Abstract
Artist Miller Horns discusses the role of art in his education, discussing how his artistic ability helped him cope with dyslexia in elementary school and how Mark Sopliln at the University of Akron encouraged him to study art at the college level. He was accepted at CIA and spent five years commuting by Greyhound bus from Akron to Cleveland to attend school. His education gave him an appreciation of other art forms, especially dance and theater. Miller became interested in electrostatic art when he realized that few artists were working in the medium. He attended workshops to learn more about this new art form in the 1980s. Horns manipulates photographs, enlarging them and playing with colors and textures. By creating large images, he uses distance and space to invite the audience into his world. His work is often autobiographical, a place where he can share the good and bad experiences of his life. He believes the best art leaves the audience asking questions about the work and the creative process of the artist. His latest work is entitled "Nightmare: Falling out of Grace," in which he portrays a figure falling from a tall building in New York, lit by floodlights. Some people may relate to the dream of falling, while others may find the image reminiscent of 9/11. He observes that he has been criticized by not being "black" enough in his work, but feels his art transcends his color. He has written a play based on his experiences on the Greyhound commute called "Just Passing Through" that was given a staged reading at Karamu Theatre. Horn hopes, someday, to see this work produced on stage.
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Interviewee
Horns, Miller (interviewee)
Interviewer
Busta, William (interviewer)
Project
Cleveland Artists Foundation
Date
10-28-2008
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
34 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Miller Horns Interview, 28 October 2008" (2008). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 901017.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/204
Transcript
William Busta [00:00:01] Miller, to start with, could you just tell us again your name and where you were born?
Miller Horns [00:00:06] Miller Horns. I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1948.
William Busta [00:00:11] And how did you get to northeastern Ohio?
Miller Horns [00:00:16] By the way of Buffalo, New York, to Akron, Ohio. My mother was kind of a transient person, so just by that means, you know.
William Busta [00:00:28] How old were you when you first started? You came to Akron?
Miller Horns [00:00:32] One, because I left Birmingham, Alabama, at that age, and I haven’t ever been back.
William Busta [00:00:40] Okay, so you grew up in Akron, then?
Miller Horns [00:00:44] Yeah.
William Busta [00:00:47] When did you first realize that you had some kind of artistic ability?
Miller Horns [00:00:51] Well, I think it was about the third grade because they had arts and crafts in the summer. And I was amazed with this using noodles and popsicle sticks to make things. And then there was a fellow that had Down syndrome that would get up every morning named Carl, and he would go out in his front yard where there was no grass and take his fingers and draw like candelabras. He wouldn’t talk, and I was just amazed at, you know, his abilities and stuff.
William Busta [00:01:27] And did you think, I’m an artist now? Or how did, how did your artistic- How did you develop as an artist?
Miller Horns [00:01:38] Well, my mother used to, excuse me, draw cars for me. And, you know, because she has some, and she used to do a lot of sewing. So I got that interest in doing art basically from my mother in her encouraging me.
William Busta [00:02:01] Did other students in school tend to say, well, you know, look at Miller, he can really draw?
Miller Horns [00:02:08] They used to call me King Louie because I wasn’t able to keep up with class assignments. And so just to keep me busy and to help me feel productive, I was allowed to go off and draw. Then you say, why can Miller draw and we can’t? Well, as it turned out, in 1986, I was diagnosed as being dyslexic.
[00:02:38] And, you know, so that’s the reason, I guess I was able to just, you know, like, doing what I did, visual things became more a means of communicating for me.
William Busta [00:02:54] Who helped you become an artist?
Miller Horns [00:02:58] Who helped me?
William Busta [00:03:00] Was there a teacher? Was there somebody who encouraged you particularly?
Miller Horns [00:03:05] Well, his name was or is Mark Soplan, University of Akron. He was different than most instructors there. He was more creative, and he allowed us to sort of go off on our own and develop who we are as artists.
William Busta [00:03:35] And was there some teacher also in high school that you remembered, or was there a friend who might have particularly encouraged you?
Miller Horns [00:03:49] Well, there was an instructor in high school – I forget her name - that was encouraging, and, but she wouldn’t encourage me to pursue college because she just felt that I couldn’t go on to do something like that. Ms. Fry. That was her name. Yeah. Yeah.
William Busta [00:04:17] Well, then the next question is, did your art education help or hinder you?
Miller Horns [00:04:25] Well, helped. I didn’t allow it to hinder me.
William Busta [00:04:36] In what way?
Miller Horns [00:04:37] Well, it gave me, like a way of looking at art in other ways than just doing and making things. That there were other things out there in the world that was artistic, but it didn’t necessarily require, like, someone to paint, draw or something like that, you know, I think I appreciated dance more and, you know, like theater, you know, not necessarily just the visual things. I mean, in terms of my painting and so forth.
William Busta [00:05:22] When did you first start to work with- Were you clear about what your major medium was going to be from the start or how did you- What was the path that you traveled that took you toward working with electrostatic and xerox copies?
Miller Horns [00:05:40] Well, it began as documenting information for future works. Because back then I was in commercial art and also painting. And then like, they just had came out with color copies, copies. And I went to the reproduction center, Xerox in Akron, and I had one project that I was working on, and I asked them could they help me with it and what I wanted them to do. They felt that it was like not a normal thing that they would really do in way of making images for people. And they were impressed with what the end results were that they gave me all the copies and stuff, free color. And I said, well, God, I’m on to something. And then I said, well, there’s no one that could tell me I’m doing anything wrong. If I go into that, I mean, like, I don’t have to hear it. And I realized that there were millions of painters and artists out in the world that work painters. And there was only a handful of people that worked with the copier. So that is something that led me to there, to that. And it was not just for me think it habit. It was like I wanted to see if I could put. Push the medium a little bit further to fine art.
William Busta [00:07:09] When was this, Miller?
Miller Horns [00:07:11] It was at the University of Akron about 1980.
William Busta [00:07:25] And, 1980, that was in Cleveland. There was an electrostatic workshop, the Image Resource Center. Did you ever come up here and talk to those people?
Miller Horns [00:07:37] I came up there one time with an image I created. And the lady, one lady that was sort of a pioneer of the. Of electrostatics. I forget her name, but she was having a workshop over at Nova or Sonia. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And she was interested in my image and stuff.
[00:07:58] So I was really quite pleased that she found my work, you know, like, different. Then you had. Then you had Gary Crawford, right, that, you know, and then also the fellow that first put together the Electros, it was Xerox Corporation, had Electroworks, right. So I was working at the institute, like in my space. And the Akron Art Institute.
William Busta [00:08:27] Pardon me, the Akron Art Institute?
Miller Horns [00:08:29] No, Institute of Art.
William Busta [00:08:30] Yeah, Cleveland Institute of Art.
Miller Horns [00:08:32] And I was in my space working on some of my images. This fella came in there and he looked at my work and said, you know, like he enjoyed what I was doing, you know, aesthetically. Then he told me who he was. He said, I’m the person that originated the Electroworks show. And he went on to talk about what I was doing. And then he later on gave me a book that shows all the images that they had in that show.
William Busta [00:09:08] But when you work with, what were you trying to do with electrostatics? I guess we usually call that xerox copying. What were you trying to. To do? What was your objective?
Miller Horns [00:09:19] Well, since I had a problem in regards to writing and so forth and printing, I thought I would sort of have some way of like helping me to deal with that inability, that I could take that machine, that it was meant for printed matter, that I was able to use it artistically. So it helped me to sort of like to deal with the problem I had in terms of reading and writing. That I can use that to my advantage, the copier, to help me feel better.
William Busta [00:09:58] Were you ever attempted to use a camera or do regular photography?
Miller Horns [00:10:03] Well, I actually use photography in my work. And then I manipulate the image through the use of the machine.
William Busta [00:10:14] Do you take photographs? Could you describe your process a little bit from the beginning of an idea to the completion of a work?
Miller Horns [00:10:26] Well, when I begin, I take the image and try to figure out what sort of impact it would have in regards to its size. And then I would try to look at if I need color or not. And then if I wanted the image to be grainy or to try to get it sort of like.
[00:10:54] Sort of like a photograph. Or I could get it to look like a wood block print. The medium has allowed me to go beyond canvas size and all like that. And. And it made it easy for me to sort of transport my work by folding up like a map. And I laminate my images so I wouldn’t have to deal with all the expense with glass and stuff like that.
William Busta [00:11:24] What’s the importance of scale? In your pieces, when you started working, the machines were only able to come up with an 8 and a half by 11, or 8 and a half by 14 inch thing. And did you always think of your work as much larger than that?
Miller Horns [00:11:47] Yes, I think what the work for me is to invite people into my world, and by enlarging the piece, it allows other people to become involved with it. And I’m sharing myself with this space. And that also represented the size, is because I live in such a tight space in Akron that, by making things larger, it sort of gives me psychologically the space I need.
William Busta [00:12:22] And you work in a small space?
Miller Horns [00:12:25] Oh, yeah. I only have around about some places, 3 feet to 12 feet in- Then my house is totally tight. And when people come over there, they suggest that I get a new space, but I can’t afford it. But excuse me. I try to keep everything kind of organized, and it helps me also in my work. I sort of get agitated when I move around and I bump into something and knock it over. And then I said, well, I ain’t gonna pick that up now, you know, but it’s tight. And then maybe I might be a little hoarder or something, and I don’t let go very many things. But, yeah, my space is pretty tight.
William Busta [00:13:28] Where does the subject matter for your work come from?
Miller Horns [00:13:31] It’s usually autobiographic and helping me to deal with the good things and the bad things in my life. And I don’t mind sharing them because I think there are other people out there that, you know, have some similarity in regards to life experiences. And it. I think it helps me to move forward because I think that that’s the scary thing is to expose yourself to so many people. You know, it’s like sort of like you’re being crucified sometime when you’re in a show and your works are nailed against the wall. And then you have the. The crowd that comes in there and comments. And then you have the wine and the cheese stuff like the religious thing with the wine. But, you’re very vulnerable. Sometimes it shows an opening because maybe the person don’t know who you are. And then you can hear them say either good or bad things about your work.
William Busta [00:14:46] Could you- You said that your life, you draw upon your life for your work. Could you give one example of that?
Miller Horns [00:14:55] Well, I just finished a play called ‘Just Passing Through’. And it was 20 years in the development, so to speak. And that play was related to my catching the Greyhound bus to Cleveland Institute of Art for five years. And the people I encountered at the bus stations and stuff like that in the bus. So I was able to create a, a scene that dealt with the bus station in Akron. And this play covered several eras, 1945 up in 1970 and the ’80s. In my image, the bus was almost life size in terms of my producing it because it started out about 12 inch by 4 inch high model bus that I put it on a machine, cut it, put it on a machine cut over the years, you know, and then like when I finally got it produced, I was in my own play and I had had a reading up at Karamu Playhouse maybe about two months ago in hopes that they would produce the play and stuff again.
William Busta [00:16:22] What were the largest obstacles that you have faced as an artist? What has slowed you down or hindered you or blocked your way as an artist?
Miller Horns [00:16:37] I think sometime just the thought that my being a black artist or artists happen to be black, that my subject matter is not dealing with my color, that some people black feel that I should be doing, you know, and I tend to do images that, as I said, pertain to my personal life and stuff. And it’s sort of breaking some of that stereotype that black and whites would have about my work and stuff because I was in a show up here in Cleveland and I was told that my work wasn’t black enough. I didn’t get that, you know, by a black artist. So I sort of got upset with that. But yeah, just pigeon, trying to pigeonhole me.
William Busta [00:17:33] What, what do you feel your most important accomplishment as an artist has been?
Miller Horns [00:17:40] Is to be able to graduate from college. I mean, like with high schools, P’s, D’s and F’s, you know, and I was able to function, so to speak, by playing sports. And, you know, there was no real expense expectations from my mother or anyone like that. So it was all good that I was able to get people that cared about me in terms of helping me to read and write and so forth.
William Busta [00:18:16] Well, you know, Miller, that seems extraordinary. You said, what was it that, I mean, as you said, you didn’t do well in high school and people did encourage you to go to college. And you’ve explained how you had to get on a Greyhound bus every day to go up to Cleveland from Akron to go to school. What drove you to do that? What pushed you to do it?
Miller Horns [00:18:41] Well, what pushed me to do it was someone at the University of Akron and her name was Teresa Verdine from California that was up at the university that she had, I think, a semester that she was going to be there. She seen my work, and she was impressed with it. And that was at Akron U. And then she encouraged me to go to the Cleveland Institute of Art. But I knew it was a real. You know, I mean, it was hard to get in there. But after I have been encouraged by her, you know, I took a shot at it. And so it was kind of a test of my character, because I forgot I didn’t have nothing to lose, you know, any. Anything I did was an improvement, you know, because I was looking at, what do I have if I don’t do that, you know, if I don’t pursue that? And it was. I felt good that I was able to get up and I mean, commute back and forth, like, for five years. Like, I would come into Cleveland, it was expanding in regards to information up in Cleveland, then contract in Akron, and I’d take all the information, throw it on a table, sort through it. So it was having both worlds that helped me to cope better.
William Busta [00:20:19] As time has passed, your work has. I guess the best way I’m thinking of your work is that you have images that you copy, and then you copy part of that and enlarge it, and part of that, enlarge it until you have a large top piece. And what is- you know, there’s an issue of distance in your work, that if you get far away from it, the image comes into focus, and if you’re very close to it, it seems very abstract. Do you see there as a distance for your work, or is that contrast important to you?
Miller Horns [00:21:03] Well, I noticed that when I do pieces that are kind of deep space, that is sort of speaking of how close I want to come to the public, how far away I want them to be from me, because I know, like, there’s some works right in your face that you know what it is. But I play with deep space because sometimes that was, like, maybe the way I felt about connecting with people, you know? Now, right now I’m involved in showing an Akron that is put together by the University of Akron and so forth. And I have an installation that I’ve done that is dealing with the perception of depth and height and so forth. It’s an aerial view of New York City, and there’s a figure that is called. The piece is called ‘Falling out of Grace’. So when you go into the space, I want to put you as a viewer of seeing this figure that’s falling. You know, like, just, it was all over but the shouting. They figured they didn’t have any other way of doing things, so they sort of just committed, like, suicide. And, and people that came into the space, they were a little bit, you know, like, ooh. You know, like. Because it opens up this the 30th, and it’s. I haven’t done any installation like that, but I like it because it draws people in there, you know, and it puts them in a situation. Because some people look at it, think of 9/11. But I like the image. I’m just curious to see what kind of comments would be made when I go there, to the opening.
William Busta [00:23:35] So do you have- When you do something move with that piece? Do you have an idea of what the character is thinking as they’re falling or. You said it’s a little bit autobiographical. You work sometimes a little bit autobiographical. Is there a little bit of you in that?
Miller Horns [00:23:54] Well, yeah, because I think that most people have had dreams of falling. Actually, it’s called Nightmare slash, you know, falling out of Grace. Because that’s something that a lot of people have problem with heights and-
William Busta [00:24:15] Right.
Miller Horns [00:24:15] Yeah. And I just felt like the theme of the show was dealing with, like, Halloween, and they wanted us to come up with something that was unique, like, you know, like this Wolf man and all that stuff. So I said, well, let me really think about something that I could really, you know, like, do, and people can relate to, you know? So that was the pleasure of doing it that I felt that I did accomplish that.
William Busta [00:24:55] Well, you said you wanted to see how people would react to it. So you leave your works with a question for people to answer.
Miller Horns [00:25:03] Yep, yep. Because I think it’s good when you can have your viewer participate in your work, you know, and have a lot of questions about, like, what motivated the person to do that particular piece. Then sometimes people might find that some of the issues that artists deal with they have experienced but didn’t have any means of doing it and resolving that issue.
William Busta [00:25:48] I’ve heard it said about that dream that sometimes it’s true. Sometimes you die and sometimes you fly.
Miller Horns [00:25:55] That’s right, because I had done all kind of images, like fluorescent images of this fallen figure, but they seemed like they were floating down. And then I said, well, I’m not really dealing with the issue. I got to have it look like they’re fallen. And that was, like, that. I just had to express that particular feeling. So I just have black and white, and it’s a night scene, and then I have a light that changes colors that flow across the image. Just like those spotlights that they have, like, in New York when they’re having a grand opening. And stuff. And it’s sort of like spotlighting that falling figure.
William Busta [00:26:51] Your work has been working with electrostatics. And of course, as we’ve talked about, you have used the tendency of electrostatic copies to. For the image as it’s copied and copied again and is enlarged, that there’s a certain randomness that starts to happen and there’s a certain breakdown of that visually. How are you responding to the growth of digital technology, which is a lot more precise than what you’ve been working on with for all these years?
Miller Horns [00:27:37] Well, the image that I just finished doing, it was done with a digital blueprint printer that it didn’t break down the image as much as the old technique with the old technique made it look like it could be wood block print or something like that, you know. But I’m still sort of like at a distance with that sort of technology, although I bought myself a laptop, you know, and all like that. And I’m trying not to go too deep into the technical things, you know, like electronic things and stuff like that, because I don’t. I don’t want to lose the ability to be involved physically with the work rather than you have a screen and you’re, you’re manipulating all the stuff that sometimes someone that’s not an artist can get on there and learn how to create.
William Busta [00:28:48] There’s, there’s, there’s an- If you- If you look back, if you’re- As you look ahead at what you’re going to do as an artist, what are you. Do you have any plans or any projects that you see on the horizon or what you’re going to do next?
Miller Horns [00:29:04] Well, there’s a project that I’ve been working on for like 11 years or so. It’s dealing with a hotel in Akron [Mathews Hotel] that was torn down that very few people knew about the people that was housed there. It goes from like Cab Callaway, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Redd Foxx, Scatman Crothers, all like that. And so I had worked on a project to take the face of the hotel and to turn that facade of the hotel into a sculpture. Now, right now, the city planning and acronym are looking at my design, and it’s been in the news and on PBS and all like that. So hopefully then I’ll get it done. The State of Ohio acknowledged the importance of that hotel because they gave me a historical marker to go there. And it was pretty good competition to get it. But that, you know, like, they felt it was important to do. So that keeps me going and stuff.
William Busta [00:30:28] If as people, let’s say, 50 years from now or 100 years from now, look back at the career of Miller Horns. Is there something that you would like your work to be remembered for that you feel that’s been your contribution?
Miller Horns [00:30:50] Well, I think the important thing, like this marker that I was telling you about, there’s no place on that marker that said, I, Miller Horns, was the person that, you know, got it. And I was trying to find a way that the public would know that it was me that got that, not these organizations. So I want to- I would like people to know about some of the contributions I made locally, and that’s, I believe, would be enough for me. I think that’s. I always felt like probably growing up that I was kind of in the background and, you know, didn’t have very much a voice that I could just be overlooked. But through my work, I’ve become more visible that I have a voice now, and I would like that voice to be heard.
William Busta [00:32:08] If you live, has living in- I guess we’ll end here, but there’s two questions. The first is, has living in Northeast Ohio affected your work in any way? In other words, did you consider saying, well, I’m going to live in Rome or live in New York City or someplace else? Is there a connection between your work and this place?
Miller Horns [00:32:37] Well, I think living in this area have made me more creative because a lot of things I want inside me to. To bring forward because there wasn’t that much stimulation around me. So I sort of created my world and stuff. So regardless of where I was ever would be or something like that, majority of the imagery and so forth would come from my head. Not necessarily things that are out there in the real world for the most part.
William Busta [00:33:16] Is there anything else you wish to say?
Miller Horns [00:33:23] Well, let me see. I enjoyed the interview, and I’m glad I had an opportunity to talk with you again.
William Busta [00:33:38] Well, I thank you very much.
Miller Horns [00:33:40] You’re welcome.
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