Art and Fishing: Lars-Erik Miller

GLOUCESTER, Massachusetts — Lars-Erik Miller grew up right down the street from this harbor, where he started off fishing bass with his father.  And as his boat swayed on the water of the North Atlantic in the early April wind, he reflected on the culture this spot embeds him in; the worlds of fishing and of art.

“That familiarized the lobster scene and that’s what lead me into tuna fishing,” said Miller.

What he loves most about fishing is the rich culture surrounding the industry and the environment of being out on the water itself. “I also really love putting someone on a big fish their first time, it’s kind of like that vicarious experience of that excitement,” said Miller. “That’s something that I want to relive.” 

He’s drawn to the water, both in his life and his art. It was when he moved away from the shore years ago that he began sculpting in ice. Now back on the ocean and fishing he still creates these ice forms.

“I sort of forget that it does come back to that (the water). It’s sort of ironic, I think about it sometimes.” 

Gloucester as a town has become synonymous with local art, from the harbor you could see a large mural of a lobster on one of the larger buildings. Multiple murals have been commissioned by local artists in recent years. Miller says he can see a large connection between the town as a place and its rich history with art. 

“That relationship goes both ways where you sort of have an attraction to a place because of the interest of art and being here people are also inspired to recreate it visually.”

Miller is within the sixth generation of painters in his family. His grandmother was a painter as well. She still paints to this day. “With every new painting, I’m just blown away with how she’s able to capture a scene,” said Miller.

He admires work that can capture the beauty of the landscape and tell a story, his work focuses more on the abstract. “My paintings are mostly a visual breakdown into pixilation,” said Miller. “They sort of have more to do with the translation from analog to digital. Sort of like a commentary on how painting can be like an analog activity and still reference that sort of digital structure of things.”

“I think it just sort of happened,” he commented on his interest in the themes of the digital vs physical. “I’ve always been curious about technology just in general, a big fan of animation and that sort of digital drawing style. But in school, I didn’t want to do a strictly digital program, I’ve always been a physical hands-on type of person. I wanted that to be my focus in my degree.”

And then he discovered ice sculpture, “That’s a real connection of the digital and the physical translation where you have this almost like hologram. A translucent object is a whole different realm.”

During the offseason-late fall and winter- is when Miller creates the bulk of his work, utilizing his free time to sculpt or paint in his studio. 

“I think there’s a lot of people who enable their art by making what people want and what will sell, that’s enabling and limiting at the same time. My approach is less about selling and more about how do I make the free time to do this. So fishing is what enables that.”

He feels as though he both got into fishing and ice sculpture because he has a tie to the water.

“I never really wanted to be away from the water but when I do I feel very isolated and landlocked. Being by the water is a big thing for me. I think the reason I sought out ice sculpture had something to do with being landlocked and missing that connection to the water. So maybe that helped me get into it.”

“The sublime, that experience of feeling so small is exaggerated by being offshore.”

The water is where he finds the bulk of his information, “A lot of the time you could be home and going ‘oh I don’t know what to draw’ but when you’re offshore you’re going ‘there’s so much stuff to do and I can’t do it right now!’,” said Miller.

“I had one captain threaten to throw my sketchbook in the water! It was too distracting.”