Elizabeth Miller is a scientist-turned-artist who explores the inner and outer dimensions of life in the Volcano rain forest using a mixed palette of art media and elemental earth materials. She draws, paints, carves in wood, tools metal, casts resin, and makes sculptures with local materials, just to name a few. She loves to experiment and invent, combining various art media and collected artifacts in freshly original ways. "Why limit oneself? We are surrounded by Mystery, vast and astonishing," she says. Liz likens each piece she does to a journey of discovery into that Mystery, not knowing or contriving what will be revealed in the process. Nor does she rely on a prescribed formula to make her art. Each piece is engineered differently. As a result, her work carries the flavor of the creative impulse, sense of wonder, and the sheer thrill of working with materials that she experiences when creating them. "I want people to have art that not only communicates the energy of the primal, vibrant life forms in and around Volcano, this amazing, beginning-of-life place where new land is being birthed and so many bird and plant species are hanging by a delicate thread, but art that is also elegantly, lovingly crafted and that I learned something significant from doing."

Ever since childhood, Liz felt a compelling curiosity about the nature of reality. This exploration first drew her to study quantum physics at Iowa State University. It was there that, on a whim, she took an art class. Life’s interrelated systems opened up for her in a visible, rhythmic array of colors, lines, shapes, patterns and textures. "I discovered a surprising aptitude for exploring further and working more effectively and creatively with the language and tools of art and soulful, symbolic metaphor than I could with science and math." She changed majors and graduated with a degree in art with art teaching credentials. But her love of physics and all the earth sciences is still very much alive and is often referenced in the art she makes. The person in history she most resonates with and who influences her life and art, not surprisingly, is Leonardo da Vinci.

Liz spent 30 years of her art career in the Puget Sound area: teaching at area junior colleges and universities as well as artist-in-residence positions at various Washington state elementary, junior and senior high schools; showing work in various galleries; creating commissioned public art pieces for the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington State Arts Commission, City of Tacoma Arts Commission, and the Pierce County Arts Commissions. To make ends meet, she’s also worked as a marketing director, public relations director, advertising designer, public art administrator, environmental educator and writer.

Upon moving to Volcano in 2003 with two cats, Liz knew she’d found "home" and her artistic voice. "Art, science, primal nature, native mythology, everything came together for me here." At last able to be a full-time studio artist, Liz shows frequently and has now won many awards. She is also a member of the prestigious Volcano Village Artists Hui, Hawaii Craftsman Association and sings in a band.