Formation
Don Miller
Created : 1998
Donated :
Medium : Mixed media/two-dimensional
Dimensions: 63 in x 39 in
Located: Annex Walkway
Don Miller is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the interrelationship between landscape, memory, and the elemental materials of the Southwest. Through an earth-based aesthetic and tactile approach, Miller brings together natural and constructed forms to tell layered stories of environment, culture, and identity.
Formation (1998) is a diptych composed of wood, bear grass, stabilized adobe, and acrylic paint—a material symphony that blurs the line between sculpture, painting, and land art. The use of stabilized adobe—a blend of soil and modern binders—roots the piece in New Mexico’s architectural and ecological vernacular. The addition of bear grass, a native plant used historically in basketry and fiber arts, brings a sense of motion and fragility to the work.
As a diptych, Formation offers a visual dialogue between two panels—perhaps evoking a split in geological strata, a cultural boundary, or a moment of transformation. The layered materials reflect time, erosion, construction, and renewal. The use of acrylic paint atop natural elements adds a conceptual tension: a contemporary gesture atop ancient ground.
Miller’s practice frequently involves site-responsive installations and sculptural assemblages that call attention to the textures and rhythms of the high desert. Formation is both a tribute to and an inquiry into the layers—physical, historical, and symbolic—that shape our sense of place.
