While in Paris in summer 2022, I picked up a pack of A5 (approx 5x8”) cotton rag watercolor paper 300 gr from Magasin Sennelier. I’m challenging myself a bit by focusing more on shapes and color to define my subjects, rather than line.

I’m painting items around my apartment from the changing seasons. Some things don’t feel special in the moment, but when you look back, there’s such connection to a season, time, and memories. As we draw and paint, we’re researching aspects of life, taking down the details.

As I’m picking up my watercolors again in 2023, I am adding in some new neon watercolors, which is a lot of fun!

Each original watercolor painting is for sale for $40, and I’m only selling the originals, no prints.

Life has a rhythm and pattern to it, from the routine of waking up late, brewing my coffee in my french press, taking it with me on the L train every morning and then pouring it into a mug when I get to work at 9:10.

Items and momentos can spark memories. I can be recognized by my red pom pom hat in the winter time. I use the same purse every day since I bought it last October. I like to support local roasters and try new roasts. What was the one I liked from 2 months ago…? This is just a fun exploration of my life marked by items. It shows the monotony and the passage of time, showing the change of season and the changes in life and the world… who knew what 2020 would really have in store.

Bic pen and digitally colored.

I had the opportunity to paint a skateboard through my participation in the Going Places Art Collective’s Community Fall Festival & Art Show, provided by and sponsored by Outbreak Boards . Matt Aloma over at Outbreak Boards is awesome with his own company and artwork, and he strives to create a collaborative space and community for arising New England artists. The art show was in Broadbrook, CT in October 2019. I painted this skateboard in about 2 weeks with maybe 20 hours of time painting the board itself.

The Devil may have his own power and authority to rule in the world, but he is just eating away at himself, consuming himself in hatred until Christ returns back to Earth with His final victory. I obviously showed Satan as a serpent (the inland taipan, the most venomous snake) tormented by thorns and flowers of nightshade, blackberry, red hot poker, nettle, and mock orange. These flowers hold meanings of death, envy, grief, pain, wickedness, counterfeit, deceit, cruelty, slander, and witchcraft. The devil schemes against us with these ways and tells us lies in hope of drawing us to sin and most importantly drawing us away from God, where we actually hold SO much power against him. The devil will always LOSE. It is already finished. Victory is already won. Death could not hold Jesus in the grave, and when he arose, He took us with Him. Jesus’ grace is free, mercies are free, forgiveness is free, FREEDOM from sin, death, fear, loneliness, depression, anxiety— FREE. My life was bought at a price, so when I think of my Savior on the cross and how He loves me so so much and is with me through everything, it only makes me want to serve Him with my life. My physical body is temporary and all that I’m going through, so I am creating a legacy for myself within His eyes by giving Him my all and everything. i STAND IN his victory and trust in Him, so there is nothing to fear and nothing that can hold me back. The King of kings and Lords of lords chooses to be my best friend and walk with me through every fire so I am protected. He is my Truth.

Sometimes I just like to draw pretty things/people.

These are usually more so sketchbook entries or what I consider doodles. Still a nice collection. There’s a few other specific projects that have a focus on hand-lettering, but sometimes those deserve their own tab to expand on! hehe

Life has looked different this year with my new life in NYC. I grew up in a home greatly affected by the recession that hit the U.S. in the 2000s, which then created an environment that stressed the importance of financial security and job stability, because sometimes no matter how hard we try, everything can easily slip away in an instant. That stability and security was a looming presence over me when I decided to pursue art as a career and took on student loans by myself. I decided to leave a life of physical stability with my first job out of college and uprooted myself to follow God’s call on my life in moving to New York. I can’t compare myself now to the savings, stability in a job, or physical comfort that I had last year, because my real stability isn’t found in any of those things.

This is not a time of failure for me—it’s a time of trust. Trusting in my God who leads my steps, in whose promises I walk in. Therefore I have nothing to fear. Trusting in a God who has done the impossible already and made ways for me in the desert. My Lord has gotten me to NYC, and He’s not leaving me now. I live a life of abundance and joy, even if it says otherwise on paper. I am choosing to rest in my Father and not struggle to strive and get ahead on my own. He surrounds me with a shield of favor, and He leads me in the path of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

In redoing a book cover for Haruki Murakami's 1998 novel, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", I wanted to focus on the duality of the two realities that the main character goes in and out of on his search for his cat, wife, and his own sense of identity.

Ink with pen nib, digital color.

Overview: "Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II.

In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat.  Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo.  As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon."

I created this beer packaging for a brand that I created using acrylic ink with a pen nib for the line-work and digital coloring.

I made a baby shower invitation for my older sister, who is having her first child in July! I wanted to create an invitation that was bright and a warm welcome for the upcoming baby while also staying gender neutral. I sketched up various ideas focusing around flora and fauna and developed one with two bluebirds in a dogwood tree.

Pen nib with acrylic ink and watercolor; hand-lettering and digital type.

I created this illustration for an article from Frankie Magazine entitled "Them Next Door", describing a faulty relationship with toxic neighbors. I enjoy using metaphors with inviting, unexpected subject matter to link to articles, this time with a woodpecker and nest of angry hornets.

I worked about 12 x 15" on HP 140 lb. watercolor paper, india ink and watercolor with just a few alterations in PS. February 2017

© Gina Miller

This illustration was made in my Advertising Illustration class to make a poster to advertise an exhibit, "The Power of Poison", for The Museum of Natural History. The piece was made with acrylic ink with a pen nib and watercolor on HP 140 lb. watercolor paper; 10" x 13"

For my Advertising Illustration class in Fall 2016, I created a Google logo for the Autumnal Equinox, inspired by old farmer's almanacs.

Ink with pen nib on HP watercolor paper; 7"x18"

In my Advertising Illustration class in Fall 2016, I created a self portrait to be used on a postage stamp.

Colored pencil, watercolor, digital; 8" x 10"

This zine explores a conversation between two sisters regarding health and reproduction, showing the bond and the emotion through playful hand-lettering and didactic elements to flow from one scene to the next. 

All spread were made 8.5x11" on HP 140 lb watercolor paper in watercolor and colored pencil; February 2016

I like making puns.

Acrylic painting, 11 x 14"