Dos Folkies Gallery: Outsider - Self-taught - Art Brut

About the Artist

R.A. (Reuben Aaron) Miller, was born in Gainesville, Georgia in 1922.  The original house he was born in was destroyed by a tornado in 1936, but a new house was built on the same spot and R.A. lived there until two years before his death in 2006. His father was shot and killed shortly before Reuben’s birth.  R.A. married at seventeen and spent years working in a cotton mill, and as a preacher in the Free Will Baptist Church.  Somewhere along the way he began creating things.  His hillside was eventually covered with whirligigs.  Passersby saw them from the road and some would stop and buy them from him.  He soon began cutting independent characters from recycled tin and metal roofing.  Some of his most famous and often repeated characters were, The Blow Oskar, The Devil, The Preacher, Angels, and an array four legged creatures.  R.A. also painted wood and sheet metal panels.  On most of these works he would inscribe, ‘Lord Love You’ on the top edge of the piece.  Besides paints, R.A. often worked in colored paint markers.  Rueben was very prolific, often aided by family members, and always welcoming to visitors.  If he really warmed up to you, he might even have offered you a chew of tobacco.