Art Con 10 is coming next weekend. In the run up to the big event on Saturday, November 15, the team is helping us introduce some of the participating Conspirators. Thanks to Martha Belden, for telling us more about today’s artist,  Cathey Miller

Cathey Miller began painting at a very young age and, relatively uniquely, saw a childhood fantasy become a reality when she turned her passion into a full-fledged career. “I wanted to be an artist when I was little,” she says, “because I liked drawing and coloring… so that is what I became.” She graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and eventually made her way back to Texas, where she set up a successful commercial and fine arts painting studio in Dallas.

Love, whether for the act of painting itself or the subjects of her work, has always played a significant role in Cathey’s craft. “I like to paint pictures of the women I know – or I think I know – in outer space.” In 2001, she dreamed up the mythical planet of Cathedonia, which is inhabited exclusively by her closest friends. Eventually she began painting this alien narrative into the remote landscape of West Texas. “For me, there is an appealing post-apocalyptic quality to these scenes,” she says. “The heroes I paint are outsiders struggling against empty landscapes and night skies filled with ludicrous monsters.”

Cathey was first introduced to Art Conspiracy in 2006 when founder Sarah Jane Semrad asked her whether she’d be interested in donating to the organization, and she eagerly got involved. “I made the promo poster for Art Con II and also painted a panel in the Longhorn Ballroom – both of which were auctioned off. Art Consipracy makes regular Dallasites into art buyers and art fans, then gives the money to arts groups… win win win!”