new activity, with details galore.

Ana volunteers at the Hawkesbury Remakery when moments in time arise. Thanks to Liz, two new vintage mannequin friends, named Marilyn and Mercy are at The Lair. All the mannequins, so Ana is told, are overjoyed to the new set design catered for ‘Blade Runner’ photo styled shoots.

The photo is of Ana and her daughter on the 28th October 2023, trying on the Halloween outfits. Ana reworked a ball gown bought second hand, with a kids Halloween outfit, bought at Big W, and a red tulle skirt that Ana used to wear when much younger, added to the sleeve areas. Ana’s daughter was named after the character from one of Ana’s favourite films by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ‘Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amélie)’.

Ana Miller has worked for high profile companies, as a photographer, graphic and set designer for theatre, film, TV & events. Highlights include:-

• Art Director for the short film ‘Prada Handbag’, directed by Stuart Vauvert (which won the Audience Award at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in 2007).
• Production Designer for ‘Emergence’ a multimedia production, at the Sydney Opera House and the Canberra Street Theatre in 2007.
• ‘Peek Show’ – Art on The Rocks, Arthouse Film Festival (Producer, Director, Production Designer, co Costume Designer) in 2006

Past works exhibited include:-

• Cstudios Gallery – ‘All Together’ art exhibition (Newcastle) – September 2023
• Art Street 2023 – Street art exhibition, shop allocation with
  Anglicare Katoomba
• Hawkesbury Remakery, October 22 to June 2023
• The Purple Noon Gallery – Waking Dreamland, opened by Daniel Browning (from ABC’s Radio National)
 September 2020.
• UTS, Visual Communications – Exhibition, end of year 2005
• Meadowbank TAFE, Fine Arts Diploma – Exhibition, end of year 2002