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Today in Mississippi
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March 2016
Uncommon Threads Ruth Miller employs simple stitches to create complex embroidered portraits A detail from Miller’s latest work, “Congregants,” shows the surprising number of yarn colors she uses in flesh tones.
By Debbie Stringer Upon seeing artist Ruth Miller’s portraits for the first time, you may be surprised: There is not one drop of paint in her work—just thousands upon thousands of hand stitches in hundreds of colors. Guided by an extraordinary sense of color and tonal values, she embroiders tapestries with such realism, some viewers can’t believe their eyes. “They don’t believe it’s embroidered. They want to touch it,” said Miller, a member of Coast Electric Power Association. Her subjects are everyday folks, friends and relatives. Some are picRuth Miller tured in settings that tell a story. Dancers apply make-up in a back-stage dressing room and a young man closes his eyes while a phone-talking stylist works on his long hair. In a piece she calls “The Evocation and Capture of Aphrodite,” a reference to the mythological Greek goddess of love and beauty, Miller depicts her granddaughter posing for a selfie in a mirror.
Working from a drawing based on a photograph she has made of her subject, right, Ruth Miller begins stitching a portrait tapestry. In this piece, she begins with the subject’s left eye. A small detail of her first tapestry, “Flower,” above, shows her characteristic use of a rich variety of yarn colors and stitch directions.
“All the young girls are always in the mirror, trying to find the beauty in themselves,” she said. Motifs inspired by embroidered Kuba cloth from Zaire drift across the tapestry, evidence of her interest in African fiber art traditions. Miller learned to sew and embroider from her mother and two aunts, who lived in Meridian. Her mother made sure her three children’s education included a broad range of cultural experiences, from musical instruments to museum visits. Young Ruth was a shy child who aspired to become an artist as she studied drawing and painting at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. “I really felt I was a terrible painter but I learned to draw well,” she said. Embroidered tapestries became her alternative to painting. Her first effort was a life-size full-length portrait in wool yarn that took 19 months to complete. Miller returned to Mississippi in 2009, settling into the Hancock County home she renovated to include a studio. “I really came here just to work,” she said. “I wanted to be able to work at the art without having to
have a job, so that I wouldn’t have to interrupt the process.” Hers is a slow, meditative process that can require more than a year to complete a tapestry, depending on its size and the degree of realism. She works in the spacious studio at her home, sometimes listening to audiobooks while she stitches. Large windows on three walls admit the natural light she needs for her extremely detailed work. Stacks of plastic boxes hold her vast collection of Paternayan tapestry wool yarns in most every conceivable color. Miller composes tapestries based on the drawings she makes from photographs of her subjects. She transfers the basic outlines to a linen or other fabric foundation, scaling the size to suit the composition. Despite careful planning, the outcome is never certain. Miller edits as she works, ripping out stitches and stitching on top of stitches to get the effects she wants. She may apply up to three layers of stitching to render facial features, hair and clothing as convincingly as possible. “You really don’t have any idea in the beginning what it’s going to look like in the end,” Miller said. Traditional hand embroidery, such as crewel work, is made up of elaborate multistitch patterns. Miller prefers to use simple straight stitches in varying lengths, which resemble tiny brush marks. “I like all those traditional embroidery stitches, but I wanted the stitching to take a back seat to the storytelling,” Miller said. The direction of each stitch contributes to the realism of the image. Miller carefully places each stitch in