Celebrating Alumni Stories: Ashley Sauder ’99 Miller

Many parents have cracked open a window to broadcast one thing or another to their kids running across the yard or bouncing on the trampoline. For few parents, that has been from a window of their workplace. For even fewer, it’s been from their own art studio. But what Ashley Sauder ’99 Miller has carved out at her Harrisonburg home is exactly this: a little black studio where professional and home life – much like the elements of her mixed media art – exist side-by-side, intertwined, or merged into one.

It’s not just a space, then, that Miller – an independent professional artist and the primary caregiver for her four children – has carved out. It’s also a way of being. Miller recalls having short windows of time when her children were young – three hours or less during naps – to find her practice. This meant using materials that were readily available, cutting and weaving them together until it felt like they fit. “I was just going to my studio and almost frantically being like, ‘What can I make today?’ There was a lot of repetition in that…which felt a lot like the work I was doing as a mother,” Miller remembers. Piecing together bits of material, as well as small, repetitive, seemingly insignificant moments – as an artist and as a parent – eventually led Miller to see the bigger picture: all those tiny parts put together can create something novel and magnificent. This skill of seeing something new in the superficially worthless, mundane, or forgotten now guides Miller’s work and vision as an established artist – as someone who has turned little snippets, chance moments, and overlooked scraps into a passion and career.

Building a Career

After earning her Master of Fine Arts from James Madison University (JMU) in 2007, Miller built her now-flourishing career piece-by-piece. One of those pieces stands out from the rest: an old cane rocking chair that belonged to Miller’s grandmother. Uncomfortable and so creaky it provided no help in soothing children to sleep, the chair held much more sentimental than practical value. Its inspiration for art, however, came when the caning got damaged and Miller leapt into action, teaching herself to cane. Miller says, “We want to think we don’t care about stuff, but when you’re holding onto something that reminds you of somebody, it becomes really important – especially when it gets destroyed or lost or ruined.” This restoration project took on a life of its own, with bits of weaving joining her canvases, then leading to over a thousand chair paintings that, through each piece’s particularity, represent people, remembering, or connection. Miller’s collection of chair pieces earned her an endearing nickname at festivals: The Chair Lady.

But Miller and her art have stretched beyond the simple label of The Chair Lady. For one, her subject has shifted. Her mixed media work, which often includes bits of fabric, quilts, or other found materials, now features floral images, while maintaining the layering and abstractness of her style. Secondly, Miller’s work has garnered significant attention in the last decade. At festivals and art shows – Miller travels with her work 20 weekends each year, sometimes with her family – she has been named a finalist for the William and Dorothy Yeck Purchase Award in the Young Painters Competition at Miami University in 2016, Best in Show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Boardwalk Art Show in 2016 and 2023, and selected for a solo show at VaMOCA’s Runnymede Gallery in 2017. Her work has been published in the magazine Studio Visit, the periodical New American Paintings, and the book Wild Lands by Jen Tough Gallery. Her work has homes in many art collections, both private and corporate, including the Capital One Art Bank private collection.

Influences

Miller’s successful career, however, has come long after her passion for art itself. Since the age of four, Miller has known she wanted to be an artist – and not just as a hobby. Early on, her parents provided her with the tools, and her uncle Allen Berkshire ‘70 taught watercolor classes from his home studio. Berkshire also served as an early example of someone who made art their life work.

Thanks to her mother, Denise Berkshire 74’ Sauder’s, and other family members’ strong connections to Eastern Mennonite School (EMS), Miller attended beginning in 7th grade, the earliest possible opportunity at that time. Barbara Gautcher, EMS art teacher for 32 years, became a special connection. Miller remembers Gautcher – whom she still considers a friend – as a welcoming, open person whose encouragement and steady presence has helped shape Miller’s career, parenting, and even spirituality.

Miller credits Gautcher, along with Lois Misegadis, her instructor at Hesston College, and the late Dr. Earlynn Miller, an art collector and former dance professor at JMU, as mentors who encouraged her to see art as a career path. She says, “Some people think you have to be an art teacher or graphic designer to have a career in art, but [these mentors] never doubted me.” As for those who held a different view, such as a high school teacher who told Miller to stop doodling during class because she would never use it in life, Miller says they kindled something of a fire in her.

Finding the Work

That fire is still burning. On the life of an artist, Miller says, “You have to find your work. You have to seek it out.” Just as with the raw materials of her art, this work doesn’t find itself. From the passion of a young child to an old piece of embroidered cloth, the things we come across may be infused with meaning. But if they’re not given new life, they remain hidden or abandoned, no matter how many stories they hold. In both her personal and professional life, Miller is committed to doing this hard work of seeking and making new. She has made a life of noticing the little meaningful pieces, and meshing them together – little by little, with care and repetition – until she’s found it.

To view Ashley’s work, go to: 

Instagram: @ashleysaudermiller  | Facebook: Ashley Sauder Miller Art
www.ashleysaudermiller.com/