Dear hiring decision maker(s):

Please consider me in your search for an Arts Educators/Instructors.

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 and then opted 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 painting 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 curricula to students as young as four to adult.

While overseas, I taught basic pottery in Libya and Saudi Arabia. It’s been some time, but I’m comfortable with wedging, hand-building, firing and glazing. I’m not skilled on the pottery wheel. Here’s an acrylic on paper, Nadia and Friend (2004), of two of my students in Libya.

I’ve always worked at creating educational experiences based on the needs and interests of my students and the resources at hand. For example, while teaching Vocational Mathematics in the UAE and developing and awaiting teaching resources for a new school in Al Ain, I developed my students’ English skills and cooperative abilities through making a short movie, God is Love.

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. This project involved working with a variety of power tools and a team of Timberspan employees. I have had an avid interest in working with wood, since junior high school. 

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 worked as a custodian in Alberta’s fire base camps and the company owned Iosegun Lake Lodge. Most recently, I’ve served as an Industrial Janitor, and now, Second Cook, at the Cenovus Energy site near Fort MacMurray.

I’m not sure what resources are available but I would be prepared to offer basic art projects like drawing, painting (from a photograph, illustrated below) and wire sculpture; or more involved activities, such as woodworking, digital art using Photoshop and Illustrator; video production and working with WordPress.

The gallery that follows shows some of my most recent interests, including my “On the Ball” series where I take two-dimensional styles of artists, Mondrian for example, and imagine what that work would look projected onto a sphere. Other current projects include a large painting, Sleeping Madonna; revisiting my work, Bombus Terrestris, using color-shift paint; glitterizing an incense burner; and overalls referencing my belief in happiness, which can also be found in my Happy Face Series. Some samples of my work in wood are also included.

In conclusion, I believe I could be an effective Art Educator/Instructor for your organization. Please not that I am contracted to instruct two courses, “Acrylicreativty” and “Glitter, glue and What Have You?” for the Strathcona Place Society on Mondays, starting in September and continuing until early December.

Yours truly,

James Miller