Visitor Services – AHFSA

Please consider me in your search for an individual to work in Visitor Services.

Making art has been a part of my entire adult life. After studying Commercial Art in high school, I enrolled in a BFA program at the U of A, later opting to complete an Art Education degree. Here’s a gallery of some of my early work and you’ll note that Bombus Terestris, (1970), is adapted as the banner on my website. The annotation on the work reads, “A colorful play on words emphasizing that the “bee” at the centre of our lives is, Being,” which references the spiritual nature of much of my work.

I continued to explore my interest in making art while teaching the subject internationally. Working in six different countries outside Canada, I taught art using the Irish Leaving Certificate, IGCSE and International Baccalaureate PYP, MYP and Baccalaureate art curricula to students as young as grade four to adult. Here’s an acrylic on paper, Nadia and Friend, (2004), of two of my students in Libya.

Returning to Canada in 2012, I worked with a web designer to launch my WordPress website highlighting my creative abilities in writing, photography, art, music and video production. Moving to Prince George, I completed a major outdoor installation, The Spirit of Prince George, 2015, (2014) for Timberspan Wood Products, which was initially a submission for a piece to commemorate PG’s Canada Winter Games.

Other relevant experience includes my editorial and public relations work with The University of Calgary, Nanaimo Free Press, Nanaimo Business Examiner, Canadian Forest Industries Magazine and T-MAR Industries. My varied duties as Marketing Manager for T-MAR Industries included creating marketing materials like brochures, ads, swag and the like and designing and overseeing the installation of the company’s annual show booth at the Truck Logger’s Convention in Vancouver. In all of these positions, my skills as a writer, photographer, installer, designer and creative thinker were utilized as well as by abilities with Illustrator, Photoshop, Movie Studio and  WordPress. My work as a Licensed Property Manager involved maintaining databases and working with specialized software.

Since moving to Edmonton in April 2021, I have worked in the custodial field, beginning in homeless shelters for the Mustard Seed Organization. For my current employer, Horizon North (a division of Dexterra Group), I’ve served as an Industrial Janitor, and now Second Cook, at the MEG Energy site in Conklin, AB.

I’ve gone on at some length to demonstrate the energy, ingenuity and enthusiasm I bring to bear in everything I do, whether it’s making art or creating smoothies for 400. I believe this is a vital ingredient in filling this role.

And always, always, I am making art. Life Star, created with dollar store night lights, is a recent example. My interest in making wearable art, has led me to establishing my own Shopify site and I must admit I am in the early stages of this project and looking at ways to promote my work online and in the city. I’m currently preparing a submission for shows at the Latitude 53 Gallery and the Alberta Craft Council. I’m also organizing the recording of a new song and working on a new painting.

I’d like to work for the Arts and Heritage Foundation because I love being around, participating in, and promoting the creative process. Why? Because, for me, creativity is life. And the essence of life, for me, is Love, Peace, Freedom and Joy.

James Miller