dan miller (Edmonton, Alberta)

Most of my life has been spent learning, teaching and preserving one of the oldest crafts known to mankind, so its an irony that I sit at my iPad typing up my notes to be emailed with digital images as my presentation for this show.

My post-secondary experience was as a fine arts student at the University of Alberta in the 60’s there were always great debates over the merits of fine arts over craft, craft being seen as a poor cousin, something akin to shoemaking or bricklaying by most in the U of A Fine Arts Department. In a class during my third year, Dr. Ron MacGregor showed a slide of a lidded Casserole by Bernard Leach and this was the beginning of my love affair with pottery. The beauty and functionality of his designs always stayed with me.

Years later I travelled to St. Ives in England to visit Bernard Leach and arrange an apprenticeship but by this time he was an old man so his wife arranged a position for me with his son Michael Leach in Barnstable.

When I read about The Bauhaus School of Art, I embraced their philosophy that combined all forms of art from architecture to fine art and craft. I still paint, sculpt and draw, especially from nature and everything I make is a fusion of art and nature. I think of my pots as three dimensional canvases.

During the 60’s there was a strong back to the land movement, live an independent life in harmony with nature, a rejection of mass produced items, no more chrome, corning-ware and arborite for me. I wanted hand-made, original one of a kind items made with natural materials and I wanted to make them myself.

In 1978, I designed and built a gas kiln and established Miller Pottery Studio and made functional hand-made items. In every item I make you can see the hands of the maker, you can see the love for design and pride of craftsmanship. In an Internet age of computers, 3D printers, cars that park themselves and outsourcing to China, handmade craft and craftsmanship will become more important and precious with each passing year.


Bowl with Fluted Leaves
Ceramic, 2015
$105

Vase with Fluted Swirl
Ceramic, 2015
$105

Also in Language of Craft:
Bowl with Sgraffito Trees
Ceramic, 2015
$105