Journal & Essays — Michelle Miles | Art, Process, Materials

Essay

On Using Worn Out Stuff

I have been using old dishcloths in my work for years. These are from my own kitchen, stained and worn from cooking, from years of meals made with my husband.

April 2026

Essay

MARY OLIVER IN ALL CAPS

Only for an instant I felt the towering presence of MARY OLIVER IN ALL CAPS. Thinking about the life she led. Being in nature. Being herself. Observing.

June 2025

Notes

Red, Black, Ecru

Red is my most favorite color. Heat. Blood. Anger. Lust. Love. So many things can be conveyed with one color.

March 2025

Essay

Today is Friday and this has been a most incredible week. Snow storm and equinox and aurora and tear ruffle on eye collar and watching Kat make garments and paintings and Kris make quilts and paintings. The Triangle.

March 2023

Notes

How to Roast a Marshmallow

There is an art to roasting marshmallows and everyone has their own preference as to doneness. I like dark, toasty brown. Roasted over hot coals after the flame is gone but the heat remains intense.

February 2023

Notes

Future Michelle is Going On Vacation

Giving Blueberry a bath in the laundry tub. He looks like a little rat. A dejected rat. He doesn't like a bath but he's so soft and fluffy afterward.

September 2022

Notes

Hey, Judgement. Go sit down.

I made a little book out of a pad of watercolor paper. Bound with cotton thread that was laying around. The covers are from a mailing envelope.

October 2022

Essay

Dirt Rain

The dirt starts to quiver. Individual grains start popping, not unlike popcorn, and the popping grains start to take shape. The rise up in a mass and form a set of lips with a stem that reaches to the ground like a disembodied mouth.

June 2022

Notes

Used Coffee Filters

I love coffee. I drink it every day. Just a bit of sugar, maybe. Always lots of half & half.

January 2022

Essay

A Frame Is Not a Border

How do we frame it? How do we give context? I have a habit of thinking directions in my head when I am a passenger and the driver doesn't know where we are going.

January 2022

Essay

Tiny and Tenacious

Kendra asked me to make Swedish rye bread and of course, I said yes. But then later I realized that I am making the bread and the meatballs and the gravy and the ostakaka and I can't even call my aunt to get tips on how to fix problems with the ostakaka.

December 2021

Notes

I Caught Myself

Total blank. There are dishes that need to be washed but no one is coming over so why should we bother? The dishwasher fills up so fast these days. These covid days.

September 2021

Notes

1 2 3 4 Slash 5

Well, I think and I think. I'm stuck? I haven't made anything for a long time. And then I feel guilty. Guilty about not going to the studio, guilty about not drawing in my sketch book or making something at home.

August 2016

Notes

The Emotional Health of Linseed Oil

I think about squishing a brush into paint. In my joyful fantasy, the paint is oil. Golden yellow red and orange with that linseed oil smell. I love that smell. It makes me so damn happy.

June 2016