John Paul Miller is the first jeweler to receive the honorary American Cleveland Arts Prize in 1961, which until then was usually awarded to painters and sculptors.
John Paul even considered becoming a painter when he entered college, but enamel painter and mentor Kenneth Bates and freshman Frederick A. Miller were able to infect the young man with a love of silver and gold.
John Paul Miller’s childhood passion for unusual animals, insects, mollusks, crustaceans is reflected in his work. As the author himself said about his works: “decorating with enamel an already almost revived creature, I always tried to show that play of light, those refractions of rays that so fascinated me in childhood.”
