At a crowded party, Warren Miller can’t make out the voices. He can’t hear when a cricket chirps in the grass or when the timer on the oven buzzes. He doesn’t know what it sounds like when the leaves rustle in the night air.
Miller, 53, is completely deaf in his right ear, and he can hear only about 25 percent in his left, but it doesn’t matter. The world between his ears is where his creativity comes alive.
He takes what he can’t hear and puts the experience on canvas, the paint bursting in color and shape. He paints because he loves it, but he also does it to share his story, to give those in the hearing community a window to his world.
On Saturday, Lafayette will have a chance to experience a small part of that. Miller’s art will be on display at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette as part of an exhibit and wine tasting benefit for Indiana Hands and Voices.
“I’ve gone through a lot of experiences and painted on a canvas to share with other people what I’ve gone through,” Miller said.
The circumstances surrounding Miller’s hearing loss are vague, he said. His mother said he was born deaf, but his brother remembers him talking a lot until he was 5 years old. He said he thinks he might have had an illness that led to his hearing loss.
But art has been a part of his life from the start. When he was very young, Miller would go to church with his family, but he couldn’t hear what was going on. When he would get bored, his father would hand him a pen and paper and let him draw. It was something they shared.
After Miller’s father died, his grandfather gave him a book that taught him how to draw. It was old and outdated, maybe from the 1940s, but it fueled Miller’s passion.
After college, Miller went into graphic design. In 2009, his job was cut. While he was looking for something to do, his friends suggested he go back to painting.
