VTHS art teacher creates student art gallery

Vernon — On the wall in the high school library, a gallery of smiling teens peers over the heads of students and teachers. The oil portraits, the creation of Vernon Township High School art teacher Doug Miller, have become as much the part of the school landscape as the bulletin boards and smartboards, book shelves and computer stations.
This visual celebration of students he has taught over the years not only offers tremendous affirmation to the subjects of the paintings, but highlights what everyone in education needs to keep in mind – that the heart of a school is its students.
Miller started these portraits quite by accident, he said, about seven years ago. His art class was doing self-portraits in oil, and as he observed them, he just started drawing and painting them. He said he focuses on students he has made some kind of connection with. Many have stories of loss, or face medical challenges. There was something that drew him in, like the young woman with severe scoliosis who brought in her x-rays to show all the metal rods in her spine that enabled her to stand upright. “I told her, ‘I want to paint you.’” That’s usually how the portrait starts.
One of the charms of the paintings is the distinctive style Mr. Miller has developed over the years in the more than thirty paintings he has done. They take him about 10 hours to complete and he finds them a lot of fun. Another charm is that each one, despite its similar style, is unique in the expression, the focus of the gaze, the smile, the reflective look, even the subtle smirk.
Among this year’s portraits is one of Tara Van Houten, a young woman with Down Syndrome. He said when he looked at the photo he had taken of her he noticed the white spots on her irises, known as Brushfield’s spots, which appear in the eyes of many people with Down Syndrome. He had not noticed them until he was examining her eyes to paint them, and was immediately mesmerized by them. “They’re beautiful,” and they are evident in her portrait.