Daily Inspiration: Meet Ann Miller Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Miller Smith.

Hi Ann Miller, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Hi! I’m so excited to have the opportunity to share my story with you! I have loved creating art for my entire life. While I always expressed my creativity through visual arts, I also had a love of fashion design, born from borrowing my mother’s sewing machine during middle school. I graduated from North Carolina State University with a BA in Fashion and Textile Management, after which I worked as an apparel designer for four years. My love of art persisted throughout my time as a designer, and I balanced commissioned art sales with my undergraduate studies and, later on, my full-time job. While I love working in the design world and continue to do so on a freelance basis, being confined to a desk and screen all day made it abundantly clear that I was not pursuing the career I truly wanted. With a leap of faith, I returned to school in 2019 at the University of North Carolina Wilmington – this time to pursue art. What started as a small side-business, operating out of my freshman dorm room at NC State, has since turned into a growing career and my full-time passion.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It took me years to build up the courage to be a full-time artist. I think all artists must experience some bumpy roads in their trajectories. Being an artist is a very personal and vulnerable experience. The product we put out into the world comes directly from within us. It’s created from our own hands, made of our life’s experience, and presented to a world that we can only hope accepts and admires the work we’ve created. I feel that it can be a struggle every time I, or another artist, share work on any platform because you never really know how that work will be received. I can control what I put on a canvas, but all I can do after that is hope that it finds an audience who loves it as much as I do.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Thank you! With my background in Studio Art and Fashion and Textile Design, my art is created through a colorful lens and a love of pattern and texture. Specializing in painting, I explore color interactions, the layering of paint and other mediums to create texture and depth, and the use of expressive and intuitive brush strokes. Bold and unexpected color palettes are a distinguishable factor of my work and continuous experimentation with new elements, mediums, and subject matter. I make art to communicate my inner world, lived experiences, memories, thoughts, and emotions. I strive for my art to express my true self without being held back by ego, perceived judgments, or my resistance. With every painting I create, I hope to connect with myself and share a story through my artwork that others may feel a connection to as well.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My family has always been my biggest support system, and I am so lucky always to have their confidence and belief in me, even when I am full of self-doubt. I also owe so much of my growth as an artist to many of my professors at UNCW. My painting professor, Pam Toll, pushed me far out of my comfort zone and always encouraged my exploration as an artist. My days in her classroom taught me the hard lesson that sometimes you just have to start a painting over, even when you have already put in so much hard work, to reach the painting’s full potential and an outcome you can feel proud of. My work has grown so much since implementing this lesson. And I am forever indebted to her for believing in my abilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artbyannmiller.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyannmiller/

Image Credits
Jenna Corley