Dan Miller’s daily routine begins with making woodcut prints in the morning and wood sculptures in the afternoon. He considers wood grain essential to his compositions—whether landscapes, birds, insects, or portraits—while his abstract sculptures allow him to express his inner self. “Feeling the sympathy of wood, I have gravitated toward woodcut and wood sculpture over the years,” he explains. “But material is only the beginning—the task has been to make personal what the material allows.” In House of the Carpenter, one may discern the figure of a carpenter (Miller himself), along with the tools and blocks of wood that comprise his craft—a recursive meditation on the artist’s practice through the very material he shapes.
Miller received a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1951, an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958, and graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) the following year. Since joining PAFA as a faculty member in 1964, he has served as an instructor in art history, painting, and printmaking. He has also held the positions of Dean of Faculty, Acting Dean of the School, Chairman of the Painting Department, and Chair of the MFA Program.
