About the Artist
I began doing art late in life—or so it felt at the time. I was in my mid-twenties and after hearing the 10,000-hours-to-master-a-skill theory, I felt compelled to catch up.
Before all that, when everything crashed in 2008, I lost my job at an architecture firm. It was for the best. I felt guilty that I didn’t want to work in an office or use my degree, so I was grateful when the decision to leave was made for me.
I’d fantasized about being a creator and working for myself for a long time. After leaving the world of offices, I signed up for a screen printing class and took ongoing drawing, painting and figure drawing classes. My main goal was freedom, so I got out of credit card debt and designed my lifestyle to be simple and frugal.
After years of having affordable-but-windowless studios in less than ideal locations—next to the men’s bathroom, by a train crossing, sharing a thin wall with a lawnmower repair shop—I now have my own studio, in my own home!
I draw in pencil and use visual references from books and the internet. My aim is to create narrative illustrations that depict magical moments.
I find inspiration in book illustrations, vintage packaging, matchboxes, magic show posters, and early-20th century illustrations.
I often use text to tell part of the story, but like to leave most of the narrative up to the viewer.
My guiding rule—which I sometimes break—is Possible, but Not Likely. For example, it’s possible for a vole to sit on a cigarette box and float down a river, but it is not likely. On the other hand, dinosaurs didn’t have laptops and headphones, so I would not draw that.
About the Drunk Cats series:
This series features cats drinking at the bar, and the good, embarrassing and confusing situations we have all found ourselves in.
The style is inspired by vintage matchboxes and Russian and Chinese propaganda posters.
The original title was "Strike Your Fancy." It was a project that I did in collaboration with Ravi Zupa in 2018 for an art show in Denver. We designed, drew and hand printed the images on matchboxes, and I made little frames for them. I posted the images on instagram, and the design blog This Is Colossal featured them, which opened the door for people to discover this series.
It has been the most popular series I have ever created, and since then we created the poster series; and The Portland Stamp Co found me and created one of the most popular items on the site, the stamp sheets. Many people have printed bootleg designs on shirts, and many people have gotten tattoos of the series.
PRESS
My Modern Met
Funny Little Matchboxes Feature Illustrations of Cats in Bars Who've Had One Too Many
The Coolector
Bored Panda
Matchbox Art Featuring Drunk Cats Getting Into Funny And Embarrassing Situations In A Bar
Widewalls
Visual Artists Celebrate Director Hayao Miyazaki at POW! WOW! Hawai'i
Playjunkie
Artist Arna Miller creates Miyazaki-Inspired Print
The Denver Egotist
Archive Release: Denver Loves Beer Screen Print Poster
Westword
Colorado Creatives: Arna Miller
Supersonic Art
The Sun don't shine in your TV at Sally Centigrade
Juxtapoz
Spoke Art hosts the "Isle of Dogs Art Show" Themed around Wes Anderson's most recent film
Colossal
Hilarious Matchboxes depict cats making questionable decisions
Plain Magazine
Hilarious matchboxes covers by Arna Miller feature cats nursing hangovers
The Jealous Curator
303Magazine.com
10 Artists not to miss during Denver's month of Printmaking 2018