Helping the world through his passion for art

The college Director of Gallery and Museum Programming is on a mission.

He wants El Camino College to be known as the most creative community college in California.

“My vision for the Art Gallery program has included turning over much of the programming to students, so we are student centered programming, and the idea that we can take art to every place on campus so that every student benefits from engaging in the art creative practice,” he said.

On Friday morning at his place in Hollywood Michael Miller is outdoors in the garden. He is proud of all his California native plants that have labels of the names of each plant, for his friends and neighbors to see. He uses his plants to make scented sachets to give away and hands them out to ECC students, and staff members at the Art Gallery.

Michael Miller has worked at El Camino College Art Gallery for 28 years, since 1997.

Miller has a bachelor’s degree in geology from Virginia Tech and M.S. in geology from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Fine Arts from USC.

After Cal State Bakersfield in 1987 he went into the masters of fine arts program at the University of Southern California and received a teaching assistantship.

As an artist he was mentored by Joyce Kohl, a ceramic professor of Cal State Bakersfield. Instead of payment for helping her, she gave him a room at her house. At El Camino College, Susanna Meiers became another mentor.

On Aug. 25,1997, he started working at El Camino College. Then in 2022, he was interviewed and was hired as the director of gallery and museum programming.

He was hired by President Brenda Thames.”She rocks,” he said.

Michael was hired to teach Art Gallery Management and special assignments as the Art Gallery exhibit manager.. In addition, Miller taught 3-D design, drawing, portfolio and transfer preparation for artists and designers. Miller was also enrolled in drawing at Inglewood Honors High School. Also, he was a full time exhibition manager for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and program.

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He remembers several of his best accomplishments that staff and students complemented him like in 2008 he did the exhibition “Ancestral Memory,” at El Camino College Art Gallery, an event in which Miller built a 12 foot long dinner table with the carpentry skills he learned from his father and grandfather. Also, what he learned on how to bake from his family. At the end of four weeks he baked 44 cakes: a lemon pound cake, chocolate pound cake and apple sauce cake. After all this he appreciated all the work his mother did for his family – like making a cake once a week… once per week a cake, fresh cookies, candy.

Miller was born in Covington, Virginia, at the crossroads of Appalachia and the Shenandoah Valley. His father, Abe, was a carpenter who built his own home. He had a second job working at the local paper mill.

“When I was 8 years old, I asked my dad to build a replica of Thomas Jefferson’s bedroom, at Monticello,” Miller said.

The replica of the Jefferson was built in his childhood basement.

“This is where I stored collections of mineral fossils, horticultural plants and insects,” he said.

“My dad said, ‘If you can help someone then do it,’” Miller said. “My favorite memories were visiting and staying with my grandparents, discovering a fossil bed when I was 11 while riding my bike with my dog Tyke and camping with the Boy Scouts.”

His background knowledge from his parents became important to his life because it directed him into science and geology and particularly paleontology.

Miller has always been an artist and enjoys connecting to other people through art. He makes his own art and collects art from other ECC artists.

His students are part of his family at ECC

His only brother Gary died in Vietnam in 1969 after attending two years of college. He died saving his platoon and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Now his entire family has passed away.

When Miller was a kid, he made extra money picking cherries off his grandmother’s cherry tree and selling them. He also had his first job working for a florist that paid him 10 cents an hour.

“ Later I learned at Virginia Tech, in sculpture and painting class about 3-D Design, focal point, repetition, variation, symmetry, the elements and principles of design, ” Miller said.

When he went to college he paid his tuition by selling his paintings. He was a self-taught painter, and entered a local contest at Clifton Forges, Virginia.

“I was told that my painting was too good for a student category so I had to enter the professional category,” Miller said.

He won an award for the Best in Show, Best Still Life, Best Landscape, and the people’s choice award for a painting of a local historical residence.

“When I got into grad school at USC I thought that painting would not achieve my goals to communicate with my audience, so I decided to do interactive art. Letting the audience touch, handle, smell, food, and taste,” Miller said.

When he is at home, he takes care of his garden. He prefers California Native plants that have good fragrance. He likes to create sachet bags from dried California native plants.

“One of my future proposals for a native plant exhibition would be in Spring of 2027, because it is important for the ECC environment that these indigenous plants save water and do not require fertilizer or special soil to do well in California climate,” he said.

“Many of the exhibitions that we have in the gallery and the Anthropology Museum are focused on mentoring students,” he said.

Although Miller makes miracles with no money, he remembers his occasional budget issues. Miller remembered that in 1997, “I had a budget of $12,000 per year. The Association Students Organization paid all of it.

In 2008 during the recession they got only $8,000 per year.

In 2024 they had a better year.

“ASO paid the art program $11,000 and ECC $9,000,” Miller said.

Then, the Art Gallery raised $10,000 from donations during the Open Call exhibits.

Later, due to budget cuts in 2025 the funding decreased.

ECC gives 6,000 per year. The art program gets an additional 20% from professional artists when they sell their art work, that is when they have an open call. That is when every one can enter, and show their art in the summer, where approximately the program gets $3,000, he said.

All the money they collect goes to the Foundation account at ECC that pays for food, receptions and emergencies, he said.

Dulce Stein, an anthropology major, will transfer in June to CSUDH.. She is volunteering two days a week at the Anthropology Museum.

“Michael is a great leader, a boss, a teacher for more than 25 years. He supports, encourages all of us at the gallery. When a student comes with an idea or concern. He follows the process until the project is done. At the gallery he is the incubator of creativity,” she said.

Carrie Lockwood works with Miller as a temporary gallery assistant.

“When I was a student in 2013. Michael supported all the students in the class while being generous with his time, information, and directions, he loves interactions with the students of art. He works one to one and in groups with the students, and gives each person the time and knowledge for success in the art work,” she said.

Miller is visualizing his future projects for the art gallery.

In the current exhibition “Kieva Campbell: A tribute to April Savino speaking about depression at the Also, he is planning to bring Olympic athletes Anna Cockrell and Tasha Danvers to speak about depression. Also, there are scientists from UCLA who are trying to find the cure for depression. Jonathan Flint, Singer Sunny War. Poet, Diane, Luby Lane, Father- Ande Hamilton, and more to be announced for 2026 for the Depression Summit at the Art Gallery.

His interest in this exhibition is that it can be helpful to students and folks in the community. He has family members who have chronic depression.

He is married to Ken Coon, a photographer who records LBGTQIA+ life and events. They have three dogs – Rocket, Makki and Cocoa. Makki is the sister of Rocket Man, Rocket is a male offspring of a pure breed Doberman mom and a chihuahua father. Cocoa was thin and dehydrated, lying alone by herself in the street. She is a Cairn terry and he bought her from a man that claimed to be the owner.

One of his hobbies is singing. He usually starts the Karaoke club event singing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t help Falling in Love.”He enjoys singing different songs from rock, folk music, and classical. His favorite singers are: Christine Aguilera, Matt Bellamy (Muse) Rufus Wainwright, and of course Elvis.

Miller’s also a performance artist. He had a solo exhibition in 1997 and 2017.Michael Lewis Miller presented a Survey 1989 to Present, Norco College.

He enjoys eating chocolate cake, hiking along a stream in the forest, hanging out with his dogs and friends, and visiting artists’ studios. His job requires seeing their plays, concerts, movies, and exhibitions.

He would like to keep helping others all his life in what he does best for the students and for himself. Helping others if he can do it is his motto. “Life is good,” he said.