The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco will be spotlighting the art of Briana Miller starting on August 16th.
Briana Miller is a Berkeley-born, East Bay resident who has lived in almost every city that touches the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay. She created her first comic in 2000 and quickly discovered what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She has produced at least one hand-drawn, hand-silk-screened comic a year ever since.
Each of Miller’s comics is a self-contained story with no recurring characters or story lines. Her stories are often a mixture of whimsy and loss that becomes magical realism in unexpected moments of comic-book maturity. In Walk Like Tall Birds, an old puppeteer at the top of each page tells a story of lost love with his marionettes: a giraffe and an elephant who were once in love. In Catch Me If, a girl walks around town with her best friend, a giant lifeless hand, as a boy watches from afar.
Miller’s latest comic, Still, which debuts at the Cartoon Art Museum, is the first instance of a recurring character in her work. It is a prequel to Simple, which told the story of an old man who is strolling home while trying both to remember and forget his lost love. In Still, we look through a small window into this husband’s thoughts before his beloved wife diedâ?¦ before he knew he might lose her.
Millerâ??s most high-profile project to date commences December 22, 2008 on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. The artist and longtime collaborator Thien Pham have been commissioned to create a series of posters for the San Francisco Arts Commission to be displayed on the cityâ??s bus kiosks.
When not creating her comics, Briana Miller is a full-time high school art teacher. She also works as a freelance illustrator and silk-screener, with a focus on posters, postcards, event invitations and shirts. In her spare time, Miller enjoys sewing and being a member of the National Puzzlers League.