Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project

The Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project records and preserves the voices of women visual artists in Iowa reflecting on their lives and their artwork. In 1998, creator and director Jane Robinette began interviewing Iowa women artists about their experiences and art practices. The interviews cover family and personal history, education, development as an artist, artwork, creative process, influences, and more. The Daily Palette is pleased to present excerpts of the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's 2008 updates that Robinette collected from the Project artists who were interviewed nine or ten years ago. Visit the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project's website.

ELIZABETH MILLER
Fen Grasses, oil, 48'' x 36'', 2007

Elizabeth Slaughter Miller was born in 1929 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She grew up in the Lincoln area with a brother and a sister and her parents. At the University of Nebraska, she was president of the Delta Phi Delta, the honorary art association, and graduated in 1951 with a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking. After a summer teaching art at a girls' camp in Minnesota, she worked at the Des Moines Art Center and in Waterloo. 

She taught art at Drake University in Des Moines, where she met her husband, a music professor. They were married in 1958, and they have two daughters. She earned her M.F.A. from Drake in 1969. Before retiring in 1995, she taught painting and drawing at Iowa State University for 24 years, earning the title of Distinguished Professor. She paints in oil and watercolor.

What has changed in the last ten years?
"The main thing that has changed in my life is that my husband and I moved into a townhouse at a retirement community two-and-a-half years ago.  I have a studio in the lower level and continue to paint.

I am now in "Arte Gallery" located in the East Village.  I had a solo exhibit there in November and December 2007.  I still have work in the Corner House Gallery in Cedar Rapids.

My work has not changed.  I still paint mostly landscapes and flower gardens."