Kellie Miller is a local artist who creates, curates and collects a multitude of art from all around the world. Having been highly sought-after for her ceramics in Japan at the beginning of the millennium, she’s now settled in Clayton and has turned her house and garden into a beautiful display of work featuring a number of renowned international artists.
By Joe Wayte
Kellie Miller was born and grew up in Battersea before venturing down to Brighton University to study 3D design. “I always wanted to be an artist,” Kellie said confidently, “my course included a mix of woodwork, paint, ceramics and more besides, so over the years I’ve worked with lots of different materials.”
In 2002 Kellie was offered an artist’s residency by the Arts Council which took her to Shigaraki in Japan. She was later selected for her second international exhibition for which she fired 101 cups to create a conceptual piece of art, inspired by the book The Art of Possibility. “The cups were sold individually after the exhibition,” she explained, “with the idea that they’re like seeds, going off into the world, and maybe one day, somehow, they’ll all come back together.”
Having spent a lot of time in the country, Kellie says she has a deep love for Japan and is still influenced by its culture today. “Going to Japan is like going to the moon,” she described, “you’ve got to experience it at least once in your life.”
Kellie has always based herself in the South of England. In 1996 she founded the Biscuit Studio in Hove, which was initially a centre for ceramics artists. Over the years, aspiring artists of all medias have rented space in its inspiring environment.
It was at the studio that Kellie met her husband, Kim, who lived in the house adjacent to Biscuit Studio. “The studio didn’t have its own toilet,” she explained, “and when new tenants arrived in the unit next door they denied us access to the facilities we’d been using since we opened.” Kim came to her rescue and offered Kellie a key to his house so that she could use his loo until the issue was resolved. 12 years after they first met, Kellie and Kim were married in 2011.
[Excerpt from full article printed in Issue No2 Hassocks Life magazine - June 2019]