2007 Governors Arts Awards

New Hampshire Folk Heritage Award
To be created by Randy Miller, East Alstead

Randy Miller lives in East Alstead, New Hampshire. He is a traditional contra dance musician and a visual artist. When Miller was attending college in the late 1960s he was inspired by the wood engraved illustrations of old books. He began to research the technique of carving into wood, inking and using a press to produce pictures.  His favorite subjects are rural New England landscapes and traditional activities. In 2006, Miller was commissioned by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts to create artwork for the award-winning New Hampshire Folklife website’s Learning Center.
 
Since 2000, Miller’s engraving of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture has been on title page of The Old Farmer's Almanac.  The Almanac started in 1793 and is the oldest continuously published periodical in North America.  Miller based the image on a 1797 wood engraving that is in the Almanac's archives.   

Miller has published many illustrations for poems that have been printed as broadsides. These days, he is focusing more on pencil and pen and ink drawings. 

Photo: Randy Miller (left) and Harvey Tolman (right)