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Artist Biography: Betty G. Miller (Bettigee) Education: Betty G. Miller is both a professional visual artist, and a professional counselor working in the field of alcohol and drug abuse with deaf and hard of hearing people. She holds an Ed.D. in art education from Penn State University; and is a certified alcohol and drug counselor (C.A.D.C., a certification formerly known as C.A.C., clinical alcohol counselor). About The Artist: Dr. Betty G.Miller is a professional Deaf Artist, well-known throughout the U.S.A. Her parents were also Deaf. She has participated in many art shows, mostly in Washington, D.C. she is primarily known for the visual representation of her Deaf experience, some of which has been published in Deaf Heritage by Jack R. Gannon. As a professional artist, she is nationally known for her expression of her deaf experience — a genre that has come to be named Deaf View/Image Art -- De’VIA. Her first one woman show depicting the Deaf experience, entitled “The Silent World,” was held at Gallaudet College in 1972 when she was an Art Professor there. Later, in the ’80s and ’90s, she continued with her one woman and group art shows, with a theme of “The Deaf Experience.” These shows were held in Takoma Park, Maryland, 1989; at Gallaudet University, in 1989, 1990, and 1992; and in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC, and in Chicago, Illinois in 1992 and 1993. Her art works were also exhibited in a a show that was the first of its kind in the USA: a group art show with eight Deaf Artists, all of whose art work was related to their Deaf experience. This show was curated by Brenda Schertz and held in the Northern Essex Community College Gallery, Haverhill, Massachusetts, September, 1993. October 1996, Miller completed a neon artwork project for the North Carolina Arts Council titled “ASL: Past, Present, and Future.” The 16 ft wide by 6 ft high artwork can be seen in the lobby of the Student Activities Center at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf, Wilson, NC. When asked to explain the values behind her work, Dr. Miller replied: “Much of my work depicts the Deaf experience expressed in the most appropriate form of communication: visual art. I present the suppression, and the beauty, of Deaf Culture and American Sign Language as I see it, both in the past, and in the present. Oppression of Deaf people by hearing is actually cultural, educational, and political. Another aspect of my work shows the beauty of Deaf culture. I hope this work, and the understanding that may arise from this visual expression, will help bridge the gap between the Deaf world, and the hearing world.”
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