The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Renowned artist ‘Billy the Artist’ returns
Billy Miller, aka “Billy the Artist,” recently visited Northeast Ohio to host an artistic workshop to create murals.
Billy Miller, aka “Billy the Artist,” recently visited Northeast Ohio to host an artistic workshop to create murals, inspired by his style, with students standing where he had back in the day, on the grounds of Fine Arts Association in Willoughby.
As the young artists prepared to sketch, paint and complete their 16- by 20foot canvas, Miller couldn’t deny the significance of his presence at his former school, nor the similarities he then shared with the current students, though it’s highly unlikely any of them pulled such an audacious move to enroll at Fine Arts.
When he was 9 years old, Miller’s dad took him to see a play at Fine Arts. Four years earlier, his father took him to his first-ever show at Cleveland’s famous Karamu House. When Miller saw all the “lights and action,” the spark was ignited — he knew then “that’s” what he wanted to do with his life.
“My dad asked me if I wanted to be an actor and I told him I wanted to create, so I kind of followed that as a ‘yute,’ ” Miller said, channeling Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, Joe Pesci’s character from the movie “My Cousin Vinny.”
Whether William Miller believed his son at the time can never be known, but later he would take it seriously, as Billy signed himself up for drama lessons without his parents’ consent. A few days, later Fine Arts called, looking forward to seeing Billy.
“That’s how I got started here,” he said, noting he was cast in “The Three Penny Christmas,” the first show he auditioned for. “My brother, Mark, was in it, too. My first stage entrance to this really cool musical, I was wearing a Santa suit that was too big, the pants were too long, and I fell off the stage. That was my first entrance into Fine Arts. I immediately jumped back on stage and recited my lines. The audience went crazy. I was hooked since that moment. That’s how my Fine Arts life began.”
Miller, who grew up in Mentor, would go on to participate in 25 shows, mostly musicals. He got his professional start at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival and was later accepted into the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He then went to New York and landed a role in a Broadway show.
“I made my living those first 10 years as an actor touring the country and doing regional theaters,” he said. “But even during this time, and as a kid, I always drew and I always painted. When I was younger, I was sick a lot and so art was my therapy. I mainly sketched, and when I painted, my mind would forget everything.”
“My turning point — my actor-to-artist merge — was moving to the East Village (Manhattan), where I’ve lived in the same place for 30 years. I painted all of these murals on my walls, went mad one day and just painted like crazy. My nextdoor neighbor was an artist and seeing my walls, asked if I was one as well. I told her I was of sorts, but that I made my living as an actor. She said, ‘No, you need to paint.’ ”
Wanting people to see Miller through his art, the neighbor brought over four canvasses, with brushes and paints. Miller would paint between auditions and sell his creations on the street.
“In those days, you could do that in SoHo (lower Manhattan neighborhood),” he said. “Nobody knew who I was, and artists would just put their stuff on the sidewalk. And then people started buying it. Then I had my artwork in bars, cafes, salons, clubs, anywhere people could see it.
“The mega-turning point was one of my best friends I went to CCM with, he became a producer. He took me to a show he wanted to produce and nobody else wanted to touch the show. I saw the show, it was two blocks from my studio, and I went absolutely nuts. My friend bought the rights to the show the next day — a ‘little’ show called ‘Rent.’
After the show went to Broadway a year later, Miller was hired to paint the theater to make it feel “atmospheric.”
“The whole proscenium was painted (in) mosaic art and I was brought on to paint murals depicting characters from the show and East Village life. The show was such a megasuccess, I’ve been making my living as an artist ever since.”
Since “those days,” Miller’s projects and designs have been seen all over the world for such clients and global brands as Swatch, Viacom, Lamborghini, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, New Balance Shoes, Sony and the Champs Snowboarding Championship in Leysin, Switzerland, to name a few.
In addition to the Broadway, National and London productions of “Rent,” his mural projects include Woodstock 99, Art Basel Miami, Casa Décor Miami, Delaguarda and the Rio Casino Las Vegas. His paintings have hung at the prestigious Forbes Gallery as well as other galleries in New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Austin, Cleveland, Mexico City, Carib Fine Art in Curacao, Foxx Galerie Zurich, Minsheng Art Museum Shanghai, Surge Art Fair Shanghai and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.
Miller has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers and has appeared on feature television programs throughout the world. And it all might not have ever happened if Miller had been chosen for a part in the Broadway revival production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
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