Tiffany Osedra Miller is a multi-disciplined, experimental artist from the Bronx. Her paintings have been featured on indoor and outdoor walls of five countries (the U.S., England, France, Australia and Brazil). Tiffany is primarily a self-taught artist, though she studied briefly with Anthony Palumbo at The Arts Students League in New York.
She wrote the play, Imitation of a Performance of Life: A Comedy, A Tragedy, A Magical Negro Spiritual, An Angelic Ballet, but mostly a Melodrama which premiered at Dixon Place on March 15, 2015. She co-directed the play with Dancer/Professor Peggy Gould in collaboration with Michael Rogers, Anneke Hansen, music director, Patrick Gallagher and actor/burlesque dancers Chicava HoneyChild, Lea "BC Love" Bempah, as well as other performers.
Tiffany recently wrote the poem, What is a Better Life for an artist book designed and illustrated by Beatrice Coron and Laura James. As of May 5, 2014, Tiffany independently released her own literary and visual art book, We Need the Mask, which she wrote, arranged, designed and illustrated and is currently available for purchase.
Tiffany’s paintings are surreal, expressionistic, mournful and darkly humorous. Many of the bright colors she uses invoke the Caribbean Carnival tradition. She is a free-form poet and uncivilized storyteller and experiments with visual storytelling methods to explore themes of colonialism, conflicted spirituality, colorism, death, transformation, carnival and masquerade.
Tiffany is currently working on an ongoing series of acrylic paintings/illustrations entitled Goatwater. Goatwater unites poetry and painting for unconventional storytelling in a hybrid, comic book/graphic novel form. The interconnected stories, songs and monologues feature the loves, longings, regrets and metamorphoses of a group of carnival revelers and spiritual beings existing in a dreamlike Caribbean landscape in the symbolic year of 1492. In addition to painting Goatwater, she is also creating a black and white single and multiple panel spin-off of Goatwater, called Goatwaterstrip.
Tiffany is the child of immigrants from the islands of Jamaica and Antigua. She grew up in the Bronx. Tiffany received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and studied performance at 29th Street Repertory in New York, Drama Studio London’s Summer Workshop and at Grambling State University in Louisiana. She’s performed at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The National Black Theater of Harlem, the Lincoln Center Institute, The Grange Court Theater in London, etc. She studied novel writing with author, Mat Johnson, dramatic writing with playwright, Ed Bullins and screenwriting with director, Mark Hammond. Tiffany received a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award from the Bronx Council on the Arts for her screenplay, Where the Body Lies, which has been slated for production through Soho Films, US. She also worked for BCA’s esteemed Writer’s Corps program, where she taught poetry workshops for children in Tier 2 homeless shelters and after school programs and taught drama and dramatic writing under the ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities For Education) program for teenagers, at Lehman and Hunter Colleges. She’s hosted poetry readings and edited several poetry anthologies, and has combined her own creative writing with performance and illustration. She currently teaches a poetry class for senior citizens.
Materials
As a writer and journaller for many years, the most obvious choice for me initially was drawing with pencils and pens on any kind of paper I could fine. As a result, I gained lots of experience creating small and even miniature illustrations and paintings. I welcome the challenge of discovering how much of the universe I can share within such a small space. I started out using oil pastels which worked fairly well on typing paper, index cards, recycled business, cards and so on. As my choice of painting materials expanded from dry media to wet I started experimenting with india and acrylic inks which eventually led to acrylic paints. Needing more absorbency for wet media I then gravitated toward latex paper and painting directly on unstretched linen canvas sheets most of the times prepping the surfaces with acrylic gesso to gain even more absorbency, weight and body. I even paint as though I am writing, with the surface on my lap, my brush in my hand and my paints and inks on a small table beside me.
I look forward to continuing to develop and expand the effects of my work by using other kinds of inks and paints on many more different types of surfaces from the miniscule to the gargantuan and all other sizes in between.
Updated: August 2015
She wrote the play, Imitation of a Performance of Life: A Comedy, A Tragedy, A Magical Negro Spiritual, An Angelic Ballet, but mostly a Melodrama which premiered at Dixon Place on March 15, 2015. She co-directed the play with Dancer/Professor Peggy Gould in collaboration with Michael Rogers, Anneke Hansen, music director, Patrick Gallagher and actor/burlesque dancers Chicava HoneyChild, Lea "BC Love" Bempah, as well as other performers.
Tiffany recently wrote the poem, What is a Better Life for an artist book designed and illustrated by Beatrice Coron and Laura James. As of May 5, 2014, Tiffany independently released her own literary and visual art book, We Need the Mask, which she wrote, arranged, designed and illustrated and is currently available for purchase.
Tiffany’s paintings are surreal, expressionistic, mournful and darkly humorous. Many of the bright colors she uses invoke the Caribbean Carnival tradition. She is a free-form poet and uncivilized storyteller and experiments with visual storytelling methods to explore themes of colonialism, conflicted spirituality, colorism, death, transformation, carnival and masquerade.
Tiffany is currently working on an ongoing series of acrylic paintings/illustrations entitled Goatwater. Goatwater unites poetry and painting for unconventional storytelling in a hybrid, comic book/graphic novel form. The interconnected stories, songs and monologues feature the loves, longings, regrets and metamorphoses of a group of carnival revelers and spiritual beings existing in a dreamlike Caribbean landscape in the symbolic year of 1492. In addition to painting Goatwater, she is also creating a black and white single and multiple panel spin-off of Goatwater, called Goatwaterstrip.
Tiffany is the child of immigrants from the islands of Jamaica and Antigua. She grew up in the Bronx. Tiffany received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and studied performance at 29th Street Repertory in New York, Drama Studio London’s Summer Workshop and at Grambling State University in Louisiana. She’s performed at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The National Black Theater of Harlem, the Lincoln Center Institute, The Grange Court Theater in London, etc. She studied novel writing with author, Mat Johnson, dramatic writing with playwright, Ed Bullins and screenwriting with director, Mark Hammond. Tiffany received a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award from the Bronx Council on the Arts for her screenplay, Where the Body Lies, which has been slated for production through Soho Films, US. She also worked for BCA’s esteemed Writer’s Corps program, where she taught poetry workshops for children in Tier 2 homeless shelters and after school programs and taught drama and dramatic writing under the ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities For Education) program for teenagers, at Lehman and Hunter Colleges. She’s hosted poetry readings and edited several poetry anthologies, and has combined her own creative writing with performance and illustration. She currently teaches a poetry class for senior citizens.
Materials
As a writer and journaller for many years, the most obvious choice for me initially was drawing with pencils and pens on any kind of paper I could fine. As a result, I gained lots of experience creating small and even miniature illustrations and paintings. I welcome the challenge of discovering how much of the universe I can share within such a small space. I started out using oil pastels which worked fairly well on typing paper, index cards, recycled business, cards and so on. As my choice of painting materials expanded from dry media to wet I started experimenting with india and acrylic inks which eventually led to acrylic paints. Needing more absorbency for wet media I then gravitated toward latex paper and painting directly on unstretched linen canvas sheets most of the times prepping the surfaces with acrylic gesso to gain even more absorbency, weight and body. I even paint as though I am writing, with the surface on my lap, my brush in my hand and my paints and inks on a small table beside me.
I look forward to continuing to develop and expand the effects of my work by using other kinds of inks and paints on many more different types of surfaces from the miniscule to the gargantuan and all other sizes in between.
Updated: August 2015
TIFFANY OSEDRA MILLER
bassacards(at)yahoo.com
