Jaclyn Miller

South Padre Island tour

May 2024

Jaclyn Miller is a contemporary stained and fused glass artist living and working in Arvada, Colorado. Her works center around themes of nostalgia and memory, often in an attempt to make tangible the fleeting experiences that connect us.

Originally from Orlando, FL, Jaclyn earned her BA in Art and Art History with a concentration in Mixed Media from Stetson University. She has explored many mediums since then, including zines, minicomics and illustration, which continue to inform her approach to image making with glass.

Jaclyn is most interested in exploring shapes, subjects and forms in her work that challenge perceptions of stained glass as an art form, and she is always looking to inject a playful quality into her finished compositions. 

For her South Padre Island ode, Jaclyn pulled from several memorable elements of her trip: the border of the piece is a nod to the teal and white beach house she and her bandmates shared during their stay, while the center umbrellas in blue, pink and yellow capture the SPI logo that was painted along the sidewalks she traversed daily with her new friends. Poured silver dolphins jump over and under the umbrellas, inspired by the beautiful wild dolphins the band saw together on an eco boat tour around the island, and the umbrellas have the names of each traveler (in their own handwriting) painted onto them, borrowed from the keepsake poster everyone signed on the last day of the trip. Jaclyn’s ode is made of just 17 pieces of cut and ground glass, to represent the 17 travelers on the South Padre Island trip.